Family bonds:

Local series Lost And Found returns for another season of reunions, heartbreak and surprises. Its presenter David Lomas tells Sarah Nealon what’s in store this season and why the show strikes a chord with so many viewers.

Presenter David Lomas talks about reuniting families on Lost And Found.

Some shows tug at the heartstrings and then there is Lost And Found. It doesn’t so much as tug at the heartstrings as it does aggressively pull on them. Lost And Found, which is now in its fourth season, reunites estranged family members and connects people with family they have never met. The local documentary series is a winning formula and, anecdotally, some viewers (myself included) have yet to make it through an episode without crying. “The main moments you see are genuine main moments,” says investigative journalist and the show’s presenter David Lomas. “Like the first time someone sees their father or mother or the person hears their father or mother or son or daughter is alive. “Those moments are 100 per cent honest. The thing about the show is it is quintessential New Zealand. “Whenever I meet people they say things like, ‘My cousin was adopted’ or ‘My wife’s aunt was adopted’ or ‘I was raised by my stepfather’ or ‘I haven’t seen my father since I was young’. “Just so many people can connect with it. There aren’t that many programmes on New Zealand television now which are about real New Zealanders. “You’ve got The Block, Dancing With The Stars, all those big reality shows. They might be real New Zealanders, but they’re not in real-life situations but constructed reality.” One thing to note about Lost And Found is its lack of moral judgment on people whose backgrounds could at best be described as ‘sketchy’. “A lot of people we deal with have troubled lives,” says Lomas. “It’s not up to us judge. This is about family being reconnected. “A dad who was once a drunk and an abusive man when he was younger is, 20 or 30 years later, not that same person.

“It’s very important that we’re not judging that person and deciding whether they are worthy of meeting their son. But I would draw the line on certain things like if I thought the person was a paedophile or something like that.

“As long as it is within the bounds of reason and the person has had an opportunity to have changed, we certainly don’t judge them.”

This season the show is, as always, filmed in New Zealand as well as overseas destinations. There is footage from England, Austria, the Netherlands, Romania and Australia as Lomas seeks to track down family members. Cases include a daughter looking for her “runaway father”, a son looking for his birth mother and a sister looking for her brother who was, as Lomas says, “banished from the family”.

There is also a woman whose father died when she was a child who is trying to find her father’s birth family.

“The difficulty there is that her father was adopted,” says Lomas.

So how do Lost And Found’s makers decide which cases to follow?

“We get a lot of requests,” explains Lomas, “and sadly a lot of them are impossible to follow.

“People either don’t have enough information ... And we have to always look for a bit of variety. We can’t have a daughter looking for a father in every story.

“We’re always trying to get an age, a cultural, ethnic sort of balance. There is a lot of juggling to make sure the programme covers a fairly wide range of people and experiences.”

For Lomas, the show is fulfilling and frustrating.

“I’ve been in journalism for 50-odd years and I’ve always liked doing stories about people rather than business or departmental-type reporting,” he says.

“This is an extension of what I’ve always done. For me it’s really satisfying. It’s like doing a crossword every day and trying to find an answer and the answer is a very rewarding one.

“It can be immensely frustrating when you find someone and they won’t meet or deal with their child.

“Every now and again, we strike the family do-gooder. They take it upon themselves to be the gatekeeper and won’t let you get through.

“You ring up someone’s brother whose daughter is looking for them and the guy says, ‘Oh, he doesn’t want to know’.

“But it’s the brother’s choice. We all know that in journalism.”

When asked about one of the hardest aspects of working on the show, Lomas says it is tracking down New Zealanders in Australia.

“If they don’t own a house (there), and most New Zealanders don’t, and if they don’t have a land line and they aren’t connected to or own a business, they are virtually unfindable so we really struggle these days to find some New Zealanders in Australia which is a terrible shame because so many New Zealanders are in Australia.”

“A lot of people we deal with have troubled lives. It’s not up to us judge.”

– David Lomas