Long Lost Family is back for 2021 with a brand new series.
Presenters Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell reunite more family members with their missing loved ones in five new episodes.
With help from a team of trained intermediaries, DNA experts and investigators, Nicky and Davina find people that previously couldn’t be traced and answer questions that have haunted entire lives. And, at a time of international crisis which has seen many people experience separation from loved ones, these reunions have more poignancy than ever.
Episodes will air Mondays at 9PM on ITV from 5 July 2021. You’ll also be able to watch online and catch up via ITV Hub.
The series has 10 new episodes.
Long Lost Family episodes 2021
Episode 1 – 5 July
The series starts with two stories of children searching for their birth mothers after life-changing events.
The first story follows 46-year-old Dominic Matteo whose world was turned upside down in 2019 when he was diagnosed with a rare, cancerous brain tumour. It was during this time that he realised how precious life was. After a miraculous recovery, and with the help of his wife Jess, Dominic is on a mission to find his birth mother, who put him up for adoption 46 years ago.
The second search is on behalf of Lisa Phillips who has decided the time is right to search for her birth mother. She’s had unanswered questions ever since she was told she was adopted at the age of seven, but it was on her wedding day in 1992 that it really hit home that there was one person absent.
Episode 2 – 12 July
This week features two stories of people trying to uncover family mysteries.
The first story starts in Derbyshire, and a man hoping to find out why he was abandoned as a baby. 57-year-old John Hacking works in a limestone quarry. He has a daughter and granddaughter, and lives with his partner Helen, who is also adopted and recently found her own birth mother.
The second story comes from the North East of England, and a daughter looking for the Italian father she’s never met. 53-year-old Debra Spark’s father, Ernesto, was Italian, living in Milan in the 1960s, when he met Debra’s mother Olive, who was working there as a nanny. When Olive became pregnant, she suffered medical complications that meant she had to return to England to spend time in hospital. Olive felt she had been forced apart from Ernesto and remembers being devastated…
Episode 3 – 19 July
This week two women trying to find missing parents after half a century apart.
When Ann Melbourne found her birth mother over a decade ago, she learned that she was a secret and a relationship did not develop. But this hasn’t stopped Ann wanting to find her birth father, Leslie, who she has limited information about in her adoption paperwork. Her search for him results in an unexpected discovery…
Meanwhile, professional dancer Amanda Village is on the trail of her mother, Susan. As a teenager in the 1960s, Susan lived at an army base in Wales with her family, where she became pregnant to a young army recruit. Deemed too young to look after the baby, Susan gave Amanda up for adoption.
Episode 4 – 26 July
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.
Meanwhile, Lisa Harding grew up in the north east of England with her single mother Moyra. 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.
Episode 5 – 2 August
Episode Five features an extraordinary search that takes twists and turns and unveils one missing relative after another.
53-year-old Kate Brown lives in Portsmouth with her husband Ray and her 8-year-old son Alexander. When Kate was just 5 days old, her birth mother left. She suffered from a severe form of epilepsy and was unable to look after her daughter, so Kate was fostered by the Barter family.
But there was someone that Kate felt a connection with… her foster brother, John. Despite years of searching for John, Kate was unable to find out what happened to him. Her search turned to her own past and, just two years ago when she saw her adoption file, Kate discovered she had a biological sister…
Episode 6 – 9 August
Episode 6 features two heart-breaking stories of separation; a man whose only memento of his birth family is an old newspaper article which describes them being evicted from their home and living in a squat; and a mother searching for her only child, who she hasn’t seen since he was 10 days old. Both turn to Long Lost Family for help …
Forty-six-year-old LeonLeon was adopted as a baby and, though he was fond of his adoptive mother and siblings, he had a very difficult childhood. What became of Leon’s birth family is a mystery he is now determined to solve, turning to Long Lost Family for help.
The second searcher found her safe and carefree childhood shattered when she fell pregnant aged 14 by an older man who then disappeared. She was sent away to a mother and baby home before her child was given up for adoption.
Episode 7 – 16 August
In Episode 7, we meet Steve Austin and Moira Tonge who are brother and sister but only found each other as adults. Steve was adopted as a baby and when he traced his birth mother, nearly 30 years ago, he also found his sister Moira. Since meeting, they have become very close but shockingly at their mother’s funeral another secret came to light… they have an older sister, Caroline, who they are now desperate to bring into the fold.
Lisa Irvine also only found out about her brother Nicholas as an adult, when she read her adoption paperwork. Knowing that he initially stayed with their mother when she was given up for adoption, she wants to know what happened to them and to find the sense of belonging that she’s always craved.
Episode 8 – 23 August
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. Her ‘real’ father was a teenage boyfriend of her mum’s who’d wanted to be part of his daughter’s life at the beginning but had then disappeared and not made contact for nearly 40 years.
Jonathan Gaskarth was adopted at six weeks old and had such a happy adoption that he’d never felt the need to search for his birth mother or father. Then five years ago his own family unit split up following the breakdown of his marriage and he was struck by what his birth parents must have been through losing him. Ever since he’s been determined to find them.
Episode 9 – 31 August
This week’s episode takes us on a quest across the Atlantic on behalf of our eldest ever searcher. With his 87th birthday approaching, Roy David believes this is his last chance to find his daughter. But his search has a far bigger impact than he could ever have foreseen.
Retired merchant seamen Roy David was born in what was then British Guiana and he met his first wife Sylvia in New York while working there. They had a daughter, Cheryl, but there were tensions within the family, leading to him separating from his wife and eventually losing touch. He hasn’t seen his daughter for nearly 60 years, since she was a little girl.
Episode 10 – 14 September
Over the past four years, 30 foundlings abandoned as babies have contacted the Long Lost Family team to help unlock the secrets of their pasts. Incredibly, through DNA testing and detective work, many of them have found answers and their identities have been discovered. But it’s not always the end of the story.
In this special episode of the BAFTA-winning series Long Lost Family Born Without Trace the search continues to unfold for two foundlings left either side of the Irish border, as more shocking secrets are uncovered and suspicions are confirmed at last.
Picture: ITV
More on: ITVLong Lost Family
