Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace, ITV
Soap writers looking for ideas ahead of their return to work would do well to check out last night’s Long Lost Family special.
We’ve heard some incredible tales from Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell over the years, but this one was simply staggering. Two babies abandoned on opposite sides of the Irish border almost six years apart turned out to be full siblings.
Sadly, the joy of their belated union was tempered by the news that both parents had passed away.
Amazingly perhaps, at no stage did David McBride and his younger sister Helen Ward display even a hint of bitterness or anger. However, you couldn’t help sharing David’s regret that the police hadn’t put two and two together at the time – particularly as both babies had been left in similar red tartan bags.
Then again, it all happened in the 60s. We probably shouldn’t judge last century’s police by today’s hi-tech standards.
Even some recent highprofile media campaigns failed to jog memories.
In the early 2000s, David appeared on Irish TV talk shows and on This Morning with Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton. For her part, Helen launched an appeal on Irish radio seven years ago. Once their DNA had been matched the shocks kept on coming, not least when Davina revealed their father had been married to another woman.
David: “Did he have other children?” Davina: “Yes.” Helen: “How many?” Davina: “14.”
It was such a gobsmacking moment I was surprised Davina didn’t dig out her old Big Brother catchphrase.
“Please do not swear.”
‘‘ I’m surprised Davina didn’t dig out her old Big Brother catchphrase