THE BEST FEELING EVER IS WHEN THERE’S A BREAKTHROUGH
IF THERE’S one TV show which deserves the description “tearjerker”, it’s Long Lost Family.
When the one-minute trailer for the eighth series was released, presenter Nicky Campbell was flooded with tweets from people saying it had them blubbing.
And the poignancy of the series, which aims to reunite family members after years of separation, has never worn off for the 57-year-old Scot, who was himself adopted as a baby.
“How can you get blasé about Long Lost Family?” asks the TV and radio personality, also known for fronting the likes of Watchdog, Wheel Of Fortune, and his breakfast show on 5 Live.
“It’s not like a job – I’m incredibly privileged to do it, and you have to constantly pinch yourself that this is something that people are paying you to do. It’s a life experience.”
Nicky, and co-presenter Davina McCall, meet people from all over the country who tell their story about a lost relative. Often they have limited information about the person they’re looking for – their own search has reached a dead end and they’re desperate for help.
Indeed, there were “some really tough searches this time around”, says Nicky. “And the best feeling ever is when there’s a breakthrough.”
In the first episode, he travels to Colombia for 27-year-old dance teacher Christina (one of the show’s youngest-ever searchers). She was adopted by a British couple after her birth parents, who were living in a slum, made the heartbreaking decision they were too poor to raise her. For Nicky, who has four daughters, the experience of meeting Christina’s mum and dad was unforgettable. “I had a translator, but I could just tell there were all these emotions swirling about like a thunderstorm of hopes and fears and regrets and wonderful dreams about the future. “It was one of the most moving experiences of my life.” He wasn’t there when Christina was reunited with her parents, but has since watched it alongside his wife Tina and calls it one of the most “incredible bits of television I have ever seen”.
Nicky was 29 when he began searching for his birth mum through a private detective.
Of what spurs on the decision (to search for a missing relative), he reasons: “It does come with age, and sometimes with big life events, having kids or a relationship ending. You get a jolt and think, ‘What really matters?”’
Stella was 37 when she gave birth to Nicky – she had fled to Edinburgh from Ireland because of the shame associated with being pregnant and unmarried.
“The day I met my birth mother, I don’t think I’ve ever been more terrified,” he admits.
“You’re not quite sure where it’s going to lead and who she’s going to be... Just seeing her face and meeting her and talking to her, it’s a surreal situation.
“If I had the kind of support that Long Lost Family provides for people – it’s a brilliantly, wonderfully, properly ethical programme – it would have been much easier.”
The huge admiration Nicky – who also hosts BBC ethics show The Big Questions – has for Long Lost Family is even more obvious when meeting him in person.
He’s thoughtful and animated with every answer he gives.
“We’ve got a real relationship with each other, because I’ve been through their journey with them,” he continues avidly. “We keep in touch, by email and text, over the years, which is lovely, but more important things come around the mountain.”
His kids think his work is cool, too: “What they like about Long Lost Family is their friends know it, and their friends’ parents like it as well.”
“It resonates with everyone,” he enthuses. “So yeah, watching it with your granny, that’s a good experience!
“Watching it with people is good, isn’t it? One of my daughters was watching last series. She was, 17, and she said, ‘I love it when you see old people happy’.”
And that sums up why we will be tuning into the new series.
Long Lost Family returns to ITV on Tuesday at 9.30pm.