WHO doesn't enjoy a trip down memory lane?
There's something wonderfully comforting and interesting about flicking back through old photo albums and diaries - and for some famous folk, stepping into the past makes great inspiration material for current projects.
With rags to riches stories 10 a penny among celebrities - and fertile ground for autobiographies - many find their formative years being fictionalised and made into nicely packaged TV series, and the latest familiar faces to join this memoir movement are Lenny Henry and Danny Baker.
Henry's fictionalised account of his youth, Danny And The Human Zoo, follows a spirited teenager who wins a talent competition at their local club in Dudley, with the comedian playing young Danny's dad. Calling it a "fantasy memoir" of his youth, 56-year-old Henry's drama sees Danny hitting the big time on TV - an unheard of achievement for a young black boy at the time - before falling foul of an unscrupulous manager.
Also set in the Seventies is Cradle To Grave, BBC Two's adaptation of comedy writer and radio DJ Danny Baker's autobiography, Going To Sea In A Sieve. Set over eight episodes, the series, which Baker co-wrote with Jeff Pope, follows the Baker family, including his docker dad Fred, played by Peter Kay, and long suffering mum Bet, played by EastEnders' Lucy Speed.
With the docks facing closure, eldest daughter Sharon's wedding looming and Danny's own struggles to meet the opposite sex playing on his mind, there's a lot of drama in the Baker household.
These programmes are the latest in a long line of memoir-centric TV shows. A number or stars’ early lives have been fictionalised for our viewing pleasure in recent years.
Chris O'Dowd, star of The IT Crowd and Bridesmaids, and husband of Dawn O'Porter, wrote and acted in his semi-autobiographical sitcom Moone Boy. Set in Boyle, Co Roscommon, in 1989, the series (there have been three so far) follows the adventures of 12-year-old Martin Moone, who muddles through life with the help of his imaginary friend Sean Murphy, played by O'Dowd, who's always on hand with some not-so-wise words of advice.
Idris Elba was world famous for his role as Russell 'Stringer' Bell in The Wire, and later the title roles in hit crime series Luther and the 2013 movie Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, Idris Elba sidestepped fictional characters to write about his early childhood in East London's Hackney, in King For A Term.
The one-off Sky drama saw Elba playing a version of his father, whose asthmatic son is suddenly and unexpectedly moved to a school for children with learning difficulties.
Like Lenny Henry, journalist and prolific writer Caitlin Moran, 40, used her own life as inspiration for Channel 4 comedy series Raised By Wolves, which started in 2013. Co-written with her sister Caroline, the sitcom follows the lives of a skint, tight-knit family who live in Wolverhampton, where they're home-schooled by their eccentric mum, Della. A second series has already been commissioned.
Cookery writer Nigel Slater's formative years were the subject of a TV film, when the BBC adapted his bestselling memoir, Toast, back in 2010.
The BBC film Worried About The Boy delved into Kent-born Boy George's late teenage years, beginning in the early 80s, just before he hit worldwide stardom with Culture Club. The Riot Club actor Douglas Booth took the lead role as the young singer, whose fallouts with his parents over his femininity and style led him to move into a squat with androgynous singer Marilyn.
In 2010, Kathy Burke made a one-off special for Sky 1's Little Crackers, about her teenage years in Seventies London. This was later turned into a four-part series called Walking And Talking for Sky Atlantic.
Sheridan Smith portrayed the young Cilla Black, in ITV's biopic, Cilla, last year. While the late singer and TV presenter, who passed away aged 72 on August 1, didn't write the script herself, the three-parter was made and shown with her input and blessing.
In it, Smith shows the Liverpudlian entertainer's rise to fame, which coincided with her romance, and later marriage, to manager Bobby Willis, played by rising star Aneurin Barnard.
:: Danny And The Human Zoo airs on BBC One on Monday August 31 and Cradle To Grave begins BBC Two on Thursday September 3
