An actress known for her roles in Gavin and Stacey and Fat Friends is of Manx descent.

Alison Steadman, who also starred alongside Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle in the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice adaptation, discovered the connection on ITV’s DNA Journey.

She took part in the programme with fellow actor Larry Lamb, who played her husband in Gavin and Stacey.

Both began looking into their family histories in London’s East End and Docklands.

After being told her DNA contained elements of Scottish, Welsh, Scandinavian (suggested to be perhaps Viking) and English ancestry, it was revealed to Alison that her father George ‘Percy’ Craine had been adopted by the couple she had believed to be his parents and her real grandparents.

His real mother was from the Isle of Man.

Alison said: ‘When I was a little girl I used to go on holiday there. I’ve been there a few times in my adult life and I really like it.

‘My father was adopted and nobody knew. No one has ever said a word in the family.

‘You’d think if he was adopted that somewhere along the line something would have been said.’

Later on, Alison and Larry met the programme’s DNA expert at The British on Douglas North Quay where they were shown records proving her father was adopted.

She was told that Alison’s real grandmother was called Brada ‘May’ Craine and was from Arbory.

She was born in 1888 and her family moved around the island but they mostly stuck to Arbory.

May was a single mother and when she found an opportunity in domestic service in Liverpool she moved to give birth to Alison’s father in 1921.

Alison said: ‘It’s quite a thing for a young woman to leave here and set up a life in Liverpool.

‘Never in a million years did I think I would be connected with anyone who lived here.’

May remained in Liverpool, only three miles down the road from her son’s adoptive parents’ home, until 1922 when she decided to return to the Isle of Man.

She married a man from Malew at the age of 34 and had Alison’s dad’s sister Margaret, who Alison had no knowledge of.

May spent the rest of her life in that part of the island, living to 89 years old.

Alison and Larry visited May’s grave as part of the programme, and that of May’s grandparents, in Kirk Malew churchyard.

Alison said at the end of the show: ‘That was a big shock when I found that out. It really is extraordinary, I’m amazed.’

l Watch DNA Journey with Alison Steadman and Larry Lamb on ITV Hub.