No one will understand what being a foundling is like, unless you are a foundling
PREPARE FOR TEARS AS LONG LOST FAMILY RETURNS WITH A SERIES SPECIAL. MARION McMULLEN FINDS OUT HOW DAVINA McCALL DEALS WITH THE EMOTIONAL OVERLOAD OF PEOPLE WHO WERE ABANDONED AS BABIES
BORN Without Trace is the Bafta Award-winning spin-off series of Long Lost Family that helps foundlings find answers.
People abandoned as babies can find it impossible to find any information about their background, but for more than four years the team behind Long Lost Family has combined genetic genealogy with DNA testing technology to try to help more than 30 foundlings unlock the secrets of their past.
Hosted by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, the first episode unveils Andy Hallsworth’s story after he was left on church steps over 50 years ago. He knows almost nothing about the circumstances of his birth.
All Andy has to verify that he’s a foundling is a single piece of adoption paperwork saying he was born ‘on or about’ August 31, 1965.
“I haven’t got anything of my origins. I don’t even know if the 31st [of ] August is my birthday. Who found me, nothing,” he shares.
Here Davina, 54, reveals what it’s like to give people the details of their hidden backgrounds.
Born Without Trace deals with people abandoned as babies with no birth record or name. How do you deal with cases like this?
I approach Born Without Trace completely differently to the way that I approach Long Lost Family because the people that come on this programme wanting to get any kind of information, have literally grown up knowing nothing at all.
Having been left as babies, often with no real knowledge or certainty of what day they were born on, they have none or very little knowledge of their birth parents.
How difficult has it been for them growing up?
There are lots of things that can make you feel insecure or wobbly in life but actually to grow up not knowing anything about where you come from or your roots or your family or who you look like, is very unsettling.
Lots of the people we meet on Born Without Trace have had wonderful upbringings with wonderful families, and have had lovely parents, but there is an itch that you just can’t scratch, that kind of yearning to know.
Where do you begin with so little information to start with?
The amazing thing is, what makes it so unbelievably unique, is that up until this point, they grew up knowing that they had no hope of ever finding out. Fifteen or 20 years ago there was a certainty they would never find out where they came from unless someone came forward following a newspaper appeal.
But the incredible technology of DNA came along and the work of amazing women like specialist Ariel Bruce and her team, and with that comes hope and the possibility of answers.
And the other thing that differs is that often on the main series, people just want to find a parent, but with foundlings, it’s very different.
How important is it for them to find out anything of their background?
Just knowing what day you were born or finding out what your parents’ names were, that’s sometimes just enough. Any detail, any answer at all, is enormous.
For some foundlings, we’ve found full siblings who have gone on to become amazingly close. For some we have found fathers. For some we’ve found out why they were left and these are huge, huge results and answers for people who never thought they would get anything.
Is it difficult bringing contributors information about their search?
When I go to see them to give them information, it’s much, much more slowly because they’ve never heard anything.
I may say something like, “I have news,” and then I won’t speak for three minutes because even the possibility of news is so big that it takes ages for it to filter through and process. And then I just wait for them to ask me a question.
It’s something I have found very hard but I have to let people feel all the feelings that they feel and not try and make them happy or make it feel better.
What was memorable this series?
With Niki, whose story is in the third episode, she had to deal with something big and I know it has really been hard to find out that her parents had other children together but left her.
And when I spoke to Niki, I couldn’t take that pain away.
So if she was angry, it was alright for her to be angry. That was a justified response and I mustn’t try and take that away.
The temptation to try and make it better and say, “But look isn’t this brilliant you’ve got four siblings?’” is so huge, but it’s not what I should be doing.
Were there any other stories this series that have stayed with you?
I think with this series it was incredible that more than once, we found full siblings. For example, with Natasha in episode one, we found her full sister, who was astonishingly also a foundling.
And I know this sounds a weird thing to say, but the fact that they are both foundlings is such a gift to them both because no one will understand what being a foundling is like unless you are a foundling.
To grow up not knowing anything about where you come from or your roots or your family or who you look like, is very unsettling Davina on those taking part in the new Born Without Trace series
The series features extraordinary stories. What do you think makes it so special?
It is an extraordinary situation that only other people who have gone through it can fully empathise with because it’s so unique.
We had that with Helen and David in a previous series too. It was an unforgettable story and then they found a third sibling in Ireland, which was incredible as well.
But David and Helen are so close now because it’s a shared experience but also fulfils that yearning to find someone like you.
You don’t get better than that in terms of a connection.
Even though they’ve been through so much, it really is a huge gift and that’s part of what makes this series so very special. ■ Long Lost Family – Born Without Trace starts tomorrow at 9pm on ITV and ITV Hub