Episode 1

This week we catch up with three families whose lives have been transformed in ways they never imagined.

Cathie Cutler Evans came to us in 2016 desperate to find her birth mother who had given her up for adoption nearly 50 years before. After uncovered the tragic news that her mum had already passed away, Cathie was reunited with her half-sister Ann in Liverpool. Since meeting the siblings have formed a powerful bond with each other and their brother Mark. But they've all had to come to terms with the fact Cathie will never get to meet their birth mum Adrienne. We discover how building their relationship has given them all the strength to deal with their grief, and find out how Cathie has felt about being welcomed into a huge new family.

We also catch up with John Ayton, who after being adopted as a baby, had longed to find his father Kenneth. John was reunited with his half-brother Steve in 2017 after facing the difficult news that Kenneth had already passed away. But since their meeting, although John's relationship with his brother has gone from strength to strength, it also underlined just how little he knows about the other side of his family – his birth mother, Marlene. John's need for answers launches an incredible new search, taking him on a journey he never thought possible.

In our final story, we revisit one of Long Lost Family's first searchers. Maureen Charlton came to us in series 2 looking for her brother Michael who had been expelled from the family for being gay. But although close as children, after 40 years apart, the siblings couldn't just slip back in to the relationship they had back then. We join Michael and Maureen in Brighton to discover what it's like to have to get to know each other all over again.