Source: Wikipedia. Cook playing the character of E. L. Wisty in the revue Beyond the Fringe, 1962. Family history throws up all sorts of things once you follow a line back far enough, and this is one of the more surprising ones I've come across: my family and the comedian Peter Cook share a common ancestor. We're fifth cousins, three times removed — a distant relationship, but a genuine one, tracing back to a Devon couple, Matthew Wreford (bef.1712–1752) and Sarah (James) Wre

Of all the people I've turned up in this branch of the family, my second great-grandfather Alexander Robinson is the one who keeps me guessing. For most of my life I'd never really been sure there was any Scottish blood in us at all — and it was only when I began this research that he stepped out of the records, and Scotland came with him. He is the nearest Scottish relative I have. As it turns out, he isn't the only one — there are other Scottish connections further back, on