Co-operation from public ‘marvellous’

Press, 13 April 1989, Page 11

Co-operation from public ‘marvellous’

The idta of a television “Let and Found" column fcr people was originally that of an experienced television personality, fudy Callingham. “I was working at home one day when a chap ranj from Auckland askin’ if I had seen a televisim programme, actually it was a clipping on the news, about a telethon :hey did in Korea in' which they tried to match up people separatee) as a result of the war; ... they had cameras, in both North and Soulh Korea.

“This chap said someone should do a telethon like that here to put together people who have been adopted. His wife was adopted and now in her 50s wanted to find her real parents. We started to discuss the possibility of an adoption link programme and it occurred to me it would be a very good programme for Brian (Edwards) to front.” Edwards liked the idea, but was worried that, if it was solely for adopted people, the reunions would be too traumatic for viewers. He suggested the idea be extended to cover anybody looking for anybody else they had lost touch with. — whether relative or friend — as long as they wanted to do so for positive reasons. Then followed four

years of “development, growth and refinement,” and finally at the beginning of last year TVNZ commissioned the Edwards/Callingham independent production company to produce a pilot show. Callingham believes the idea of "Missing” intrigues people, and says the co-operation she has received has been "marvellous.” “I was trying to find a lady who used to run a dairy in a small town. I rang the only dairy in that town and asked the woman who answered if she remembered the lady. She didn’t have the name but spent the morning running around the district talking to the older residents and later rang me with a lead. That’s quite fun. “Someone else I was after was not on the phone so I range the local pub, a real hotbed of gossip, where someone was able to tell me the person I wanted had not moved away, but had an unlisted number.” Callingham says she does find herself becoming emotionally involved, beginning to think, “That poor person, I must help them.” “I have one case involving a woman in her mid 70s looking for a twin brother she has never seen. She is not even sure her brother knows he has got a twin. I get quite emotionally involved and feel its terribly important to complete this search before either of the twins dies. It seems ironic to be split up from your twin in birth and only meet again at the end of your life.” This case, says Callingham, is just one of the many involving orphanages. “It has amazed us the number of people who have been in orphanages at some time. People who are not orphans but were looked after in an orphanage.”