FARNHAM girl Anna Kirkwood has scooped a BAFTA for her role producing the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?, beating the likes of The Great British Bake Off to the prestigious award.

Anna, who grew up in Beavers Road and attended Potters Gate School, Weydon and Farnham Sixth Form College in the early 1990s, won the BAFTA for best feature last month and said afterwards “we’d been nominated four times so it was such a wonderful surprise to win”.

The popular series delves into the ancestry of well-known stars, meaning Anna interacts with a wide range of celebrities including the likes of Sir Ian McKellen, Warwick Davies, Ricky Tomlinson and Cheryl Tweedy.

The 41-year-old has also worked on the US version of the show - alongside stars such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Lisa Kudrow and Spike Lee.

But ever the professional, Anna said she “couldn’t possibly pick a favourite” for the BBC series.

“We’ve made over 100 episodes, that’s a lot of family trees,” she added. “There are many fascinating films to choose from - but the Jerry Springer, JK Rowling and Brendan O’Carroll films were particularly gripping.”

The most memorable episode of the last series of Who Do You Think You Are? was undoubtedly the one featuring Eastenders’ actor Danny Dyer.

Through the programme, the actor from Canning Town in East London discovered he has direct blood lines tracing back to Henry VIII’s advisor Thomas Cromwell, Edward III and William the Conqueror.

“Danny’s was a stand-out episode,” said Anna, recalling that once they found a familiar name among his ancestry, “we knew were going to uncover some kind of illustrious history”.

But she is quick to point out the BAFTA celebrates the whole series, and whether it be royal heritage or eerie similarities between themselves and their great-great grandfather’s “every episode explores a different aspect ion history and every family has a story”.

Anna has been a producer for the production company Wall to Wall since 2003, working alongside colleagues and shared BAFTA winners Collette Flight, Sarah Feltes and Helen Nixon.

Her late father, Jim Kirkwood, was UCA’s head of ceramics and dean of design, and after Farnham College, Anna went to University College London to study English literature, which she said “honed her skills as a researcher and allowed her the opportunities to branch out into other things”.

But it’s Farnham’s “fantastic sense of history,” that really kicked off her love for studying the subject and in turn, paved the way into her successful career. Anna added she is still “very fond” of the town and visits regularly.

Her mother, Dianne said: “I’m so proud of her, she’s been so committed - it’s just lovely to see her rewarded in this way. You have to have a creative curiosity and a way with people to succeed in that job.”

Dianne added Anna “was always more curious about people rather than filmmaking”, and on Who Do You Think You Are? her love of history and people has combined to award-winning effect.