Specials 2018 - 2023

Previous guests from Long Lost Family attend a very special Christmas lunch. Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell find out what it means for those sharing Christmas together for the first time and for those meeting brand new family members.

Special episode of the documentary series in which Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell help foundlings track down the people who abandoned them as babies.

Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present a special edition of the series, dedicated to the worldwide search for the remains of soldiers killed during the First World War with no known graves. The programme follows the work of an elite all-female team at the Ministry of Defence known as the `War Detectives", whose job is to locate the final resting places of 500,000 service personnel who lost their lives during the conflict.

Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the stories of people who were abandoned as babies, helping them try to find their birth families and know their identities. David McBride was left in a car as a two-week-old infant in January 1962, while Helen Ward was left in a tartan bag in a telephone box in Dundalk in 1968.

Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell help two more people who were found as babies after being abandoned to track down their birth families. Simon Jeffery was left in a box outside a railway tavern in Greenhithe, a story which hit the headlines but which he only learned about by chance at the age of 10. Fi Beazer was discovered in a public toilet in Warminster when she was only a few hours old. Both have spent their adult life trying to track down their parents, and submit DNA samples in the hope of finally getting the answers they seek.

Born without a trace, foundlings are people abandoned as babies, who have had no way of unlocking the secrets of their past. Two years ago, we brought together 20 foundlings from across the UK, united in their hope of finding birth relatives. Through DNA and detective work, our expert team have been helping them find the answers they’ve been searching for. But often these answers are not the end of the story…

It’s such an extraordinary journey for any foundling to go from being left somewhere, whether a parked car or a phone box- to finding out their identity, let alone to being united with a birth relative. In this programme, Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell catch up with three foundlings to find out how their lives have changed since they discovered the truth about their pasts and how their new relationships are developing. Remarkably new revelations come to light and there are still more relatives to meet!

Two baby girls were abandoned in Chesterfield in the late 1980s. Could they be related? Through DNA, the team make a shocking new discovery.

Time is running out for one foundling who was discovered on a luggage rack in Paddington station nearly 75 years ago, while another woman hopes DNA will solve the mystery of why she was left next to a church in Liverpool at two days old.

A woman born in a hospital but whose birth mother disappeared, never to be traced, discovers a shocking secret, while a man, left as a baby near Wolverhampton Wanderers' Stadium and named after a famous footballer, searches for his true identity.

Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell report on the scandal of thousands of unaccompanied British children sent to Australia in the middle of the 20th century. Stories include that of Dorian Thomas Reece, searches for answers about where he came from and who his family were, while Bruce Wilton reveals how his younger brothers Rex and Kevin were sent to Tasmania as late as 1970.

Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell return with more stories of people who were abandoned as babies, helping them try to find their birth families and know their identities. For a man left as a baby on church steps more than 50 years ago, there are shocking revelations when a long-held family secret is finally uncovered, while a young woman who was discovered in hospital toilets in the 1980s receives some surprising news that deepens the mystery of her beginnings

The man who became famous as 'the Ice Baby', after being found in a London phone box on the coldest night of the year, searches for answers. Meanwhile, touching revelations are in store for another man who was discovered inside public toilets in Abergavenny in 1958. Presented by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell

Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present more stories of people who were abandoned as babies, helping them try to find their birth families and know their identities. Heart-wrenching news awaits a woman discovered as a newborn baby on the steps of a tower block, while 70 years after he was left opposite an underground station, can DNA finally help one man find his roots?

Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the extraordinary story of 77-year-old Rosemary Rawlins, who has long believed that she was switched with another baby during an air raid in Weymouth during the Second World War. Her parents died early, so she was unable to ask them more about it, but a DNA test with her niece confirmed she wasn't genetically related to her family.

Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell provide an update on some of the stories of people who were abandoned as babies. Eighteen months ago, DNA revealed that foundlings Helen and David, left as newborns on either side of the Irish border, were full brother and sister - now further research shows their story of extraordinary family secrets is far from over.

Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell present the stories of two men, both of them 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. When Arthur Fitzharris's adoptive parents died 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 discovered his adoptive parents were falsely named as his biological parents on his birth certificate and no other records seemed available to him

Episode 1 features the first international Born Without Trace search that culminates in finding the paternal and material side of Chris Mason’s birth family on the other side of the world.

On 23 December 1966 baby Chris was found in a telephone box on Kennings Way, Lambeth. Having grown up with only a few unverified details about his start in life, he has always wondered what chain of events led him to be left: ‘It’s an unnatural act for a mum to give up their newborn baby… who is she and why did she end up abandoning me?’

Harvey Shackell who survived a cold Christmas night on a stranger’s doorstep.

On Boxing Day 1960 a newborn Harvey was found in a cardboard box covered in brown paper on the doorstep of a house in Hayes, Middlesex. The residents of the house, Mr. and Mrs. Wood, were seemingly unrelated to the case but did express an interest in adopting him according to coverage from the time in the Daily Herald and The Mirror. Harvey was taken to Hillingdon Hospital before being fostered and then adopted by the Shackell family.

Ruth Hale who was discovered in the back of an open-top Aston Martin sports car.

Ruth Hale began looking for birth family back in 1994 after the death of both of her adoptive parents however, sadly her search was short-lived. Devastatingly, all social services could provide was a copy of her original birth certificate that stated all information about her birth parents was unknown: ‘I had it in writing that absolutely nobody would admit to being part of me or me part of them

A police detective named Paul who finally unlocks the secrets of his own identity.

In the winter of 1964, a newborn baby, Paul Watts, was discovered on the steps of a church in North London. He came to us with limited information and did not even know the name of the church.

Caroline, who was found abandoned at Tottenham’s Prince of Wales Hospital over 50 years ago.

Caroline Harris-Gray came to us with the knowledge that she’d been abandoned on 11th July 1968 at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Tottenham, London, but had never seen any news coverage to confirm the details of her discovery: ‘As I’ve grown up, I’ve got different bits of information from different people… I’d like to know the truth.’