[Davina] For thousands of people across Britain, someone is missing from their lives.

[woman] Forty years has gone by.

I'm hoping somewhere he's thinking of us.

[man] An unwanted baby that was thrown away.

You think that all the way through your life, this is why you're adopted.

[woman] Why did he not come back?

Even if he doesn't want to know me, I need to know why.

[Davina] All too often, the years of searching lead nowhere.

Well, this is the series that steps in to help, offering a last chance to people desperate to find long lost family.

Have you found him!?

Oh!

Oh, Mum, that's amazing!

-He lives in Cape Town.

-No way.

So we both ended up in South Africa.

We've been looking for so many years.

Don't cry, babe.

Our searches have uncovered family secrets and taken us all over the world, finding people that no one else has been able to trace.

The most important thing for her is to know that she hasn't been forgotten.

I look in the mirror and I was like, "Who are you?"

And now I can see.

And finally, answering questions that have haunted entire lives.

I've found her, and I'm just so, so, so happy!

[Davina] This week, two stories of missing mothers stretching back over 50 years.

A woman looking for the mother who disappeared when she was a toddler.

[woman] I don't know what happened, but she's my mother.

She must have loved me.

That's what mums do.

And the grandfather who, after 20 years of searching, is running out of time.

[man] I need to know who my mum is.

I need to know... and she needs to know me.

[dramatic music playing] [Davina] Our first story comes from Yorkshire and a man who, after 20 years of searching, has failed to find any trace of his mother.

He's now a grandfather and he came to us knowing that we could be his last chance of finding his mother alive and well.

[contemplative music playing] What's that in there, is that a stable?

Fifty-eight-year-old Peter Arundel has devoted his life to raising his family.

But the identity of his own mother has always been a mystery to him.

Now, even though he's a grandfather, his desire to find her is as strong as ever.

[woman] I hope that he finds the missing part that's there at the moment, because, although he's got an intact family and he loves us to pieces... -Where's the hat?

-...there is that one piece missing.

What else can we see?

[Peter] Family is everything.

Everything.

And I need to find mine now.

[Davina] Peter was adopted and knows virtually nothing about his past.

He's spent over 20 years searching for his birth mother.

[Peter] I think any adopted person at some stage in every day, there's always that, "I just wonder... where are they, who are they, what are they doing, what if I'd stayed with them?"

That stays with you all the time.

Peter grew up in Lofthouse Gate, a small mining village in West Yorkshire.

[Peter] It's a long time since I was here.

This is Platt Square, where we grew up.

My best friend, Kevin Massey, lived there, and we lived in the end one that's up for sale.

Peter was raised by Les and Ada Arundel, who adopted him as a six-week-old baby.

[Peter] I can remember being told that I was adopted.

I can firmly remember being told that my birth mother, which wasn't a phrase we used, but my...

I think the phrase was "'your proper mum' was 16, 17 years old and couldn't keep you and that's why we've got you and that's why you're a special baby."

And I must have been no more than four, and I never discussed it after that.

It wasn't until Peter was a teenager that the fact he was adopted had a major impact on him.

Peter excelled at cricket and was invited to try out for Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

As I got a little older into my teens, I realized that I could play.

For Peter the prospect of one day being picked for the county was a dream come true, but there was a sticking point.

Back in the late 1970s, to play for Yorkshire, you had to be born in Yorkshire, something Peter's adoptive mum knew didn't apply to her son.

I think me mum decided to clear the air, to be truthful, which was my mum's way, to be honest and straightforward, which was my mum's way.

Hoping they'd bend the rules, she wrote to the club secretary, coming clean that Peter was actually born in Lincolnshire.

[Peter] And he wrote back, "That's it, no, he can't play for Yorkshire."

A bubble had been burst and, uh... a dream had been shattered, really.

I thought it was unfair, just that an accident of birth should have such an impact on you.

[peaceful music playing] My mum asked me if I wanted to know the full facts about my birth.

"I can tell you everything if you want," but I said, "No, I don't need to know."

I didn't want to upset my mum.

I felt that if I went looking, it would be disrespectful, hurtful.

Almost like throwing everything that she'd done for me in the past back in her face, so no, it were never going to happen then.

Out of loyalty to his adoptive parents, Peter held back from asking any questions about his past, for the next 20 years.

It wasn't until the early '90s, by which time they'd both passed away, that he felt able to begin the search for his birth mother.

But with his parents' deaths, all links to his past had also died.

Now, all he had to go on was the one written document that had been left to him.

The adoption order, obviously it's got my birth mother's name, Elsie Bourne, formerly Phillips.

There there's a number on the certificate, register of birth in Lincoln of number 393.

So I thought it was a straightforward piece of work.

I'm number 393.

I'll go looking for 393.

Peter believed that clues to his mother's whereabouts would be contained in documents in his adoption file.

All he had to do was find it.

You'd think it would be in a birth register somewhere in Lincoln, it's not.

West Yorkshire Archives, nothing, absolutely nothing.

Dead end everywhere we went.

This adoption didn't exist, there was no trace, there was no record.

After two decades of searching, Peter has exhausted all leads and is no nearer to tracing his mother.

If I am going to have any chance at all of finding my birth mother, it's got to be now, otherwise time is against me.

You're bringing your ball onto the grass...

Despite all the setbacks, Peter still hasn't given up hope that his mother is alive and well and that one day he will finally meet her.

Good boy... As I've got older, I've thought about it more.

It's always there.

Whoa!

Wickets, yeah?

[woman] He needs to know who makes him how he is, what he's made of and where that comes from.

His identity, really.

[Peter] I need to know who my mum is.

I need to know and she needs to know me.

Even though Peter has tried everything he can, the circumstances of his adoption have remained a mystery.

But given how long ago his adoption took place, we weren't surprised by the lack of a paper trail.

What Peter didn't know was that a significant proportion of adoptions from that time were private and often arranged by GPs or midwives.

These adoptions were often known to only a handful of people with very few records kept, as the shame of an illegitimate birth was so huge.

So all we had to go on was Peter's adoption certificate, which named his mother as Elsie Bourne, maiden name Phillips.

And it appeared that Elsie had married shortly after giving Peter away.

We found the record of a marriage to a Michael Bourne and the birth of a son, Reginald Bourne.

We hoped they could lead us to Elsie.

But we couldn't find a trace of them living anywhere.

So we extended our search to include more distant relatives of the Bourne family and eventually tracked down a relation in South Africa.

They told us that Michael, Elsie's husband, had died in 1969 and that Elsie had remarried, but they had no idea where she or her son Reginald were now.

So we went back to the records, and we saw that an Elsie Bourne had married a Joseph Brockbank in the early '70s.

Could this be the Elsie we were looking for?

Crucially this Elsie Brockbank had a son of the same age as Reginald and she was living in Lincolnshire, the county where Peter's adoption had taken place.

We contacted her and she confirmed that she was the woman we were looking for.

We'd found Peter's birth mother.

I can't imagine how Elsie's feeling.

Maybe she's moved on from it all forever.

And here I am about to ask her to relive it all.

-Elsie.

-Hello.

-Nicky.

-Do come in.

Thank you so much.

Very nice to see you.

-Thank you, and you.

-A lovely, warm house.

What's it like that Peter's come looking for you?

Oh, it's something I've always hoped that would happen.

I just wished he could have found me sooner.

What are your memories of Peter when he was tiny?

Oh, he was lovely.

He really was.

He was a good little baby.

But he was always hungry.

[laughs] Really was a hungry baby.

So, going back to those... years ago, nearly 60 years ago, I guess... Well, it was hard.

A small village, tight community.

I was the one that got pregnant.

Nobody wanted to know you then.

In those days it was a stigma, a terrible stigma to get pregnant before marriage.

-How old were you?

-Seventeen.

He was an American airman.

We were going out together for quite some time and discovered I was pregnant.

So I told him, and he said, "Oh, that's wonderful, we'll get married."

But I never saw him again.

Because he was married and had two kids back in America.

When I had to tell my parents, there was no understanding, no help.

You couldn't step out of line, not with my dad.

He was a hard man.

Very, very strict.

-Did anyone suggest abortion?

-My dad did.

And I said, "No way."

I had two choices, it was abortion or the naughty girl's home.

You call it the naughty girl's home, the mother and baby home.

The mother and baby home.

So they put me into the naughty girl's home in Lincoln, the Quarry, and that's where I stayed until I had him.

How long were you with him for?

Well, Peter was with me for four weeks, and then he was gone.

-Do you remember that day?

-Oh, yes.

Talk me through that day, what happened?

My dad, he was with me all the time.

He would not leave.

Wants to make sure that I gave Peter away.

Dad said, "There's no point in getting upset.

It's happening and that's that."

It was a hell of a day, that day.

Really was.

After you'd given him up, did you ever... did you ever see him again?

I've not even seen a photograph of him.

You didn't have any photographs?

No, I had nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

[gasps] He looks like my dad.

[sobbing] And that's my grandson.

[Nicky] Great grandson.

Oh, yes.

Oh.

He looks so happy.

-[Nicky] He can't wait to meet you.

-Oh, thank you.

[Nicky] He just wants to put his arms around you and say, "Everything's all right.

Everything's fine."

He's written a letter if we were to find you.

Right.

[inhales sharply] -Are you ready?

-I think so.

[Nicky chuckles] [Elsie] "Mum."

"Mum, how do I write this letter?

It's a letter that's been 57 years in the composing and one I thought I'd never have the chance to write."

Can you read it to me, please?

-Do you want me to read it to you?

-Yes, please.

[Nicky] Okay.

"I was a happy child and I'm living a happy life now.

Since the passing of my adoptive mum and dad, and as I grow older myself, the need to know has also grown.

What makes me 'me'?

It's not the mum and dad who adopted me, it's you.

I would love to share all this and more with you.

We've waited too long."

We have.

"Love from Peter."

Thank you.

Thank you for doing that for me.

I couldn't.

That's a lovely letter, isn't it?

Oh, it's just...

I've never known a feeling like it.

It feels as if I've been given the baby back.

[contemplative music playing] [Davina] I'm on the way to tell Peter that we have found his mother, Elsie, and that his 20-year search is finally over.

He's spent a lifetime every day asking, "Who is she?

Where is she?

What's she doing?"

I can tell Peter the answers to those questions.

[doorbell rings] -Hi, Peter.

-Hiya.

-How are you?

-I'm good, and you?

-Yeah, good, thanks.

-Come in.

-Thank you.

-Welcome.

Thank you, thanks very much.

Well, obviously, it wasn't going to be easy because the evidence wasn't there, and so it was going to be difficult from the start.

But we have found her.

Oh!

Fabulous.

Fabulous.

[sniffles] She's so happy you got in touch.

Oh.

That's some of the best words I've ever heard.

-Is she well, is she healthy?

-She's well, she's healthy.

-She's got two other children.

-Really?

-But she never forgot you.

-[sighs] Never.

Would you like to see a picture?

Oh, please.

Yes, please.

Oh, my God, I look like her.

Same nose.

Look at that.

-I look like her.

-You really do.

That's the first time I've ever looked like anybody.

[sniffles] [sighs] Thank you.

[chuckles] Excuse me.

-She's written you a letter.

-Really?

Thank you.

"Dear Peter, to learn you have been looking for me for so long is the most wonderful news.

I hated having to give you up as a baby, but in those days, I had no choice.

You have a younger brother and sister.

Both married with families.

It would be wonderful to have my three children all meet as a family in the not-too-distant future.

And I shall feel complete again.

I do hope you will be able to accept me as mum.

I have always longed to be.

I cannot wait to meet you and hold you.

Yours, Elsie."

[exhales sharply] Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

-So much.

-Do you want to go and tell Carol?

-Yeah, please.

-Yeah, come on.

[Carol sighing] God.

Look at the nose and the mouth.

She looks lovely, doesn't she?

-Mm.

-With her nose.

It's amazing.

Wow.

[Peter] Oh.

-[peaceful music playing] -[birds chirping] [Davina] Before Peter is reunited with his mother, our second search comes from Liverpool and the story of a woman who, over 60 years ago, was abandoned by her mother when she was just a toddler.

[seagulls calling] Maureen Saville has spent all her life wondering about the mother she has never known.

[Maureen] There's just no memory at all about her.

I don't know anything about her.

I don't know what she looks like, no photographs.

And it's such a... a nothingness there.

Growing up, Maureen was desperate to fill the void that her mother left.

[Maureen] At home when the family album used to come out and we look at all the pictures, and then this picture would come up.

That's me dad sat on the wall outside our prefab.

And I'm sat on his knee, and each time it came up, I used to look at the door because in the doorway there you can see a pair of legs.

I thought that was me mother.

She was just a figment of my imagination, shall I say?

[contemplative music playing] [Davina] Maureen was born in 1948.

Her father John was a dockworker and a native of Liverpool.

Maureen's mother Monica was originally from Surrey.

[Maureen] It was just after the war and times were hard.

I don't know what she came from, but to me Surrey is a nice, bright, green trees.

Nice houses.

In them days it must have been a far nicer place than this, with tenement buildings, outside toilets, and they lived in one room above a baker's.

It must have been a complete shock.

[Davina] What must have been a tough life for John and Monica was made even harder when they were hit by a tragic event on what should have been the happiest day of their lives.

[Maureen] On the day I was born, me dad had his accident on the dock, and the crane, the swinging crane, knocked me dad over and fractured his spine in two places.

[Davina] Maureen's father was incapacitated for nine months but eventually recovered and returned to work.

I thought of what she must have gone through.

Incredibly tough, I think.

Despite the hardship, no one could have predicted what happened next.

Maureen was nearly 18 months old, when her father returned home from work to make a dreadful discovery.

[Maureen] What me dad told me, a neighbor at the back came round to tell him, "Your Maureen's been crying all day."

And he said, "And I went in and you're in the cot and you'd dirtied yourself.

It was in your hair, all over you..." and she'd gone.

I don't know if she put me in the cot and walked out that door, no, I don't know how she done that.

Because it's such a... a foreign thing to my nature, shall I say?

Uh... And I wasn't a little sleeping baby.

I was 17 months and I can look at my little granddaughter with her curly hair and beautiful face and I...

I don't know how she put me in the cot and walked out, I don't know.

I suppose I'd rather not think about that.

[Davina] For the rest of her childhood, Maureen's mother was rarely mentioned and never discussed.

[Maureen] And I suppose deep down, I felt like I couldn't ask about her.

I should have been braver, I suppose, and stood there and said, "Dad, I want to know."

But in them days, children weren't... children weren't told anything.

[Davina] Over the years, Maureen has patched together any scraps of information she can to try and create an idea of who her mother was.

I was looking in the mirror one day and my hair was parted in the middle and my dad went, "My God, you're the image of your mother."

And I thought, "God, I look like my mother."

So you make up this little picture in your mind.

But as she's gone on to raise her own family, Maureen's need to find answers to how her mother could have abandoned her has only intensified.

[Maureen] I don't know what happened, but she's my mother, she must have loved me.

It's what mums do, she must have done.

But the one thing I want is to just look at her.

And maybe all those years... doesn't matter anymore about the years.

I just want to look at her.

Even though Maureen had been told almost nothing about her mother, her attempts to find her over the years had revealed that she'd been remarried a further two times, first to a Mr. Pring and then to a Mr. Rowland.

When Maureen checked the records for a Monica Rowland, there was no mention of her death in the UK.

Even though Monica would be well into her eighties, it looked like she might still be alive.

But where?

Like Maureen, we could find no record of Monica Rowland's death.

So our next step was to check Maureen's research, just to be sure she hadn't missed anything.

It was only then that we made a discovery that would prove crucial to solving the case.

Monica had, in fact, remarried a fourth time to a Denzil Coleman in 1993.

Now when we went back to the death records with this new information, our worst fears were confirmed.

Maureen's mum had in fact died in 1995.

[contemplative music playing] This would obviously be terrible news for Maureen.

But during the search, we did discover something that would hopefully help her fill in the blanks about who her mother was and why she abandoned her.

Monica had in fact gone on to have two other children with her second husband, Mr. Pring, that Maureen knew nothing about.

We eventually tracked down Mike and Susan, Maureen's half brother and sister, living near one another in Somerset.

They've agreed to meet me at Mike's house.

I've got no idea what kind of impact the news of Maureen's search will have had on Mike and Susan.

Have they always known about Maureen?

And if they have, what did their mother tell them about their older sister?

-Mike.

-Hi, Nicky.

Pleased to meet you.

-Really nice to meet you.

-This is Susan.

-Sister Sue?

-Yes.

-Nice to see you.

-Nice to meet you.

-It's a lovely day.

-Beautiful.

Fresh.

-Yeah.

[laughing] -Come on in.

Thank you very much.

When you heard that your sister Maureen was looking for Monica, your mother, what was your reaction?

Shock.

To think that we had another sister out there that we never knew we had.

-You never knew?

-No.

-Not Maureen?

-No.

Not at all.

Maureen was 17 months.

Maureen was 17 months when she walked out on Maureen's dad, never saw her little girl again.

I was just so shocked, I couldn't believe it.

And to think that my mum, after leaving Mike and I as young children, and she'd already done it previously to another daughter...

Your mother abandoned you when you were...

When I was three and she was five, yeah.

It hurts me to think what my mother done.

[Mike] Oh, definitely.

And it hurts me, it's like reliving it all again.

And it's cutting deeper, realizing that she done it to another daughter.

Shattering, it's awful.

-Very shattering.

-Why did she leave?

-[Mike] I don't know.

-We don't know.

-No, never knew.

-[Mike] Never, no, nobody ever told us.

Dad never spoke of it.

[Mike] Whatever happened between them two, it's not the sort of thing your child would look up and say, "Well, Dad, tell us what happened."

You just didn't do it in them sort of days like now.

But through your lives you thought, "Who is this woman, who is our mother?"

That was the thing for me, I wanted to find out who me real mum was.

So, when Mike was getting married, he wanted to trace her.

He... succeeded.

And did you go and meet her together?

-Yes, we did.

-Yes.

The very first time we went out and met her, uh, we thought she was going to welcome us and she was going to tell us all about what had happened and it was all going to be great, but it didn't turn out like that at all.

There was no love, no hugging, no, "Oh, I am sorry," or nothing.

No remorse whatsoever.

And it's just like being abandoned again, really.

-Have you got a picture?

-[Mike] Oh, yes.

-Can I see a picture?

-[Mike] Yeah, I got a picture of Mum.

[Sue, clearing throat] There you go.

-[Mike] There she is.

-[Nicky] There she is.

So this woman left quite a trail of destruction, didn't she?

-[Sue] She has.

Very much so.

-[Mike] Oh, yeah, definitely.

In one way, she's an intriguing woman because of what she did in her life, and just trying to get your head round why she did it.

-Yes.

-This is why Maureen has been so set all her life, she's been looking for her mother for decades.

At least now for Maureen, she can get a closing of what... obviously, when we see her or we give her a photograph, she'll have something to treasure, at the end of the day, I hope.

We'll give her some photographs and she'll treasure it.

[Nicky] More than a photograph, she'll treasure you two.

-Oh, let's hope so.

[laughs] -[Sue] That's nice.

[laughs] -[Mike] Let's hope she will.

-That's nice.

-That's right.

-Better than a photograph.

Do you want to see a photograph of your sister?

-[Mike] Oh, definitely.

-Yes, I'd love to.

-[laughing] -[Mike] Is it like Sue?

-[Nicky] Huh?

-[Mike] Is she like Sue?

[Sue clears throat] -[Nicky] There she is.

-Oh, my God.

[Mike] She looks just like you.

I don't think so, I think she looks like Mum.

-[Mike] She does look like Mum, doesn't she?

-[Sue] Oh, she does definitely.

-It makes it all so real.

-[Nicky] You've got a lot to talk about.

We have, haven't we?

Can't believe it, I really... Now I've seen the photo, I can't wait to meet her.

[Davina] Maureen Saville has spent a lifetime searching for answers about how her mother, Monica, could have abandoned her as a toddler.

After a long search, we finally discovered she had died in 1995.

Out of respect to Maureen, we've told her the news without the cameras being there.

Despite the sad news that Monica had died, Maureen has agreed to still meet up with me, and I'm hoping that the news that she has a half brother and sister, who are really keen to meet her and for her to be part of their lives, that that might just soften the blow a little.

-Hi.

-Hello.

-How are you doing?

-I'm fine, thank you.

Are you all right?

Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you too.

-Shall I go through?

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

I wanted to start off by just saying how really sorry I am that we couldn't give you good news.

I wanted to look into her eyes.

I wanted... [Davina] I've got a photo.

[Maureen] Oh, aye?

[sobbing] Oh, my God.

[sniffles] We got that photo from your younger brother.

Cor.

[Davina] So your mum went on to have not only another son, but also another daughter.

-You've got a little sister too.

-Oh.

Would you like to see a picture of them?

[Maureen sobbing] -[Maureen] Did they know?

-[Davina] No idea.

-She never said?

-They had no idea.

And they were... they were also left.

She left when they were very little.

But, you know, I think that your mum, Monica... just wasn't cut out to be a mum.

Some women just don't... can't... they can't do it.

She just didn't have it to give.

[Maureen] I understand the term "not maternal," but I can't feel that, I can't feel not to be maternal.

[Davina] No.

-It's just sad.

-Hmm.

Because all these people's lives have been influenced by this one person.

-[Davina] Yes.

-And not in a good way.

[Davina] So Mike did find her a few years back and had a sort of... a sort of relationship with her.

It was complicated.

Uh... but they have got lots that they can tell you about her, and I think, you know, your hunger is for information.

-Yeah.

-Isn't it?

Yeah.

[sniffles] [Davina] So this is a letter from Sue and Mike.

"Maureen, to realize that we have a sister came as a complete surprise.

We understand that you have been searching for our mother for many years, unsuccessfully.

We were also searching for her about 30 years ago after being brought up by our father and new mother."

How ironic is that?

[sniffles] "Family is very important to us, and we are delighted to learn that we have a new member of our family.

With very best wishes, Sue and Mike."

Would you like to meet up?

Yes, definitely.

Definitely, yeah.

I just feel like I've had this big... weight lifted off me for certain.

-That's gone away.

-Really?

I do, yeah.

-Just, I don't... -[Davina] It's wondering, years of wondering that's sort of been laid to rest, haven't they?

[Maureen] Yeah.

[peaceful music playing] [Davina] Today, Maureen will meet her brother and sister for the first time.

-Hey.

-Hi.

-Are you ready?

-I'm ready.

Across town, Nicky is meeting Mike and Sue, who have traveled up from Somerset.

-Here we are.

[laughing] -Here we are.

-Pleased to meet you.

-You too.

Great to see you again.

Oh!

When you two grew up throughout all the difficulties, you had each other, and Maureen had no one; do you feel protective towards her?

Do you feel that you want to, you know, like you supported each other, you were always there for each other?

-Yes.

-I suppose at the end of the day, you want to try -and... -Reassure Maureen.

...reassure Maureen that, just to say, "Look, we've been through what you've been through."

[Davina] Have you reread the letter a lot?

[Maureen] Over and over again.

I stick at the same part every time.

The line says, "We were also searching for our mother for 30 years."

I knew exactly what they meant when I read that.

Just that one line.

[Davina] Your lives have been so parallel, haven't they?

It's wonderful to find other people that know how you're feeling and are feeling the same.

[Davina] Maureen wants to meet in Stanley Park, a favorite place in Liverpool and near to where she was born.

So...

I'm going to leave you here.

This is where you're going to go... alone the rest of the way.

-Good luck.

-Thank you.

[laughs] Thank you.

I'm ready for this now.

Okay.

Oh, my God.

-Oh, don't start.

-Don't start.

[sobbing] -Oh.

-Hey!

-Come and sit down.

-We've got so much to say.

[Sue] When I found out that she'd previously done that, and I felt all your hurt.

-[Mike] Oh, definitely.

-[Sue] And it was awful.

[Mike] Yes, we found her, but it never turned out like I wanted it to turn out.

It was like you was meeting a total stranger.

-She never had that... -Maternal instinct.

No, not at all, not at all.

You can't change the past, that's gone.

I think this is more about just going forward now.

We're all together.

And it's okay, it's fine.

It makes us really try that bit harder now, with this relationship, with the brother and sister that you didn't know you had.

-New beginnings.

-Yeah.

-Oh, definitely.

-New beginnings.

[Mike] Onwards and upwards, as they say.

[Maureen] Yes, yes.

Good boy, that's the way.

[Davina] Fifty-eight-year-old grandfather Peter Arundel has spent the last 20 years searching for his birth mother, Elsie.

After a complicated search, we finally found her alive and well and living in Lincolnshire.

[church bells chiming] Today they will be reunited.

Peter's travelled down from Yorkshire to meet his mother in Lincoln.

They've arranged to see each other at the former mother and baby home where Elsie gave birth to Peter almost 60 years ago.

It's now part of a boarding school.

[contemplative music playing] [Nicky] When you meet Peter, have you thought about what you're going to say?

Take it as it comes.

I don't believe in rehearsing something as important as this.

[Davina] This is the first time Elsie has been back since she gave Peter away when he was just a few weeks old.

[Nicky] Does it look like it's changed much?

[Elsie] Not terribly, no.

The lawns down here is where we used to park all the babies in the prams.

A race to get the best spot in the sunshine for them.

[Davina] I've come to Peter's hotel to accompany him to the reunion.

-How are you doing?

-Okay.

-Big day.

-Yes.

Big day.

So this is where I'm going to take him away, I'm afraid, Carol, so it's time to say goodbye, isn't it?

-Okay.

-We'll be off.

-See you soon.

-Bye.

Good luck.

[Peter] See you soon.

-We'll be a bit.

-Okay.

-See you soon.

-I'll take good care of him, I promise.

-I'm going to leave you.

-Bye.

[Peter] I'm trying to imagine that the era needed to have places like this.

-Yeah.

-How sad that girls and families had to be separated.

[Davina] What are your hopes?

That she loves me.

That's all I could ask.

'Cause she's me mum.

Yeah.

That's all I want.

Don't want any fireworks.

Don't want any dark secrets.

Just want me mum now.

So, um, this is it.

Go!

Thank you.

Hi, Mum.

Oh!

Peter.

[Peter chuckles] Am I what you expected?

How wonderful can life get?

At last.

It's taken me a while, hasn't it?

-It has.

-Taken me a while.

[Elsie] Oh, it's wonderful.

It is.

Stay there, just don't move.

I've waited 58 years for this, don't move.

[Peter] After all the time, all the nerves, all the expectations I had... so easy.

Feels the most natural thing in the world.

There wasn't a day went by when I didn't think about you.

-Aw.

-Not a day.

-Doesn't seem real, does it?

-It doesn't.

Not yet.

It will.

-Oh, it will eventually.

-Yeah, it will.

[Elsie] I couldn't believe it.

He is amazing.

I've never known anything like it.

I mean, giving birth is magic, but to be given a second chance like that, it's wonderful.

We have a lot to catch up on.

-Oh, God, have we just.

-A lot to catch up on.

[Elsie] How much better can life get?

I was so pleased I was meeting him here, where he was taken from me and where he's brought back to me.

It's completed the circle.

And I've got my family back.

[indistinct chatter] -Hello.

-Can you say hello?

[Peter] She's so happy to have me back.

That is so obvious.

It proves the right thing's been done.

[Elsie] ...get round to you eventually.

[family laughing] [Davina] Next time on "Long Lost Family"... two stories that take us across the globe.

A woman searching for a sister she's never known after being torn apart by war.

The Second World War devastated my family.

And a daughter who's waited over 20 years for her father to keep his promise to return.

[woman] Why did he not come back?

I'd like to think that I wasn't just a child he's forgotten about.

[peaceful music playing]