Take a reality check before you see the state of the reunion

Sometimes the dramatic stories on ITV’S Long

Lost Family are so like something out of a soap it can be easy to forget we are dealing with real lives here.

Which is maybe why, to my shame, I occasionally find myself wishing people taking part were not told bad news “away from our cameras”. It might also explain the tingle of anticipation I feel during the What Happened Next shows, when Davina Mccall asks: “But has the reunion been everything they hoped for?”

Luckily, when it comes to drawing a line between voyeurism and common decency the producers have much higher standards than I do.

Besides, there is more than enough drama and intrigue in this programme as it is. It has no need to dip its toe in the Jeremy Kyle end of the market. That was certainly true of all three stories revisited in last night’s opener. Not least the tale of Maureen and her older brother Michael, whose lives were torn apart almost 40 years ago when Michael was kicked out of the family home in Teesside for being gay. When their reunion was first broadcast six years ago I remember thinking how incredible it was that Michael’s reaction was “forget the past, let’s think about the future”. So it was great to hear that they have rebuilt their relationship, with Maureen even asking Michael to give her away at her second marriage. We can assume Michael has forgiven her for saying, “Ooh, he’s put on a lotta weight” when Davina first showed her a picture of him in 2012.