Nicky Campbell and Davina McCall catch up with families reunited in past series of Long Lost Family to find out what happened next?
We adore the emotional reunions in Long Lost Family but we’re always left wondering how the relatives fare as they get to know each other.
Now, in a second run of this lovely spin-off show, Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell return to reveal how things panned out for some of the most memorable families.
As half-sisters Cathie Cutler-Evans, 53, and Ann Beggs, 46, explain that they couldn’t be closer. They only met for the first time just over a year ago, but they already feel like they’ve known each other all their lives.
In 1964, Cathie was born to teenage single mum Adrienne, who made the agonising decision to give Cathie up for adoption when she was 10 weeks old.
Cathie appeared in last year’s series of Long Lost Family in a desperate bid to find Adrienne, but she was devastated to discover that she passed away in 2012.
She also learnt that Adrienne had gone on to have two more children, Ann and Mark, and, this week, in the first episode of three-part show Long Lost Family: What Happened Next, Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell explore how the siblings’ relationship has blossomed since they found each other.
'It's a fairy tale come true,' says Cathie. 'I’ll never meet Mum, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d have a sister and a brother that I’d get on with so well.
'We’ve celebrated Mark’s 50th birthday and my sons’ birthdays, and now Ann and I are on holiday together! As a little girl I always imagined having a sister, lying on the bed and chatting in our pyjamas, and it has been all that and more.'
'It has been a life-changing experience. Cathie didn’t know she had siblings, but Mark and I always knew about her, so it has been like winning the lottery,' says Ann.
Also this week, siblings Maureen and Michael reveal that they have moved on since reuniting seven years ago, four decades after Michael was barred from the family home for being gay.
Meanwhile, John shares his joy at meeting Steve, the half-brother he never knew, and so begins another search for more relatives…
TV Times rating: *****
