Jennifer Wilson looks for her twin sister, from whom she was separated at birth when they were adopted by different couples. Karen Lloyd searches for her father, whom she has never met before.
Ever since he discovered the truth about his real father at the age of 15, Wayne has been on a quest to find him. Debbie Gave her son up to save her marriage, she never stopped wanting him back in her life.
This episode features Jeannie Elgar, who last saw her brother Geoffrey when she was eight, and Kirsty West, who struggled with the decision she made as a teenager to have her son adopted.
Adopted as a baby, Laura McCarthy wants to find her mother and half sister. Sarah Gale was also adopted and had a happy childhood, but cannot rest until she finds her real mother.
Mark hopes to find his birth mother, and Stella looks for the daughter she gave up 50 years ago.
Brenda Rhensius looks for the daughter she regrets giving up for adoption, and Maureen Clancy tries to find her brother.
Peter Arundel and Maureen Saville have both been searching for their birth mothers.
A woman is determined to find the older sister that she has never met, while a daughter wants to be reunited with her father, whom she last saw when she was five years old.
Groom-to-be Bradlee Allen from south-east London hopes to track down his father before his wedding day in one week's time. The pair last met 10 years ago, when the estranged dad was turned away by his then 14-year-old son during a difficult period in the youngster's life. Bridget Eyles from Saffron Walden in Essex also asks for help in finding her birth mother after discovering at the age of 11 that she was adopted.
When she was 30, Fiona Dunn found out that she had a younger sister her family had kept secret from her. Three decades later she hopes to meet her sibling and make up for lost time. Anne Clegg enjoyed a happy childhood but always longed to know her birth mother, who gave her up for adoption 48 years ago. Anne has done everything in her power to track down her natural mum, but to no avail, so she calls on Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell for assistance.
James Kynoch was six when he discovered the man he called `dad' was not his real father, his parents having divorced when he was just two. After years of getting no answers, he needs to finally find the man who last saw him as a toddler. Scarborough woman Lisa Nortcliff, 48, also asks for help to solve the mystery of her father. When she was 10, she discovered the woman she thought of as her older sister was actually her mother, and that her dad had been forbidden from seeing her once the pregnancy was discovered. She has spent years searching for this mystery man but is no closer to finding him. Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell aim to succeed where she has failed.
Wendy O'Hagan is desperate to find her father Grant. Whilst Helen Harrison is searching for her son Dave.
David and Paul Shannon are searching for their father who disappeared from their lives when they were young boys. The family moved from Liverpool to South Africa in the early 1970s and returned a few years later when things did not work out. After a brief stay in England, their father went back to South Africa and, apart from one brief sighting, David and Paul have never seen him again. Also featured is Julia Evans, who grew up believing her mother had rejected her when she walked out of the family home when Julia was a baby. Her family's strict religious beliefs isolated her from the other kids in town, and at 16 Julia was cast out of the community for being a sinner. Ever since, Julia has longed to find her mother believing that she too might have been forced to leave.
This week on Long Lost Family two stories of children separated from their parents. Long distance lorry driver, Laurence Peat was given up for adoption at birth. Despite a happy childhood and loving adoptive parents, it has been as an adult that he has been unable to shake off the feeling that he was unwanted. For decades Laurence has lived with this sense of rejection which has affected his own ability to have successful relationships. In the hope that finding his birth mother would make this feeling go away, Laurence set out to track down his birth mother but the information on his adoption file led him nowhere. Now, he is making one final attempt to find her and lay to rest his sense of being unwanted. Also, the story of Denise Temple desperate to find her daughter who she battled to keep when she gave birth to her nearly fifty years ago. Originally from Yorkshire, Denise now lives in Spain. Six years ago, when her husband passed away, she finally decided she could no longer live with the pain caused by a decision she made when she was just a teenager. After a brief relationship with a local boy, Denise fell pregnant and at the age of sixteen, gave birth to a baby daughter. Desperate to keep her baby she struggled for three months to look after her daughter but with no support from her mother or step-father she finally was unable to cope and gave her daughter up for adoption. Now Denise is hoping that she will finally be reunited with her daughter that she once loved so much.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the series which sets out to reunite family members after years of separation. Robert Capron is 53, a devoted family man who lives in Devon but whose life today contrasts starkly with the world in which he grew up. At the age of two, Robert's mother abandoned him and not until his father's death was Robert able to start piecing together what little information he could find about her. After more than a decade of searching he is no closer to tracing her. Twin sisters Gail and Juliet Newmarch are 51. Their twin brothers were given up for adoption when they were very young. In fact, Gail and Juliet had no idea the boys existed until their father told them when they were in their teens. Their mother could not bear to talk about why she had done what she did and it was only when she died that Gail and Juliet felt able to start a search for their brothers.
Fifty-year-old Sharon Temple Sowerby grew up caught in a tug of love between two mothers. When she was a girl, Sharon discovered that the mother she knew of as 'mam' was not in fact her birth mother. Over the years, as the truth gradually emerged, Sharon discovered that she had been taken from her birth mother at only one hour old and given to a couple desperate for a child, who brought her up as their own. But Sharon also discovered that legally she was never theirs. Sharon's birth mother had refused to ever sign adoption papers and on several occasions actually asked for Sharon back. This tug of love continued until Sharon moved away to Germany with her parents. Heartbroken by these discoveries, Sharon has been searching for her birth mother for nearly thirty years but without success. Watch what happens when we take on this seemingly impossible search and meet the man searching for the same woman, who is also his birth mother.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the series which sets out to reunite family members after years of separation. Fifty one-year-old Londoner Chris Jones is searching for his sister who he last saw when she was a baby. Chris has little knowledge about his mother's past, but knows that his sister was born in a remote Northumberland vicarage, and that is where he starts looking for clues. Polly Gillon is searching for her eldest son who she was forced to give up for adoption in 1959. Polly grew up with her father in South London in the 1950s and when he discovered she was pregnant, he forced her to make a heart-breaking decision. She was given the choice: give her baby up for adoption or never come home. With no one else to turn to, Polly finally accepted her father's terms and gave her baby up. She has spent a lifetime regretting this decision and is desperate to ask her son to forgive her.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell uncover more family secrets. Val Milnes became pregnant at 18, and knowing that her strict father would never allow her to keep the child, she made the heartbreaking decision to give him up for adoption. She watched as he was taken away by his new parents with the case of clothes she had carefully prepared. Seventeen years later, Val suffered an accident which left her paralysed and tried to establish contact with her son, sending him a series of letters. The fact that these letters went unanswered has haunted her ever since. In the second of tonight's stories, Donna Leaver told her father Pat in a telephone call that she did not want him in her life any more when she was 6 years old. Taking her word for it, Pat disappeared and made no further attempt to contact her.
Ann Munro, 63, from Ringwood in Hampshire, gave up her son for adoption when she was 21 and her life ever since has been overshadowed by guilt and the longing to ask for his forgiveness. Louise Kendall, a 28-year-old nurse, lives in Bradford with her four-year-old son. She's hoping to meet her French father for the first time as she travels to Dijon, the city where her parents fell in love.
Sara Price-Parker, 44, decided to trace her birth mother Denise after the death of her adoptive mum, but her 25-year search ended in disappointment when she discovered her parent had emigrated to Jamaica in the 1970s. Sara is now turning to Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell as her last hope to establish contact. Pauline Wood, 77, always longed for a sibling to play with while growing up as an adopted only child. At the age of 28, she learned her birth parents later got married and had a son, but the quest to find her brother has gone on for decades to no avail.
Family man Richard Cue, 57, has always felt grateful for the love and support he received from his adoptive parents, so he wants to find his birth mother to thank her for the sacrifice she made in giving him up in 1957. Having accessed his records, however, he has been searching for almost a decade with little success. Tania Bartlett's mother Julie fell pregnant to Iranian student Ahmed Kazem in the early 1960s, but the couple drifted apart when Julie felt unable to join Ahmed to start a new life in America. Despite intermittent contact with her father in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Tania has spent the past 30 years searching for him, not knowing if he is even alive. Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell bring these families back together.
This week Long Lost Family returns with the most extraordinary search we have ever undertaken. A mother looking for her daughter from whom she was separated when she was just ten days old and that baby’s father who has spent a lifetime yearning for the chance to give his daughter a hug. It’s a search that takes us from Colonial Kenya in the 1950s to the heart of the World War I battlefields in Northern France. Sixty six year old Inge Dart grew up in Kenya in the dying days of the British Empire. But growing up, she was overshadowed by her domineering mother. At the age of nineteen, when Inge became pregnant with her childhood sweetheart Jeremy, her mother intervened and sent Inge half way around the world to have her baby in secret. Banished to Surrey, Inge was taken in by a couple who looked after her until her daughter was born. In the ten days that followed, she cared for her baby, knowing time was running out. The only joyous moments were when Jeremy visited and the young couple were able to enjoy what little time they had with their daughter. The loss of her baby has haunted Inge ever since and she now craves the peace she knows will only come when she sees her daughter once more. Watch what happens when we take on Inge’s search and, in a first for Long Lost Family, take on her daughter’s search for her father Jeremy.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell help Sheila Thomas, who gave her daughter up for adoption in 1968, and Stephen Andrews who grew up ashamed that his mother could not keep him.
When Colin Deering left home to join the Army, his mother Nellie revealed to him and his younger sister Helen that she had given birth in 1945 and put the baby up for adoption, believing he would have a better chance in life. Shortly before her death, Nellie begged Helen to find her brother and reunite the family, and this programme aims to fulfil that dying wish. Plus, the story of Stephen Haywood, who has put his life on hold until his birth mother can be a part of it. He feels unable to celebrate important occasions without her present, and in recent years his search has become more urgent due to serious health issues.
Patricia Hart grew up in the colliery village of Moorends in South Yorkshire, where her father was a miner. Shortly after being demobbed from the Women's Royal Army Corps, she discovered she was pregnant, and with no support from her boyfriend, made the decision to give up her baby for adoption. Now, after several health scares, she fears time is running out to find her daughter. Army reservist John Farrell, from Bootle in Merseyside, was a teenager when he learnt the man he had called dad all his life was not in fact his father. At the time, anger prevented him from wanting to know more, but now, as a parent himself, his need to know his birth father has grown.
Gillian Carter from Sheffield became pregnant shortly before her 18th birthday and had hoped to keep the baby with the support of her aunt, but the arrangement fell through due to illness. Now, the 66-year-old is looking forward to a potential reunion with her son. Sandra Macdonald, 53, was given up for adoption in Edinburgh in 1960 and grew up with the feeling something was missing from her life. At the age of 15 she started searching for her birth mother, but she was met by disapproval and misinformation at every turn. Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell tell Gillian and Sandra's stories, guiding them through their emotional searches.
A couple search for the son they had to give up for adoption when they were teenagers. Susan and Chris were childhood sweethearts in 1962 when Susan was 14 and Chris 15.
Christine Gillard was 16 years old when she gave birth to her daughter Marguerite. Christine struggled to make ends meet and decided to place her with a foster family when Marguerite was two.
At 39, Peter Gunn has struggled to come to terms with being given up for adoption by his birth mother when he was a baby. Although he was brought up by a loving family, a sense of abandonment contributed to his going down the path of addiction.
Ten years ago, 56-year-old Christine Chesham discovered that her mother had died under tragic circumstances. Ever since, she has been determined to find the one person who can help her find out exactly what happened - her sister Pamela.
This week features two stories of sisters kept, while their brothers were given up for adoption: a family split apart by the decision to give up a baby boy over 50 years ago, and a sister searching for the brother who was kept a secret from her as a child.
This episode tells the extraordinary story of Alley Lofthouse, left on a doorstep in a block of flats in Scotland on a cold February night. She was found, just hours old, wrapped in a pillowcase, with no clue as to where she came from.
Presented by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell. Two adopted people born on opposite sides of the world make an unbelievable discovery, and a seemingly impossible search in Ecuador.
This Episode features two stories of people looking to solve family mysteries: a daughter who missed out on a father’s love; and a woman looking to put an end to a secret that has haunted her family for over 50 years.
This episode features two stories of people separated from their mothers: A daughter longing to thank her birth mother for the sacrifice she made in parting with her and a man desperate to make up for a missed opportunity nearly 60 years ago.
This episode features two stories of women haunted by events from their history: A mother whose brief time with her baby has been wiped from her memory and a daughter trying to come to terms with the legacy of her mother’s troubled past.
This week we have two stories of children desperate to find missing parents: A son who wants his father to be proud of him, and a woman searching for the youngest birth mother we’ve ever come across, who was only 13 years old when she had her.
This week two stories of women trying to bring their families back together. Whenever 62-year-old Val Moorhouse receives a card from her daughter Marisa, whether birthday or Christmas, Marisa signs her name, but also signs on behalf of her brother, Stephen - the son and brother who has been missing from their lives for 40 years. With a successful career, a happy daughter and beautiful home, 37-year-old Sam Cashmore has a life many people would envy, but her path to happiness has been overshadowed by the absence of two important women in her life. Today she desperately wants to be reunited with her birth mother and sister.
Miriam Aragon Hay lives on the Pembrokeshire coastline with her husband Richard and three children. She is searching for her Salvadoran father, a man who has always felt out of reach. Annie Sims is a 48-year-old mother of two daughters who lives with her husband, Sean in Hampshire. Annie has struggled her whole life with the weight of the decision her birth mother made to give her up for adoption as a baby. She is now searching for her mother, hoping that she will finally come to terms with that decision.
Divorced couple Marion Williams and James McDonnell come together to search for the child they were forced to give up for adoption in the face of overwhelming family opposition when they were teenagers. Elsewhere, Cathie Cutler-Evans searches for her birth mother, Adrienne Powell, who had to give her up after being unable to offer Cathie a stable home as an unmarried 19-year-old.
Andy McNicol, who lives in Walsall with his wife Hazel, has devoted years of his life to fostering children, but he now desires to find his son from a previous relationship in the 1970s. Meanwhile, 55-year-old Mary Davies from Hounslow searches for her birth mother after spending her early years being raised in children's homes.
Episode Three features two stories of mothers and sons pulled apart: a man whose mother put him up for adoption through an advert in the local paper; and a woman who adopted two kids after giving up her own son.
Episode Four features two people searching for answers to family secrets: A woman who only discovered she had an older sister two years ago and a man desperate to find the father he's never met.
Episode Five features two stories of lives turned upside down by unexpected revelations: A man longing to find the brother his mum never told him about, and a woman searching for the father she fears may not want to be found.
Episode Six features two stories of childhood loss: a daughter whose only link to her father is a letter and a woman searching for her twin sisters after more than 60 years apart.
Episode Seven features two lives overshadowed by questions from the past: a man searching for the brother given up for a wartime affair, and a woman longing to understand the reasons behind her adoption.
In this episode, two of our youngest ever searchers look for birth family on the other side of the world.
This episode features our first transgender searcher, desperate to know if their birth mother will accept them.
This episode features two stories shaped by moments from British history: a family torn apart by the birth of a wartime baby and a daughter given up against a backdrop of racism.
This episode features two stories with unexpected outcomes: a woman searching for her older brother who was a family secret for decades and a former England rugby player desperate to find his mother and his sister.
This episode features two women looking for answers to questions that have haunted them for decades: a woman who made a discovery as a teenager that changed her life and a mother longing to find the son she felt she let down as a baby.
Julie is desperate to track down her birth mother, Marion, who was just 18 when she was born, and Marc wants to track down his birth mother who had him adopted 50 years ago.
This episode features an extraordinary double search within one family: a sister looking for her brother Keith to tell him the truth about their father, and a further search with Keith to find out more about the birth mother he never knew.
Previous guests from Long Lost Family attend a very special Christmas lunch. Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell find out what it means for those sharing Christmas together for the first time and for those meeting brand new family members.
Special episode of the documentary series in which Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell help foundlings track down the people who abandoned them as babies.
The series kicks off by dedicating a full episode to an incredible story of separated sisters that previously hit the headlines.
Adopted as a baby, Nicholas Rhoades asked the programme for help in trying to track down his birth mother. The only information he had was her name and the address she was living at when she gave him up, but he never found the courage to knock on the door himself. The second story follows 83-year-old Margaret Sweeney as she tries to track down the daughter she has not seen for 60 years.
Singer-songwriter KT Tunstall always knew she was adopted and in 1998 was reunited with her birth mother, who told her that her father never wanted to give her up - a message that has inspired her to find out what happened to him. Brother and sister Simon Munro and Carole Killick grew up apart after their mother left when they were young in the 1960s, but the siblings were reunited more than 20 years ago and are now searching for their mother.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell follow Kathleen Fraser Jackson's search for her mother, with the 62-year-old having been trying to track down the woman who gave her up for adoption for more than 40 years. In a last-ditch attempt to help Kathleen find her mum, the Long Lost Family team samples Kathleen's DNA and adds it to an online database, which triggers an epic journey spanning continents and cultures, and unlocking more secrets - and family members - than she could ever have dreamed of.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell help more people to reunite with long-lost relatives. Alice Jones was brought up by her father, but on a visit to her mother more than 50 years ago she met her younger brother called Sam and has always hoped that one day she would see him again. Mark Ratcliffe grew up in Lancashire and at the age of 12 his parents told him he was adopted and the revelation devastated him. Ever since, he cannot shake the question of how a mother could give up her child and is now looking for answers.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell help more people to reunite with long-lost relatives. Martin Smith grew up in Rochdale and had a happy childhood, but struggled with intense feelings of rejection when he discovered he was adopted and only now feels ready to face his fears and find his birth mother. Ann Jordan always knew she was adopted and has been searching for her birth mother for over 30 years, but she will not set a date for her wedding to fiance Chris until she has found her.
In a first for the programme, Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present an appeal for information on behalf of two families whose loved ones have been reported missing to the police. They look at the cases of Matthew Bone, who disappeared in March 2018, and Simon Greaves, who went missing five years ago. They also follow the story of Beryl Everall, who last saw her mother more than 60 years ago when she mysteriously disappeared from her life. All contact with her mother's side of the family was lost, and she was never spoken of again.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present a special edition of the series, dedicated to the worldwide search for the remains of soldiers killed during the First World War with no known graves. The programme follows the work of an elite all-female team at the Ministry of Defence known as the `War Detectives", whose job is to locate the final resting places of 500,000 service personnel who lost their lives during the conflict.
Born without a trace, foundlings are people abandoned as babies, who have had no way of unlocking the secrets of their past. Two years ago, we brought together 20 foundlings from across the UK, united in their hope of finding birth relatives. Through DNA and detective work, our expert team have been helping them find the answers they’ve been searching for. But often these answers are not the end of the story… It’s such an extraordinary journey for any foundling to go from being left somewhere, whether a parked car or a phone box- to finding out their identity, let alone to being united with a birth relative. In this programme, Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell catch up with three foundlings to find out how their lives have changed since they discovered the truth about their pasts and how their new relationships are developing. Remarkably new revelations come to light and there are still more relatives to meet!
The series starts with two heart breaking stories of separation: a mother and father who, having fought in vain to get their son back through the courts, have lived with a lifetime of loss; and a son's search for his birth mother, who disappeared from his life when he was a baby. Phyllis and Kevin Haran contacted Long Lost Family after more than forty years searching for their first-born son. The couple fell in love as teenagers in Ireland in the 1970s and a couple of months into their relationship, Phyllis became pregnant. Aware of the scandal this would cause within their Catholic community, they hatched a plan to run away to England to bring up their baby. But, in London, their landlady discovered they were keeping a baby in their flat and gave them less than 24 hours to get out. Homeless, jobless and desperate to put their baby's interests first, they agreed through an agency to place their son in the care of a family, with the possibility of adoption if they couldn't find their feet.
This week features two stories of missing relatives found much closer than the searchers could ever have imagined. Our first story is of a mother who's never got over the decision made for her 50 years ago – to have her first-born child adopted. Pauline Pedder became pregnant when she was just a schoolgirl in Huddersfield. Now 65, she's longing to find her daughter, who she's never forgotten. When Long Lost Family takes up the search, an unprecedented twist reveals that Pauline's daughter lives in Huddersfield, has been doing her own investigations into her past and knows much more about her birth mother than expected. Meanwhile in Blackpool, trainee nurse Donna Cowell's life has been overshadowed by fears of what happened to her younger brother. Having grown up in the care system and had a difficult childhood, Donna turns to Long Lost Family to find out whether her brother avoided the same fate. But what she never could have guessed is that her brother turns out to be living just round the corner from her.
Yasika Fernando was separated from her Sri Lankan birth mother when she was adopted by a British couple at a few months old, and has longed to find her since finding out the truth at 18. The other story follows Richard Standen, who is looking for the son he put up for adoption more than 50 years ago.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell help more people to reunite with long-lost relatives. Claire Martin was abandoned in Hong Kong as a baby more than 50 years ago and heads back there to appeal for information about her origins, but with the help of DNA she finds family much closer to home. The team helps Nicki Goscomb and her sisters search for their brother, who was given up for adoption in 1966.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell help more people to reunite with long-lost relatives, following a woman on a quest to solve a family mystery and find her sisters, and a woman living with the heart-breaking decision to give up her son for adoption when she was just a teenager.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell return to tell incredible stories of people desperate to find missing family and answer questions that have haunted entire lives. This week features two stories of children searching for their birth mothers after life-changing events - former Scotland footballer Dominic Matteo, who started to search after suffering a life-threatening brain tumour, and a woman, pained with emotion on her wedding day because her birth mother was missing.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the stories of two people trying to unravel family mysteries, with both looking for a birth parent they have never met. Fifty-seven-year-old quarry worker John Hacking was told that his birth mother left him as a baby in a pram outside a block of flats in Buxton and has been searching for her since he was 17 with no luck, while Debra Spark has never met her Italian father Ernesto, who got together with Debra's mother Olive in Milan in the 1960s.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the stories of two women trying to find birth parents after half a century apart. Ann Melbourne found her birth mother over a decade ago and now wants to locate her birth father Leslie, who she has limited information about in her adoption paperwork, while Amanda Village is searching for her mother Susan, who gave her up for adoption.
This week, Paula Stillie is on a quest to discover her identity, and Lisa Harding longs for the sister she's always wanted. Paula Stillie has always looked completely different from her white adoptive family in Scotland. Heartbreakingly, as a little girl she covered herself in talcum powder to try and look more like her parents. Although she had a happy upbringing, she's always wanted to know who her birth family are and where in the world she comes from. Our search for answers leads across the globe with some unexpected surprises. Meanwhile, Lisa Harding grew up in the north east of England with her single mother Moyra who worked long hours as a hairdresser by day and taxi driver by night. It was a lonely childhood and Lisa always wished for a sister. Then when Lisa was 15, Moyra confided that Lisa actually has an older sister who was given up for adoption before Lisa was born. But the decades went by, and because the subject was painful, they didn't speak about it again, until Moyra was dying of cancer and she told Lisa of her desire to find her eldest daughter. Now Lisa is on a mission to fulfil her mother's dying wish.
An extraordinary search on behalf of Kate Brown from Portsmouth takes on twists and turns and unveils one missing relative after another. Kate Brown with a foster family and the closest thing she had to a blood relative was her foster brother John, who she was very close to, but while Kate was eventually adopted by the foster family, John was sent back to the care system. Ever since, Kate has been on a mission to find him, and during her research, she made an unexpected discovery.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present two heartbreaking stories of separation, including a man whose only memento of his birth mother and siblings is an old local newspaper article that shows them evicted from their home and squatting in an airfield. Plus, a woman searching for her only child, who she hasn't seen since he was 10 days old.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the stories of people searching for siblings. Steve Austin and Moira Tonge only found each other as adults, but then at their mother's funeral discovered they also had an older sister. Lisa Irvine also only found out about her brother Nicholas as an adult, when she read her adoption paperwork and wants to know what happened to him and her birth mother.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present two more stories, with Louise Stoppani looking for the father she never knew, having discovered aged seven that the man bringing her up was not her biological dad. Jonathan Gaskarth was adopted at six weeks old, but it was only following the breakdown of his marriage that he decided to try to locate his birth parents.
With his 87th birthday approaching, retired merchant seamen Roy David searches for his daughter Cheryl, who he has not seen for nearly 60 years. After meeting his first wife Sylvia in New York while working there, the couple had a daughter, but tensions within the family lead to him separating from his wife, and eventually losing touch. Now, Roy seeks forgiveness from Cheryl and hopes to make amends.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell report on the scandal of thousands of unaccompanied British children sent to Australia in the middle of the 20th century. Stories include that of Dorian Thomas Reece, searches for answers about where he came from and who his family were, while Bruce Wilton reveals how his younger brothers Rex and Kevin were sent to Tasmania as late as 1970.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the extraordinary story of 77-year-old Rosemary Rawlins, who has long believed that she was switched with another baby during an air raid in Weymouth during the Second World War. Her parents died early, so she was unable to ask them more about it, but a DNA test with her niece confirmed she wasn't genetically related to her family.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell return to tell more stories of people desperate to find missing family and answer questions that have haunted entire lives. Jacinta Hickey's dying wish was to reunite her younger brother Paul with his birth family, and the programme follows her daughter Claire's attempt to fulfill the promise.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell help Joselyn Taylor, who has been searching for her elder brother James to find out why she was put in a children's home at two weeks old. James in turn has also been searching for the father he never knew and had only been able to dream about.
From a woman taken to Morocco as toddler against her mother’s will to a man given up as a baby because of the colour of his skin, we discover what happened - and however difficult it may be, the truth has transformative power.
Episode four tells the stories of two women who uncovered lifechanging news as adults, that led them both on a hunt for long-lost siblings. First as a child, then as a parent, Sian Jones was denied a loving mother and daughter bond; her adoptive mother was not affectionate and sadly Sian lost a baby daughter of her own late in pregnancy. Whilst searching for her birth mother, Sian discovered that she has a sister out there somewhere and Long Lost Family takes up the search for both her mother and sister. Our second search is on behalf of Teleena Faux who, for more than 30 years, believed she was the youngest of six children. But when searching through her late mother’s belongings, Teleena found evidence of a younger brother - his hospital tag and photos of a tiny baby labelled by her mother. Teleena has been desperate to find him ever since.
Episode five tells the stories of three men brought up in the care system, trying to reconnect with the family that was taken from them. Murray Phillips was adopted from a children’s home as a young boy with his older brother Ricky, who had always looked after him. But when Ricky was 12 he was sent back to the children’s home, leaving nine-year-old Murray completely devastated and confused. He has wanted to find his older brother ever since. Eighty seven-year-old Mark Chesterfield spent a large part of his childhood at a Foundling Hospital. He has been trying to reclaim his identity ever since he found out at the age of 74 that he wasn’t an orphan, as he’d always believed, but had a mother who’d wanted to be part of his life. Having traced her side of the family, he comes to Long Lost Family to find out about his father’s side.
Once again Davina and Nicky Campbell join forces with the ‘War Detectives’ from the MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre as they continue the never-ending task of identifying missing World War soldiers and tracing their surviving families. Nine soldiers found together in a trench by roadworkers in Beselare, Belgium. It’s the site of the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. Buried within the mud, over 100 years later, 2nd Lieutenant Ablett from the 11th Northumberland Fusiliers is found, identifiable by his ID bracelet and a ring. With DNA sourced from a living relative, Ablett’s identity is confirmed. But the team face the daunting task of identifying the eight bodies found alongside him. Can the War Detectives discover who they are and allow their living relatives to lay them to rest with full military honours at last?
This episode tells the story of two sons who were given up for adoption and the families who have stopped at nothing to find them. Andrew Barlow was adopted as a baby – his birth mother, Patricia Clark, refused to sign the adoption papers and never gave up looking for him. Both mother and son, on opposite sides of the world, tried searching for each other, but they tragically missed their chance to connect. Patricia’s younger children Lisa and Barry also grew up hoping to one day meet their big brother – this is a bittersweet tale of complex emotions and painful regrets which still ends with a heart-warming reunion. As a child, Julie Redman discovered that her mother Joan had given up her older brother for adoption – Joan always regretted the decision, and Julie promised her that she would trace him somehow. Julie had been searching for over 25 years with no success – that is, until she turned to Long Lost Family for help …
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell tell more stories of people desperate to find missing family and answer questions that have haunted entire lives, beginning with two men searching for the truth about their beginnings. Paul Connolly had a brutal childhood and was put out with the rubbish as a baby in east London and raised in care, while Shaun Lawrence had a happy adoption with wonderful parents but was always curious about his birth parents
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell meet Sara Hathaway who, after losing her adoptive mother and older brother in the space of just a year, is desperate to find her birth family. Plus, Diane Kerridge shares her story of being forced to give up the child she gave birth to as a teenager in the 1960s. Over 50 years later, she is hoping to find her long lost son
Two women looking for siblings but for different reasons - Jeanette Woodyatt's father told her that he had a son who was adopted when he was young. Karen Turnbull was shocked to learn on the day of her mother's funeral that she had half-siblings.
Following one woman searching for her Jamaican-born birth father and another on the hunt for the half-brother that her mother gave up for adoption after his American serviceman father went home and off the radar following the Second World War.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the stories of two men hoping to find birth family. Joe McGregor was adopted as a baby in Bermuda in the 1970s and grew up in Norfolk in a loving family, yet he still yearns to find his birth family. Simon Miller's mum's dying wish was that he should find the daughter who she gave up for adoption just a few years before he was born.
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the stories of two men, both of them born in Ireland to unmarried mothers at a time when having children outside of marriage was seen as sinful and the Catholic Church went to great lengths to cover it up. When Arthur Fitzharris's adoptive parents died he decided to find out about his birth family, and was dismayed to discover that his birth certificate falsely recorded early foster parents as though they were his biological parents. Bernard McGrath discovered his adoptive parents were falsely named as his biological parents on his birth certificate and no other records seemed available to him
