Malcolm Allen and his son Bradlee in Long Lost Family (UK), Season 2 Episode 5. Supplied image matches the PBS episode photo.
Bradlee Allen took a wedding invitation to a park in North London. His ceremony was two days away, and the man he wanted to give it to was his father, Malcolm. The last time Bradlee had seen him, he was 14 and had shut the door on him.
That invitation is at the heart of the fifth episode of Long Lost Family’s second UK series, which aired on ITV1 on May 17, 2012. The episode also follows Bridget Eyles, whose decade-long search for her birth mother finally brought her to a familiar place in Essex.
The address that still led somewhere
Malcolm left the family home when Bradlee was a baby. Bradlee remembers his grandmother as the person who looked after him. When Malcolm came to the door years later, Bradlee was still grieving her death. He sent his father away. As an adult, with a daughter of his own, Bradlee wished he could have that conversation again.
By the time the programme took on the search, Bradlee and Sheylene Pryce were a week away from getting married. Malcolm’s middle name, Sylvester, helped the team narrow down the records, but the paper trail went quiet after 2006. They wrote to his last known address. By chance, a cousin was living there and passed the letter on. Malcolm was in North London.
Malcolm told Nicky Campbell that he had understood why Bradlee wanted space that day. He said he had tried to get back in touch later and was surprised to learn that his son had also been looking for him. When Nicky told him about the wedding, he said he would make time to be there.
Three marriages and a search that ended 26 miles away
Bridget was 11 when she found out she had been adopted. She opened her adoption file in her thirties. It gave her birth mother’s maiden name and indicated that she had married soon after the adoption. The file did not give Bridget the married name she needed to keep looking. Years later, she turned to the programme with the support of her adoptive parents.
The researchers found one marriage record, then another. A third marriage in 1988 gave them the surname under which they finally traced Brenda to Witham, about 26 miles from Bridget. Brenda told Nicky she had hoped Bridget would look for her. She had held back from making contact herself because she did not know whether her daughter knew about the adoption.
Each woman noticed the same thing when shown a photo of the other. They had the same eyes. Bridget brought flowers to the grounds of Audley End House, a place she had enjoyed visiting for years, and met Brenda there for the first time in 41 years.
A place for Malcolm at the wedding
In the park, Malcolm showed Bradlee a photograph of his own father as a young man. He could see the resemblance across three generations. Bradlee brought a picture his daughter Kyla had drawn for the grandfather she had yet to meet. Then he handed over the invitation and asked Malcolm to sit at the top table.
Forty-eight hours later, Malcolm was at the wedding. Bradlee said that seeing him there was what made the reunion feel real.
Sources
- PBS episode and transcript
- Genes Reunited’s original ITV1 listings
- Genes Reunited’s 2012 episode recap
