Nicky Campbell, one of the co-hosts of ITV's Long Lost Family, has spoken about the emotional reality of filming some of the programme's most poignant scenes. The 65-year-old presents the show alongside Davina McCall, bringing together relatives who have been separated for years.
The programme, which is about to enter its 16th season, has proved emotional for both cast and crew, uniting people with family they may have never known they had. In a recent interview on fellow broadcaster Gabby Logan's Life At The Midpoint Podcast, Nicky discussed life behind the scenes as well as praising Davina, who he described as "incredible".
Heartbreaking moments on set
Nicky's insight into what it was like being in the room where family members were brought together came after Gabby touched on the "heartbreaking" nature of someone having to give up a child and facilitating that sometimes decades-long separation.
Gabby observed: "It's always heartbreaking when you see, when you hear of somebody who has, for some reason, put up for adoption or has been abandoned and then they've found out they've got older siblings."
Gabby emphasised that when parents place a child for adoption, the circumstances are rarely straightforward. She added: "There are often a multitude of complicated reasons why that's happened. It might have been financial, it might have been the breakdown of a relationship. It might have been somebody who couldn't cope with more children for whatever reason. I find those episodes really heartbreaking."
Inside the 'bubble' of filming
In response, Nicky concurred before diving into what it was like to be with someone before and during that life-changing moment. He explained: "It is a hell of a lot to deal with. To be in that bubble with somebody. You arrive, the camera is set up and everything gets organised. Then you start talking, when you start talking nothing else matters and you're in this sort of bubble of...it's kind of real reality TV. You're in the most intimate emotional moments in people's lives and you're sharing them and hopefully helping them, hopefully helping them through your own experiences as well."
As well as touching on how emotional the experience was for him, he also said there was a very weird contrast between how a participant felt before they found out the details and after. He explained: "What's really interesting as well is when you start off and they say, 'Well I'm quite interested to know. I got the letter and I thought this is interesting, I've never really thought about it'. But then throughout that 40/50 minutes it just changes completely when the details arrive."
Episode two of series 14 of Long Lost Family airs on ITV tonight (Thursday, October 29) at 9pm.
