Synopsis
Presented by Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell, the BAFTA award winning Long Lost Family returns with a special episode dedicated to the extraordinary searches across the world for soldiers lost in battle during the First World War. With unprecedented access, this remarkable episode follows the work of an elite all-female team at the Ministry of Defense: the “War Detectives”. These historical investigators are tasked with finding 500,000 World War service personnel lost with no known grave. Inundated with requests to identify the remains of soldiers found in archaeological digs or farmers' fields and missing relatives in unmarked graves, they work tirelessly in their quest to find answers. From one case of three anonymous casualties found near Anneux in France by a local resident digging a trench in his garden to new evidence unearthed on a case of two Lancashire Fusiliers buried in 2010 in unknown graves, we follow the War Detectives as they attempt to identify the bodies. The presenters are there every step of the way, through the frustrations and breakthroughs, as the detectives consult war maps, diaries, medical and service records; and use DNA testing to piece together the life of each soldier from the time they left British shores to their final steps on the battlefield. They meet the families of the missing, helping them form a fully rounded picture of their long lost relative and finally laying them to rest at a full military burial. For every relative this burial means something different, for some it provides desperately sought answers to the question of what happened to their long lost soldier, whilst for others, it starts a journey to find out more about a relative they didn't even know they had. As the Last Post is played, for many of the relatives of the deceased this is both their first hello and final goodbye.
My Role
I was only able to film for 1 day of the shoot, which was the Foskett family's emotional ferry journey to Belgium for the burial of their great Uncle who fought and died in WW1.
Credits
SERIES PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR: ANNA THOMSON
ADDITIONAL CAMERA / DIRECTING: CARLY ASTON & SELINA TSO