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7 Episodes 2023 - 2023
Episode 1
Paul Connolly had a brutal childhood after being put out with the rubbish as a baby in East London and raised in care. Having built his sense of identity from scraps of information, Paul was nonetheless shocked by what a DNA test revealed about his father and hopes that he can find someone who shares his paternal DNA - however, there are some uncanny coincidences in store. Shaun Lawrence had a happy adoption with wonderful parents but was always curious about his birth parents - when he began looking into his adoption, he made a remarkable discovery: that his birth parents got married a year after he was born and went on to have two more children. Desperate to understand why he was given up, Shaun has an extraordinary request - to find his entire family.
Episode 2
The story of a woman who, having lost two precious members of her adoptive family in a single year, is desperate to find her birth family. Plus, a birth mother's search for the son she gave up against her will as a teenager in the 1960s. Sara Hathaway had an idyllic childhood with her adoptive parents and siblings - the family remained close as Sara grew older and had a family of her own until, tragically, her mother and older brother both died in a single year. Sad that her family has become 'smaller and smaller', Sara turns to Long Lost Family to find her birth family - what Sara learns out about her birth mother's life shocks her, but she also discovers that her family is bigger than she ever knew. Diane Kerridge had a child nearly 60 years ago when she was just a teenager - powerless to keep her son in the face of her own mother's shame, she has been desperate to find him ever since, and so we take on Diane's search in a bid to bring closure.
Episode 3
A woman's quest to find her son and cope with the guilt that she has felt ever since she made the decision to give him up for adoption, and a search on behalf of a man who discovered that his late mother had led a complicated life before meeting his father - and that he wasn't her only child. More than 40 years ago, Caroline Kinsey was pregnant, alone, and unable to provide the kind of family and upbringing she believed all children deserved - burdened by her heart-breaking decision to give her son up for adoption, Caroline longs to find him, to hear that he did have a happy childhood, and to know whether he can forgive her after all these years or not. Raised as an only child, Paul McFarlane's beloved mother died when he was nine - years later, though, saw a single piece of paper throw all his assumptions about his small family into question as his mother had a mysterious past - and he learnt that he wasn't her only child after all.
Episode 4
Two women looking for siblings but for very different reasons. Jeanette Woodyatt's father told her that he had a son who was adopted when he was young. Jeanette's father didn't want to disturb his son's life, but he always said that he would welcome his son if he came looking. When Jeanette's father died, she found out that her brother did come looking and that her grandmother turned him away - Jeanette has been trying to find her brother ever since so she can make sure he knows that he is wanted and welcome in the family. Karen Turnbull was shocked to learn from a relative on the day of her mother's funeral that she had half-siblings, twins who were born to her mother when Karen was a young child. As the family's domestic situation was precarious at that time, Karen's mother made the painful decision that the twins would have a better life if she gave them up for adoption - now Karen wants to find them to let them know why.
Episode 5
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. Rachel Burch grew up in a white family and stood out in the small West Sussex village where they lived - she needs help finding her Jamaican-born birth father, but she's also yearning to find any family member whose lived experience has been like her own. Sue Davis' mum had a baby boy from a relationship with an American soldier that she met working in a wartime canteen in Winchester - afraid of rejection, she asked Sue not to look for her son until after her death. Now, years on from this request, Sue duly takes up the search on behalf of her late mother.
Episode 6
Two men are searching for birth family - one was adopted as a baby in Bermuda and had a loving upbringing in the UK but still wants to find the other family he belongs to, while the other wants to fulfil his mother's dying wish that he find his sister, the baby she gave up for adoption more than 50 years ago. 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 - his siblings are hugely supportive but cannot share his experience of being the only Black child in their community. Now he has children of his own, Joe enlists the help of Long Lost Family to find other people who share his DNA. Simon Miller's mum's dying wish was that he find her middle child, a baby daughter called Bronwen that she gave up for adoption just a few years before Simon was born. Simon hopes he can find his sister and help her understand why, of three siblings, only she was given up.
Episode 7
In this special, the stories of two men 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. Arthur Fitzharris was born in Ireland in 1947 and had a happy childhood raised by adoptive parents - after they passed away, 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 was born in Ireland in 1953 - it wasn't until he was 40 that he heard it rumoured that he was adopted and, confronting his mother, she confirmed it was so. This bombshell was closely followed by another - his adoptive parents were falsely named as his biological parents on his birth certificate and no other records seemed available to him - so Bernard began a decade-long search for the truth.