ITV show DNA Journey with Ancestry has revealed Liverpudlian actor Ricky Tomlinson has links to a Cumbrian town through his great grandfather - who was also quite the social justice warrior.

Appearing alongside Sue Johnston, his on-screen wife in the hit series The Royle Family, the show begins with the pair being sent to the Lake District with neither of them knowing which one had the link. 

READ MORE: Lake District: Hollywood's Ross King MBE spotted at luxury hotel 

Sue reveals her mum had cousins who had connections to the area but Ricky is completely at a loss. 

They arrive in Ambleside and co-incidentally ask for directions at Granny Smith's grocers shop on Market Place - right where Ricky is about to find out his great ancestors lived and worked. 

They sit down with expert Brad Argent at Sheila's Cottage tearoom where Ricky's links to Ambleside are revealed. 

"You think you're a Scouser" Brad said. "And you are, kind of, because your story actually begins right here in Ambleside."

To which Ricky replies: "Bit of a shock to me that kid".

Ricky and Sue in Granny Smith's (Image: ITV) It turns out that Ricky's great-grandfather was a tailor called James Hunter who was born in 1813 when the town was considered a literary destination.

He lived in the time of William Wordsworth, Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters.

Brad added: "He's probably been crafting clothes for some of these notable literary figures that are milling about the town.

"In fact Wordsworth would have walked past his house every day on the way to work."

Ricky is shown a drawing of his great grandfather's shop in Market Place before pointing out that in 1841, outside the market streets, is poverty in the rural areas of the Lake District. 

Ricky's Great Grandfather's shop on Market Place, now Granny Smith's (Image: ITV) Victorian author Harriet Martineau described Ambleside as in a 'perfect setting, yet the town is abominable in all sanitary effects. The people live in stinking holes, whole families are huddled together in single rooms.'

"There is scarcely a girl who is not a mother before she is a wife, and the young men, finding their homes disgusting, go to public houses," she said.

James was incensed by the poverty of the town and was instrumental in forming a Methodist church.

He created a petition in which the poverty-stricken could voice their radical views as public meetings encouraging change were banned.

He invited Harriet to come and speak at the Methodist church, which would become so full that they had to open the doors so people could hear.

"I really love this social injustice business," Ricky said, "because it plays a part in my everyday life. I hate to see people being put on.

"But you've got to do something otherwise nothing changes."

The petition created by James Hunter (Image: ITV) In 1853, James moved to Liverpool and died from tuberculosis in 1857 at 44.

Sue adds: "This explains everything about you. The mixture of everything that you are, his creativity, his love of art. He loves poetry, reading.

"He's not just a working class Scouser, as he likes to think of himself, he's got all these other things that come from this and also, social justice beats at the heart of him."

When Ricky finds out Sue is related to a Tory MP (Image: ITV) The couple then move on to Fellinis Cinema which used to be a conservative club.

Sue, a supporter of the Labour Party, finds out to her horror that she is related to William Prescott, an early 20th century MP for Tottenham.