Long Lost Family: Born Without Trace: Episode 2 (S4EP2 ITV Tues 24 May 2022)

Episode 2 follows the story of one of the most famous foundling cases in recent years, Matt Butt, who became known as ‘The Ice Baby’ after being discovered in a London phone box on the coldest night of the year. We also feature Paul Garner who was left thirty years earlier in the public toilets of a park in Abergavenny, Wales.

Touchingly, 35-year-old Matt was left with a note presumed to have been written by his birth mother: ‘Born 6th January. Please look after me.’ He says: ‘it’s the most important thing I have’ and is convinced that, despite the freezing temperatures on the night he was abandoned, he was left to be found. Matt meets the woman who discovered him in the phone box. She recollects that she saw a woman watching from a distance, confirming Matt’s suspicions that his birth mother was looking out for him. He still wants to know who she was and what led her to leaving him.

By placing his DNA on an online database that traces birth relatives our search team find Matt’s birth father and discover that sadly, he has passed away. Although he wasn’t the parent he was hoping to find, Matt discovers some remarkable similarities between them.

Paul Garner always knew he was adopted and spent a happy childhood growing up in Wales but shockingly, four years ago when already in his late fifties, Paul first learnt he was a foundling. Desperate for answers, in 2019 he launched a newspaper and radio appeal that led him to find the policeman who had been called to the scene on the day he was found. Paul meets him for the first time and is reassured to discover he was left on a busy market day only a short distance from a hospital. But Paul says, ‘I still need to know my identity, and I need to know who my birth mother is’.

Incredibly, through DNA, Paul discovers that his parents were married and that he has older and younger full siblings leading to one of the most emotional and touching family reunions ever. Paul also discovers some amazing similarities with his birth father who like him, was in the army.

Airdate: Tues 24 May 2022 at 21:00 on ITV

Season 4 Episode 2

Foundlings are people abandoned as babies, often in the first hours and days of their lives. Born without trace, with no identifying information, they have had no way of unlocking the secrets of their past. But in this new ground-breaking documentary series, presented by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, the team behind Long Lost Family combine the latest DNA technology with painstaking detective work, to enable four foundlings to finally uncover their identities.

This two-part series features the incredible true story of a man who was left in a car on the outskirts of Belfast, and a woman left the other side of the Irish border in a telephone box in Dundalk. Also, a woman found at just two hours old in a ladies public toilet in Warminster and a man found in a corned beef box outside a railway tavern in Greenhithe. All four are searching for answers to the most fundamental questions: when’s my birthday; where do I come from; who are my parents and who am I?