The Missing Children
Sunday 7th November 2021
ITV 10.20pm – 11.40pm
This feature-length edition of ITV’s Bafta-winning Exposure strand, The Missing Children, tells the extraordinary and moving stories of some of the children who survived life at Tuam mother and baby home in Ireland – and the search for the truth about what happened to those who disappeared.
At the notorious institution, run by the Bon Secours nuns, 796 children born to unwed mothers have disappeared. The bodies of some have been found in a sewage tank.
The scandal of Ireland’s mother and baby homes made headline news in January 2021 when the final report from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation was released.
The report concluded that approximately 9,000 children died in 18 institutions under investigation, and the Taoiseach Mícheál Martin apologised in parliament and described the events as a ‘dark, difficult and shameful chapter’ of Irish history.
Some of the children kept there still recall the cruelty of the nuns. Others were adopted to America and are only now discovering relations in Ireland and the UK.
Relatives and survivors want access to the files that have so far been kept secret. They want the babies’ remains exhumed and their DNA used to identify each child.
The head of production for this programme is Zoe Loizou who was born in Hertfordshire and is the daughter of Louis and Liz Loizou who are from Komi Kebir and Kiti in Cyprus respectively.
Zoe was also the head of production for the programmes Nile Rodgers: How to Make It in The Music Business,The Real King’s Speech, Inside MI5:and The Real Spooks.
