A double feature
PICK OF THE DAY LONG LOST FAMILY TWINS: WHAT HAPPENED NEXT ITV, 9pm
DOING exactly what it says on the tin, this is a Long Lost Family special, focusing on those remarkable cases of twins who were raised apart.
Jennifer and Kathleen were the first twins featured on the show in the first episode, separated as babies and then reunited six decades later.
Now celebrating their 76th birthday, presenters Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell catch up with them to find out how their lives have changed since being brought back together.
Fellow twins Mary and Elaine were born at the end of World War II and raised in the same neighbourhood but forbidden from seeing each other, only finding each other by sheer fluke when they were in their thirties.
They went on to take part in a ground-breaking study of reared-apart twins, shown through some remarkable archive footage, designed to help explore the issue of nature versus nurture and discover if there are inherent similarities that exist despite the children’s different upbringings.
Then there are American youngsters Audrey and Gracie, both given up for adoption at birth and reunited two years ago when their adoptive parents found out by chance that their daughters were twins. The families are desperate for the girls to know each other and have contact, but it’s not easy when they live thousands of miles apart in different states.
Nicky also meets Professor Tim Spector who created bespoke tests for Audrey and Gracie, to help research whether it’s our genetics or our environment that makes us who we are.