Helen Nixon uncovers the cruel legacy of England’s mother and baby homes for Long Lost Family special

Congratulations to Stern & Wild filmmaker Helen Nixon whose equally moving and enraging two-part special LONG LOST FAMILY: THE MOTHER AND BABY HOME SCANDAL is set to screen over two consecutive nights on ITV1 starting tonight at 9.00pm.

Presented by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, the series investigates the mother and baby homes operating in England between 1949 and 1976 and the traumatic treatment of the unmarried women and girls who were placed there and whose children were forcibly adopted often at just six weeks old. Davina and Nicky help three people with connections to the homes track down their relatives and find out about the campaign to get the British government, which funded many of the homes, to apologise to those affected.

Helen is the Director on the series which has already created a huge buzz in the press. It is a Critic’s Choice pick in the i-newspaper, and Pick of the Day in the Guardian, the Times and the Telegraph, while the stories of some of the families involved in the forced adoptions are explored in many of this week’s papers including the Independent, the Daily Mail, the Daily Record and the Mirror.

Helen was interviewed on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour yesterday, alongside Cathy Wright whose mother was sent to a mother and baby home in 1956. Listen to it here (from 31.17).