Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace is returning to follow more foundlings as they try to uncover the truth about their heritage.
The sixth run of the ITV1 Long Lost Family spin-off will see Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell oversee the searches once more and meet those who were abandoned as babies and the relatives they discover.
Here’s everything you need to know about Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace…
Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace release date
The three-part series airs over three consecutive evenings in the UK from Monday, June 10 to Wednesday, June 12 at 9pm on ITV1 and will also be available on ITVX.
Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace – what is it about?
As in the previous series, Davina McCall meets up with a range of people who were left as babies and who are eager to learn about the circumstances and also track down any birth relatives.
With a lack of records, getting answers is tough and DNA testing and genealogical research is carried out by Ariel Bruce, Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace’s Head of Research and Social Work Consultant and her team to see if any matches can be uncovered.
Davina and Nicky Campbell then share findings with the foundling and speak to any family that has been traced, before the relations are brought together for a reunion.
Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace – episode guide
Episode One - Monday 10 June, 9pm, ITV1
Dad-of-five Thomas Yeo was abandoned at just a few weeks old in Reading Station in 1965 and remarkably, when his cousin Martina Evenden is located, she reveals that she too is a foundling and was left on church steps in Dublin as a newborn in 1967. But both are stunned to meet half-siblings and learn about their respective birth parents.
Episode Two - Tuesday 11 June, 9pm, ITV1
Rachel McArthur was found as a baby in the car park of Euston Station in 1969 and the search for her birth mother leads the team across Canada and Australia. Meanwhile, Stephen Reed was initially raised by an unlicensed foster mother and is desperate to uncover the truth about his origins.
Episode Three - Wednesday 12 June, 9pm, ITV1
Susanne Barrow was discovered in a phone box in East London with a note from her desperate birth mother and, after years of research, extraordinary information comes to light. Elsewhere, Liz Deutsch, who was placed under a hedge in Birmingham in 1965, receives amazing news that helps her piece together her identity.
Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace – interview with Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell
What makes Born Without Trace such a special series?
Davina McCall: “Not knowing about your beginnings or why you were left is something only other foundlings can understand. But there are enormous discoveries made that can change your life forever. To meet someone you’re related to is the most extraordinary gift.”
Nicky Campbell: “Yes, these are incredible stories of people being given their identities back and they understand where they came from. If you’re a foundling, it’s not just like being adopted, your entire existence is defined by the fact that you were left. They know absolutely nothing and we want to fill that void."
The opening episode features cousins who were both foundlings. What was that like?
Davina McCall: “Often, when dealing with DNA, you test and find someone from a wider family situation that kicks up a whole other story and this was unbelievable. The first thing you feel is sadness, because what were people going through to have to do this? It was probably a lonely, scary and sad time. These heart-breaking stories are weaved into social history and the reality of how people lived, such as the absolute scandal of the way unmarried mothers were treated.”
What other cases particularly touched you?
Nicky Campbell: “Rachel [in episode two] and Thomas [in episode one] were both found in train stations. I travel all over the country and, every time I go through those stations, I imagine these babies being there all those years ago. It’s chilling but it gives me a fantastic feeling that we’ve helped them discover the identities of their families through DNA and detective work.”
Davina McCall: “One that blew my mind was Steve’s [in episode two]. Back in the day there were unethical foster parents, who were farming foster kids because they could make money from it and there was no record of Steve until he was nine months old. He’s the loveliest man and has built up self-protection because it’s just too painful. Steve’s now in his 60s, and finding information about himself for the first time is life-changing.”
Do the foundlings find it cathartic to receive any information, no matter how small?
Nicky Campbell: “Completely. To know just a tiny thing is to know a million times more than you did before. It’s about completeness and being able to get on with your life without this ache inside. There’s an element of re-birth about it.”
Davina McCall: “Yes, any extra piece of information that they can glean is enormous. But for many people in the new series, they don’t just get a little piece of information, they get a tsunami. It’s frightening, exciting, nerve-racking and overwhelming.”
You always keep a lid on your own emotions when meeting the contributors, is that tough?
Nicky Campbell: “You’ve got to keep it together and often it’s on the way home that it really hits me.”
Davina McCall: “The worst thing for me would be if a contributor had to say to me, ‘Are you OK?’ Because it is 100% not about me. I take that incredibly seriously, as does Nicky. We know how much they may have suffered and how much this means to them and we’re not going to mess it up for them.”
