A real cause for festive celebration
Long Lost Family Christmas Reunion
STV, 9pm
OVER the past eight years, Long Lost Family has reunited more than 200 relatives. Now some of those families are getting a chance to meet each other as Nicky Campbell and Davina Mccall invite them to a special Christmas lunch, where they can celebrate finally being together.
The dinner is being served in London to 120 people, including diners who have made the trip from Nigeria, Australia, Barbados and Switzerland. For many of them, it’s the first time they’ve been able to celebrate the festive period with their loved ones, but it’s also an opportunity to talk to people who can relate to their experiences.
According to Campbell: “It is the biggest family Christmas lunch in the history of family Christmas lunches!”
Davina adds: “This is a chance to catch up on eight years of Long Lost Family, seeing you all here, knowing you are all telling each other each other’s stories is really lovely.”
It’s also a chance for the viewers to remind themselves of some of the moving stories featured on the series over the years. Among the guests are Susan and Chris Ellerton, who were the first couple to approach Long Lost Family, searching for their son together. They were just teenagers when Andrew was born and were forced to give him up by their parents. Despite that tough start, they stayed together, got married and went on to have five more children, one of whom has sadly died. But they never stopped thinking about the first-born, and here they reflect on what it meant to finally find him, while Andrew meets his youngest brother James for the first time.
Andrew says: “That was what myself and my partner were going to be saving for next year, to go and try and track him down, the last member of the family to meet… It’s probably been one of the best Christmas presents I have ever had!”
He’s not the only one getting a special gift. Sharon Harte approached Long Lost Family hoping to find her birth mother and was given that news that while her mother had died, she did have four sisters. She met three of them earlier this year, and now, as they celebrate Christmas together for the first time, the siblings surprise Sharon with a meaningful present.
For some guests, the party will be bittersweet. Laura Aker was planning to attend the event with her father Andrew and brother Nten from Nigeria, whom she was reunited with last year, but just a fortnight before the lunch, her dad died. However, the siblings are still coming to honour their father’s life, and Nten explains why he believes that meeting Laura gave Andrew peace before he died.
There are more touching stories, as well as a reminder that not everyone has been able to track down their longlost loved ones. The Missing People’s Choir perform carols and talk about the prospect of sitting down to dinner with an empty seat at the table.