Join or Sign In
Sign in to customize your TV listings
By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.
9 Episodes 2024 - 2025
Episode 1
60 mins
Ros Webb was 16 years old when she discovered that she was pregnant and her strict parents made her travel 100 miles to London to hide her pregnancy and then give up her child for adoption. Her daughter Christine was the only child Ros ever had and she is desperate to reunite with her after 59 years. Long Lost Family also search on behalf of Tegan Cornish, who had a difficult adoption. Tegan began to look for her birth family as an adult - when she ordered up her birth records, she was shocked to discover that she had a younger brother, and even more surprised to discover that her brother was originally meant to be adopted with her but for some reason was separated from her and sent back into care.
Episode 2
46 mins
Paula Beer was 17 years old when she had her son and was so terrified of her strict parents' reaction that she didn't tell them. It was only when she went to visit her aunt in Essex that the truth was revealed - Paula loved her son but had to make the heartbreaking decision to give him up for adoption and still tearfully remembers the day she told him 'to remember my voice, I will always love you'. Sharon Thomas only learned that she had a younger brother when she was in her twenties - her parents said they couldn't support another child and her teenage mother Margaret made the devastating decision to give him up for adoption. Margaret died just ten months later from leukaemia, and Sharon is now desperate to find her brother for her and for her late mother.
Episode 3
47 mins
Sue Stalley was a teenager when she became pregnant by her first boyfriend - her mother was deeply ashamed and forced her to wear a coat to conceal the pregnancy even in the height of summer. Sue's mother would not allow her to keep the child and Sue tearfully gave him up for adoption, but she has never forgotten her eldest son and still berates herself that she could have tried harder to keep him. Melanie Mackney had a good adoption but learnt from her paperwork that her mother had twins before her - Melanie discovers that her mother fled war-torn Yugoslavia before ending up in Australia and finally coming to England where she lived on the streets. The mystery of what happened to the twins that her mother also gave up for adoption has haunted Melanie her entire life.
Episode 4
60 mins
Following two women searching for siblings - the first has been hoping to find her brother ever since learning of the enormous burden of grief her mother carried after giving him up. Tracey Boyle had children of her own before she learned of her brother's existence - after a stay in hospital following a breakdown, her mother finally confided in Tracey the enormous weight of grief she carried ever since her first-born son was prised from her hands at the age of 16 and placed for adoption. Tracey is determined to find him and let him know he was wanted. The second woman had a strange sense she had a sister out there during her own adoption finally gets confirmation of her intuition. Liz Allward was adopted as a baby, but she always had an uncanny feeling that she had a biological sister somewhere and has longed to meet her from the moment she found out she was right.
Episode 5
A 66-year-old mum looks for the baby she gave up as a teenager in a search given greater urgency by her cancer diagnosis. A mother for the first time when she was a Blackpool teenager, Charlotte has always yearned for the baby she had to give up for adoption - recently diagnosed and now recovering from cancer, Charlotte feels that this is her second chance and that the search for her daughter is urgent. Next, a woman who was donor-conceived seeks answers to many questions including if she has any siblings out there. Most people who approach Long Lost Family for help are looking for a specific family member - a parent who gave them up for adoption or a sibling they learnt about from their records - but Jenna's experience is completely different as she was conceived with the help of a sperm donor and so has got absolutely no idea what or who she might find.
Episode 6
A woman raised by beloved adoptive parents searches for the two full siblings she's discovered were each adopted separately on their own. Looking into her own adoption, Mary Arbuthnot was shocked to discover that that she was one of three and had two full siblings somewhere out there. Each one of them had been adopted separately as babies - convinced they should have grown up together, Mary is determined to find them. Next, a woman searches for the older sister her mum had to give up for adoption as a teenager. When teenage Maggie McCauley discovered she was pregnant in 1976, she was terrified of how her parents might react. To her surprise, her mum revealed that she too had been pregnant as a teenager and that her parents had forced her to give up her daughter - determined not to repeat the pattern, Maggie's mum offered her full support. Now 66, Maggie wants to find her older sister and bring her into the fold.
Episode 7
In this special, Long Lost Family takes on the cases of women affected by an historic scandal of babies stolen at birth in Spain. Among the thousands of recent applicants to Long Lost Family was Ruth, whose first child was born in Spain in 1992 - she told the team that she believed for 19 years that her daughter had died before suspicions came to light that her daughter may have instead been stolen at birth. At the same time, Maria Elena - a Spanish woman living in London - approached the team on behalf of her 93-year-old mother Ana as they believed that Ana's twin babies born in Madrid in 1958 may have been stolen at birth. What these women have in common is the conviction that they were victims of a scandalous practice in Spain where it is believed babies were taken from parents at birth and given or sold to other families from the beginning of the Franco dictatorship in the 1930s and continuing long after Franco's death into the early 1990s.
Episode 8
A woman sent to a mother and baby home aged 16 seeks a daughter, while two sisters are looking for their older sister.
Episode 9
Sisters Viv and Julie continue their search for their big sister, as another woman tries to find her mum's first-born child.