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Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the documentary series which aims to reunite family members after years of separation, and offers a lifeline for people who are desperate to find long-lost relatives.
2011
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.
2012
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.
2017
2019
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell return to help more people reunite with long-lost relatives, beginning with 67-year-old Christine Rose's search for the sisters she was separated from at the age of four when her mother was prosecuted for neglect. The three young girls were taken by social services during the night and sent to separate children's homes. Nicky leads the search for Christine's sisters and the team makes remarkable discoveries, revealing layers of family that she never knew existed.
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.
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.
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. Anne 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.
2013
Sue has been searching for the daughter she was forced to give up for adoption, for over forty years. Alan is desperate to understand why his birth mother gave him up for adoption.
We hear two lives shaped by unanswered letters. Wendy has never met her father and Helen is searching for her son who she was forced to give up for adoption more than thirty years ago.
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.
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.
2024
The first episode in the show's 14th series follows Ros Webb - a mother searching for her only child - and Tegan Cornish, an adopted woman looking for a brother separated from her.
Mother Paula Beer searches for the son she gave up as a teenager, and a sister, Sharon Thomas, looks for the younger brother her mother was forced to give up before she died of cancer.
Sue Stalley and Melanie Mackney, two women on a quest to find their biological family members and fill in the gaps in their family histories.
Tracey Boyle, a woman who discovered she had a brother after her mother confided in her following a hospital stay. Carrying the weight of grief for years, Tracey’s mother had given up her first-born son for adoption at the age of 16. Determined to find him, Tracey sets out to let her brother know that he was always wanted. Liz Allward, who was adopted as a baby, shares her unusual intuition. Liz always felt she had a biological sister somewhere, and this unusual feeling was confirmed. Now, she longs to meet her sister and finally complete her family.
The first story centres around 66-year-old Charlotte, who, after a recent cancer diagnosis, feels an urgent need to find the baby she gave up as a teenager. It’s a quest filled with uncertainty as Charlotte has no idea what became of her child or if they are even still alive. This search is particularly significant given Charlotte’s current health situation. The second story introduces us to Jenna, who was donor-conceived and is curious about her biological origins. Jenna has many unanswered questions, including whether she has any biological siblings. She embarks on a journey to fill in the gaps in her family tree, not knowing what surprises or challenges lie ahead.
Mary Arbuthnot - a woman looking for two siblings adopted separately - and Maggie McCauley, who is searching for the older sister her mum had to give up.
In this special episode, women affected by a historic scandal in Spain from the 1930s through the Franco era to the 1990s search for children and family.
2016
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.
Nicky Campbell
Himself - Presenter
Davina McCall
Herself - Presenter
2015
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.
2021
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.
2021
2022
In 2017, Jacinta Hickey contacted `Long Lost Family' looking for her younger brother Paul. Tragically, Jacinta died suddenly before the case was resolved. Meanwhile, 64-year-old Judy Kenyon believes time maybe running out to find her birth mother.
2025
The unique bond between brothers is celebrated in the cases of Lee Sharp - who was told he was a foundling - and Peter MacDonald, who wants to see his big brother Trevor again.
This episode follows two birth parents. Paula, who is searching for the son she became pregnant with in 1979, & Justus Augustin, who hopes to find a daughter put up for adoption.
2023
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
2018
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.
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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.
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.
A man whose only memento of his birth mother and siblings is an old local newspaper article searches for his family, and a mother looks for her only child.
Two siblings who found each other as adults try to trace their older sister, whose existence they only heard of at their mother's funeral.
Louise Stoppani is looking for the father she never knew, having discovered aged seven that the man bringing her up was not her biological dad.
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.
This episode features two stories of missing relatives found much closer than the searchers could ever have imagined....
Two stories that take us across the globe: a woman's search for her birth mother in Sri Lanka and a quest on behalf of a father, longing to find his lost son....
This episode includes a foundling's incredible journey to Hong Kong in search of information about her origins and a daughter's desperate quest to fulfil her mother's dying wish....
Two incredible stories of people desperate to find missing family: a mother living with a heart-breaking decision and a woman on a quest to solve a family mystery....
Joselyn Turner was born profoundly deaf and put in a children's home at only two weeks old. She knows that her birth mother also had a son and is now searching for her older brother James for answers to her lifelong questions. In turn, James has also been searching for the father he never knew, and after 73 years, James finds more family than he bargained for.
Two people go in search of their missing birth mothers. A woman taken to Morocco as a toddler against her mother's will searches for her birth mother while a man given up as a baby because of the colour of his skin searches for the truth about his family.
Ricky was 12 he was sent back to the children's home, leaving nine-year-old Murray completely devastated. He has wanted to find his older brother ever since. Also, eighty seven-year-old Mark found out that he wasn't an orphan.
The team work on a case of nine soldiers found together buried in a trench in Belgium at the site of the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. Artefacts found near the bodies and DNA of potential living relatives are used to identify these brave men who lost their lives and to hopefully allow their living relatives to lay them to rest with full military honours at last.
Telling the story of two sons who were given up for adoption. Andrew Barlow was adopted as a baby, but his birth mother Patricia refused to sign the adoption papers. Julie Redman discovered that her mother had given up her older brother for adoption.
This episode follows Jayne - a woman who wants to tell her older brother that he was always thought of - and Kevin, who is determined to find his eldest daughter for his late wife.
This episode follows the cases of Mark Thorpe - who yearns to find an older brother - and Jane Lewis, who was taken into foster care at 11 days old and seeks her three brothers.
This episode follows the cases of Alan Parker - who is desperate to solve the mystery of why his mother left the family home - and Katherine Fletcher, who seeks her birth mother.
This episode follows the cases of Scott - who is desperate to find an older sister who was adopted - and Jackie, whose late mother put her baby sister up for adoption.
This episode features two women searching for older siblings they've never met - while Mandy wants to find her big sister, Jane wants to find the brother that her mum had.
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.
We take on the cases of Caroline Kinsey - who longs to find the son she gave up for adoption - and Paul McFarlane, whose assumptions about his family have been thrown into doubt.
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.
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.
Joe McGregor yearns to find his birth family, and Simon Miller wants to fulfill his mothers last wish.
This episode delves into the compelling narratives of two men who share a common experience – being born to unmarried mothers in Ireland during a period when such circumstances were stigmatized. Arthur Fitzharris, born in 1947, grew up in Ireland under the care of his adoptive parents, enjoying a content childhood. Bernard McGrath, born in 1953, remained oblivious to his adoption until he turned 40, when rumours began to circulate.
2014
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.