DAVINA MCCALL: ‘I’m always crying – I’m rubbish!’
Davina Mccall, 50, is back reuniting relatives in a new series of ITV’S hit show Long Lost Family…
Long Lost Family is into its seventh year; what does the series mean to you now? It means more because we’ve grown older. Every year that passes makes me view the stories differently. Whenever I’m with someone looking for a sister, I think about losing my own [Davina’s half-sister Caroline passed away in August 2012 after losing a battle with cancer]. What an amazing gift it would be for somebody to suddenly go, “You’ve got a sister somewhere…” Life experiences make the programme even more meaningful. It must be very emotional? I can’t get through the voiceovers. They have to keep stopping them because I can get so emotional, then I sound like I’ve been crying so I have to blow my nose and have a cup of tea. I’m just rubbish! Do you think it’s hard for people to come on the show? When people come to us it’s a last chance; they’ve tried everything else. Nobody really wants to share that raw emotional vulnerability with the nation, it’s quite a scary thing to do. They don’t want to be famous, they don’t want to win Britain’s Got Talent or be on the next X Factor, they just want to find someone they love – and being on a TV show is a sidebar to that. Often, when I tell them we have news or a photograph, they say, “I wasn’t sure about doing this but I’m so pleased I did.” How do you get back into your own headspace after filming? Filming is intense. Quite often I will have told my daughters [Holly, 16, and Tilly, 14] the stories. My son [Chester, 11] is a little bit young to get it sometimes, but they will want a debrief from me when I get back home – and that’s a funny way of debriefing myself. I always end up thinking, “That was amazing!” There are times when it is quite hard but, generally speaking, I always think, “I’ve done a great thing today.” When does it get tough? I once had to tell someone their mum had passed away a month before they started their search. She cried for a bit, we hugged, then we had a cup of tea, and we went at the pace she wanted to go at. She had a really lovely time in the end, as she was reunited with two sisters who were able to tell her all about her mum, and she grieved. The show is handled in a very sensitive way… It’s done in a way that never makes you want to cross your legs or hide behind a pillow. It’s never sensationalised. We would never ask someone to re-enact a reveal. When we tell someone some news, it’s like no one else is there. You’re in a bubble. You and Nicky (Campbell) have different roles on LLF… I’m always with the searcher – who is excited because they’ve usually been looking for someone for a very long time – and Nicky is with the person who’s been found and so they are going to be a bit warier... Do you stay in touch with the contributors? We do and it’s very nice; we’re always getting pictures [sent to us] – especially at Christmas. Other people message quite a lot, though I do tell them, “You aren’t going to want to see me afterwards!” Sometimes, they have the reunion and you’re forgotten.