LONG LOST FAMILY STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01 TUESDAY 12 APRIL 2011
Davina McCall: “For thousands of people in the UK, there’s someone missing in their lives. This is the series that steps in to help, offering a last chance to people desperate to find long lost family.”
Nicky Campbell:“Our searches have uncovered family secrets and taken us all over the world, finding people that no one else has been able to find.”
LONG LOST FAMILY
Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present this new documentary series which traces and reunites long lost family members.
The series helps relatives, some of whom have been searching in vain for many years, find the family members they are desperately seeking. Long Lost Family explores the background and context of each family’s estrangement and tracks the detective work and often complex and emotional process of finding each lost relative before they are reunited. We are given the unique opportunity to follow the journey of relatives that have spent their lives apart from the very people that should have been nearest and dearest to them - their fathers, mothers, daughters, sons and siblings - even twin sisters, in one case. Family is, for many people, the most important thing in life, but for some a piece of the jigsaw that makes up their family is missing, which they desperately need to find to feel whole again. With the help and support of Davina and Nicky each relative is guided and supported through the process of tracing the member of their family they have been desperately seeking, in some cases for most of their lives. Long Lost Family reveals the background to each case, the social context and reasons why these estrangements occurred, from the single teenage mums who felt unable to keep their babies to the fathers who left and the twin sisters who were separated at birth. Each of the two intercut stories featured in every episode [12 in total across the series] has incredibly moving moments, from relatives being told the long lost family member has been traced, the decision to agree to a reunion, being shown a photo of them, and the raw moment of the reunion. The series will afford viewers a revealing insight into the process involved in tracing long lost family members, from many different backgrounds and generations. And the searches often take unpredictable turns, from leads which take in countries far overseas, to discovering that a relative lost for a lifetime has been living only a few miles away all those years.
Many of the people featured in the series were adopted or gave children up for adoption when they were young Wall To Wall worked closely with leading organisations in the adoption field such as NORCAP and independent social worker Ariel Bruce. The protocol devised and worked to throughout the making of Long Lost Family was modelled on the protocols NORCAP and Ariel Bruce work to when searching, contacting and supporting adopted people and birth relatives.
Adoption is personal territory for Nicky Campbell, who was adopted as a child, before searching for and being reunited with his birth mother and father as an adult. Nicky is a patron of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering.
EP ONE
Jennifer & Kathleen
Jennifer is a twin, who has never met her twin sister. Growing up in the industrial town of Rotherham, she was brought up by a couple who at the time, she thought were her parents. However, Jennifer found out at the age of 11 that a friendly neighbour who lived two doors away and she knew as Aunty Eva, , was actually her mother. Eva, who was unmarried, gave Jennifer up for adoption as a newborn baby – as Jennifer discovered she also gave away Jennifer’s twin sister. “There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of her. I just think, ‘Ooh, there’s somebody missing.’”
Jennifer, along with her daughter Nicole, have been trying to unravel the mystery of what happened to her sister for so long, but all they have found is her birth name – Judith Walton. With only this to go on, their search has hit a dead end.
A tearful Jennifer admits: “This just means everything to me, everything. I’ve got a happy marriage, good grandchildren, daughters, but this is just so different. It’s just so different that I’ve got to meet her. I’ve just got to.”
Four months later, Jennifer’s twin sister was found by independent body Norcap, who have the authority to trace adopted children and give them the choice of putting them in touch with relatives. She is known to Jennifer as Judith, but has been called Kathleen her whole life, and still lives in Rotherham, almost unbelievably, only three miles from her twin sister. Kathleen wasn’t even aware she had a sister, and Nicky goes to meet her, to break the news that they are not just sisters, but twins. Kathleen reacts to the news: “Wow. Ooh a twin. Another one like me, poor old Derek. I’d said, ‘I wonder if she’s a twin.’ I don’t know why.”
Jennifer is told about the discovery of Kathleen. “I can’t explain it, I’m just so happy. I think it’s like getting married and you’ve got somebody else in your life. I feel I could tackle the world today. The one that should be next to me holding my hand, is here. Oh I can’t wait.”
The reunion’s location is decided to be the bandstand in Clifton Park, in the centre of Rotherham.
Kathleen tells how she feels before the big meet: “I’m excited, but I’m shaking like mad.” Their 66-year-long wait is finally over, as they run into each other’s arms for a hug. The resemblance is uncanny, and Jennifer says: “You’ve even got the same glasses as me.”
They catch up on the bandstand where they both played as children, but amazingly never crossed each other’s paths. Jennifer says: “When we’re out shopping and people say, ‘Are you sisters?’ we can say, ‘We’re twins!’”
Karen & Peter
The second story this week begins in the Warwickshire village of Warmington and tells of a woman’s quest to find her father. Karen was adopted by her grandparents when she was born and only discovered by chance at the age of seven that the person she thought was her big sister was actually her mother.
There has always been something at the heart of her life that has been missing. She says: “Every daughter wants a dad, everybody does. Even though I’m 43 it doesn’t mean to say that you don’t miss having a dad. ”
Karen explains the story that she has been told about her father, Peter Wills. At the age of 18 her mother, Carolyn, was going out with 19 year old Peter and discovered she was pregnant with Karen. After her mother told Peter the news they arranged to meet at Birmingham New Street Station – Karen’s mother turned up at the station and waited for him, but Peternever turned up. Karen says: “I do think that is a terrible thing. Why didn’t he just turn and say, ‘I’m not interested.’ Why just leave somebody, I think that’s wrong. He was nineteen years old, he was probably very scared, it’s a big responsibility, I would like to think that’s why he did it and that he isn’t a bad person.”
Karen has a supportive family around her with her son Rory and her husband Matthew helping her in the past to search for her father with no avail. Rory knows how important this is to his mother and says: “Realistically, this is the last chance, I think in her heart of hearts she knows that.”
Nicky and the Long Lost Family team started the search for Karen’s father Peter, but with hundreds of Peter Wills living in the UK and with Karen having so little information about her father the team knew from the start it would be tough. Luckily Karen was able to give them one vital piece of information, Peter’s date of birth, 25th June 1948.
Karen told them that her mum vaguely remembered that he had a brother and she thought the brother’s name was Ray. The team wrote letters to three different Raymond G Wills before they were contacted by a woman who claimed her father was Raymond and that he had recently died but he had a brother called Peter Michael John Wills with the right date of birth who lived in Canada. After twenty years of Karen looking, her dad had finally been found.
Nicky flies out to Canada to meet Peter. Now a successful businessman with five sons, a tearful Peter says: “I just can’t wait to see her.”
Told about the discovery of her father, an emotional Karen says: “I can’t believe it, where is he?” After Karen reads a letter from her father it comes to light that Peter never knew that she’d born or that he had a daughter.
Karen tells how she feels about meeting her father for the first time, revealing her fears: “Will he like me, will his family like me, am I doing the right thing?”
The time has come for Peter to meet Karen for the first time in a park in Leamington Spa. They hug and hold each other before Peter says: “God you’ve got my sisters eyes.” An overwhelmed Karen says: “I just can’t believe I’ve got this great big family that I didn’t know I had.”
PRESS PACK QUESTIONS
Nicky Campbell
What did you see your role as in relation to the people being reunited on the programme?
I was there as someone who had been through a similar emotional mill and had experienced the curiosities, terrors, hopes and ultimately fulfilment. The search process was also fascinating and some real old fashioned detective work came into play. Davina generally met the person searching and I went off to find and meet the person they were looking for.
Would you offer any advice to someone looking for a long lost family member?
This has to be done with proper support and advice. Wall To Wall were brilliant at this. Big emotions are unlocked and it is a lot for anyone to deal with but so worthwhile. It is always better to know the truth. Anything else is a bonus.
The individual stories are very moving - were you ever overwhelmed by the raw emotions being expressed by the families involved?
Frequently overwhelmed. Both Davina and I and the brilliant production team were often in tears. These stories are heartbreaking, heart warming and also fascinating examples of ways in which issues like family separation and adoption have changed so much in our country in recent years.
Are there any stories in particular that have stayed with you?
All of them. Every story was powerful but all so different. Brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. I think the power is that we think, ‘There but for the grace of fate go any of us.’ I do think there was something utterly amazing though about reuniting twin sisters who are by now in their mid-sixties and there is one story so poignant [and I don't want to say to much] that I can't stop thinking about it and all the people involved.
How did you find working with Davina - were there lighter moments as well as the emotional ones?
She is so great. Brilliant with people. We had tears - of course given the subject matter but we also some fantastic laughs. She is so famous that sometimes as we went round Britain small crowds gathered in adoration. I pretended they were there for me! One time she was being besieged by autograph hunters and she asked someone, ‘Would you like Nicky Campbell's too?’ Then came the reply: ‘Who’s he?’ It's a fair question! The thing is,
we both felt privileged to be "working" on days of such overwhelming happiness for people and sharing it with people we had become very close to.
Was there a story that really surprised you?
I suppose if I think about it the changing attitudes to adoption never cease to amaze me. The fact that children - siblings - could actually be separated and one taken off to the other side of the world and for the rest of their lives they dream of being reunited. It didn't surprise me so much as made me realise how much better things are now and what a scandal it often was back then and we are not actually talking about that long ago.
How would you sum up the programme, and why should people watch it?
Love. Life. Families. Belonging. Hope. Searching. Yearning. Dreams. Redemption. Happiness. Finding Closure. It is about the best spec for a TV series I can think of. It was a total privilege to make and I hope that comes through. It is a show about "love". You can't beat that.
Davina McCall
What did you see as your role in relation to the people being reunited on the programme?
I am the bringer of news. When I meet people they are desperate for news...any news and that is what I am there to give them. Then I am with them on the day of their reunion. This is always a very special day, and it’s a real honour to be part of it.
The individual stories are very moving - were you ever overwhelmed by the raw emotions being expressed by the families involved?
There have been times when I have felt like crying, it’s hugely emotional. However I try my very best not to. It's not about me, this is a very big moment in their lives and I have to hold it together.
Are there any stories in particular that have stayed with you?
Every story we have done has stayed with me, they all have all touched Nicky and I in someway.
How did you find working with Nicky - were there lighter moments as well as the emotional ones?
Nicky is a lovely, lovely man. I didn't know him before and was always a bit scared of him! But he is fantastic. He's so perfect for this show, and has great empathy with the stories. We often find each other at the reunions hiding behind bushes watching our respective friends find their loved ones and there we are, crouching down...crying with joy...
Was there a story that really surprised you?
We had a set of twins that had been separated at birth that lived three miles form each other!
How would you sum up the programme, and why should people watch it.
This programme will make you feel good. Fact!!!!