The ITV show is set to return with more emotional stories
Long Lost Family is returning to screens for a jam-packed 15th series. Presented by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, the popular ITV programme sees people trying to find their lost relatives after years apart.
As part of the upcoming series, Davina and Nicky meet with individuals up and down the country with the hopes of finding one of their family members. The first episode is set to tell the heartbreaking story of 58-year-old Peter from Lancashire.
Peter is a painter and decorator who grew up in care. But later in life, he learned the shocking truth that he was taken from his mum’s arms as a baby.
In his early years, Peter’s mum left his dad. She went to the train station with him and his older brother. As the train was about to depart, his dad unexpectedly turned up on the platform, reached inside the train carriage and snatched baby Peter from his mum’s arms. The train then pulled away and Peter never saw his mum and brother Trevor again.
The Long Lost Family team did everything they could to help Peter find his long-lost sibling, Trevor. Peter has looked for him ever since he learned of his existence.
When Long Lost Family took on the case, they discovered that Trevor’s middle name is Edward, so to track him down they wrote to every Trevor with the middle initial E of the right age.
Eventually, one man replies, confirming that he grew up knowing about a younger brother called Peter. Nicky meets Trevor in London, where Trevor and his mum fled to all those years ago.
Trevor tells Nicky that their mum died in 2008. He reveals that “When she got very ill, she started to talk a lot more, open up a lot more; she did say to me: ‘Find him, Look for him.’”
Trevor cannot wait to meet Peter. He shares with Nicky “I’m doing this for him, and for myself and for mum, yeah. I think she’d be proud of me doing that. Can’t wait. I really can’t wait now.”
But that is just one of the emotional stories set to take to our screens over the coming weeks. The first episode also follows the story 56-year-old Lee Sharp lives, who in Eastbourne and runs a retro clothing store.
Growing up, his parents told him that he was a foundling, left by a young Irish girl in a block of flats in London. Foundlings are usually left with no identifying paperwork, however Long Lost Family’s lead social worker Ariel Bruce soon discovers that Lee in fact had a conventional adoption.
For the first time ever, he can see his original birth certificate, which lists his birth mum as a married woman living in London. Lee travels to where he spent the first few days of his life and was completely taken aback.
He said: “Absolutely mind blown. Now I know where I lived. My birth mum, I hope she’s alive. Any siblings, any answers, anything would be great.”
The Long Lost Family team begins to search for Lee’s birth mum but can’t trace her. However, what they do discover is even more mysterious.
Long Lost Family returns tonight at 9pm on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STVPlayer
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