Long Lost Family

[Jamon]

Does anyone else watch this?

I cry all the way through it , every week

The brothers this week made me cry. They were so sweet.

Yep love it, I cry every time!

Loved the story of those two bubbly sisters, the fact the mum had been so desperate to meet her oldest daughter and had openly spoken about her so much, writing her birthdays in her diary. It genuinely seemed like the sisters would go on to have a great friendship which was lovely. With others you're not quite sure how it's going to pan out.

The saddest episode for me was in a previous series when a sister and brother separately contacted the show looking for their mum, they were reunited but mum was found in Singapore and didn't want to know them. Couldn't believe that.

God it's an awful programme Davina and Nikki peering at these participants whilst leaving huge dramatic pauses. The way it uses terms like mother and son and daughter so easily when the reality is so many of the participants will go on to have difficult later relationships. Think research usually shows it to be about the rule of thirds shared between clock ups, complications and positive outcomes.

And how do I know I think this - I watch it of course. Adoption runs through our family in a few different ways and a few different generations. It's a complicated business, this programme likes its narrative simple.

You make a good point stigina- I do often wonder what happens when the cameras leave. Occasionally they do a follow up and some of them no longer have contact.

I'm a sucker for pain, I watch old episodes back to back and they all break me!!

Yeah i think a lot probably won't work out.... the one that got me was the sibling one where a little girl of 8 maybe had her brother taken away and he died in America in a boating accident. She had missed him her whole life but connected to his other adopted brother - that was saaaad

I felt for the brother who kept crying last night. It's sad when the parent they've dreamed of meeting has died.
One that stood out for me in a previous series was the little girl who lived in a tenement with her grandma while the mum went out to work. The grandma couldn't cope so she was fostered or adopted when she was 2. The foster parents then died and she ended up in a children's home. The birth mother was devastated as she would have taken her back if she'd known.

Yup that was pretty awful

I do enjoy this programme and think its approach is very sensitive and considered. I like Nicky and Davina, they both have come from difficult family backgrounds so they can and do empathise. Most of the stories I find very moving but occasionally there's a reunion that just doesn't feel right or comfortable. I'm sure the first meetings are so emotional and dramatic but don't doubt many struggle to find peace with their new family relationship(s).

I'm a sucker for this show. I'm sure there are lots of stories they never show though. And I'm sure this series does a lot more glossing over. I'm sure in the past there were more typical stories of kids growing up in care and having a terrible time.

I can't not watch, after the story a few years back of the Irish girl and the US marine where he got airlifted out against his will on the way to church to marry her. Then wrote to her dad to say he was coming back to marry her and the dad wrote back saying she'd married someone else. Seemed to much like a story to not be true.

I know I'll be getting a knock on the door one day from a family who don't know we exist. Not sure I'll answer. And definitely not on tv (the lovely Nicky could come for a cup of tea while I explain though)

It's hard to watch. It must take so must research to come up with the connections, but we never seem to see that bit. The programme makers seem to go in for the high drama and I particularly dislike the way the cameras are focussed on the participants' faces as the news is broken.

I often wonder what happens away from the cameras.

I also wonder how the adoptive parents/siblings feel about it all.

A bit sugar-coated for my taste, but, Yes, I'd have Nicky Campbell in for a cuppa any day!

There's a similar programme on BBC that's better-less mawkish and less dramatic, but in a similar vein.

Has anyone discovered the American version. I stumbled across it on one of the free sat channels. It has a similar format to the UK one, although I think is sponsored by Ancestry.com as they're mentioned a lot.

The one I've just watched was quite sad. The lady found out when her dad was on his death bed that her mum wan't her bio mum, after a comment from someone else. They took in a pregnant lass, with the Non- bio mum pretending it was her. The daughter was never meant to find out the truth. The bio mum was overjoyed to see her daughter, but revealed that dad was not bio dad. The daughter said then said that she loved her dad even more for supporting her and looking after her.

What channel is that, petal flowers?

Did you see the very sad news about one of the men featured on the show recently having died? It was just on in the uk a couple of weeks ago - the man who was looking for his birth mum, but sadly she had died, but he did find his half-brother and they both lived near each other in Blackpool. Very very sad.

Us show was on Questred

Thanks, but never heard if it!!

Tried to find last night's episode on I Player but it's not been added. I can't watch without crying as DD is adopted so allsorts of emotions are stirred up

Gosh Kinraddie that's so sad, I've just googled and read about it.

I adore this show, it's completely life changing for these people and I think Nicky and Davina do it sensitivity. To have all the researchers and skills to help people who have had no luck searching for years on their own in itself is nice. I'd also like to see more about the searching.

From a psychological perspective it's heartbreaking how much either giving up a child or being adopted eats away at them all their lives. Now I've had children I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have someone come in and take your baby away.

I guess soon there will be less of these stories with the stigma of being unmarried not what it was, no mother and baby homes and people staying in touch with social media etc.

Anyone watching this evening?

I am!!!

Yes. Why didn't lauras dad write??

Me too. Heartbreaking for Linda loosing her mum and sisters, and the sisters seem to have had a hard time too.

It does seem he could have made a bit more effect to stay in touch.

He has 12 other children. Good grief.