BBC journalist Jeremy Bowen has spent the last 30 years reporting on the front line from the world’s most dangerous conflicts - and has even been on the wrong end of a bullet. But there’s another story he’s keen to pursue closer to home.

In Coming Home (Friday, December 11, BBC One Wales, 8.30 pm), he travels to Carmarthenshire to trace his Welsh ancestry. His journey begins in St. Clears, where his paternal line can be traced back to at least the late 1600s.

Generations of his family have earned their sea legs in West Wales; including his four times great-grandfather, Benjamin Morgan, who was a mariner. Jeremy’s keen to find out why the family moved from rural Wales to an industrial town. His great-great-grandfather was just a baby when his parents made the move to Merthyr Tydfil.

Education may not have been important to every family in the 19th century and, for most, getting the children to work as soon as possible was the priority. Although his great-great-grandparents were illiterate, they understood the value of education. At least six of their children went to school, including Jeremy’s great-grandfather William at the young age of three.

Education has continued to be important in the Bowen family. Jeremy’s father, Gareth Bowen, went to grammar school and university and had a successful career as a radio journalist. Gareth reported from the scene of the Aberfan disaster, covering one of Wales’ most tragic accidents. It was a story that drew the attention of the world to Wales, and Jeremy listens to an original recording of his father’s radio report from the disaster almost 50 years ago.