Catch up TV

Episode 13 April 2024

Luke grew up in a white working-class family in Rochdale but always felt like an outsider. He thought it might be because of his sexuality, but when he came out as gay aged 18, his parents were very supportive, and the feeling did not go away. \n\nPersistent questions about his appearance eventually inspire him to take a DNA test. The result lays bare a secret Luke's mum has kept hidden since he was born – his dad is not his biological father, and he is mixed race.\n\nTo find out who he really is, Luke begins the difficult search for a man his mum Liz and her friend Yvonne befriended on a girls’ holiday in Portugal in the 1990s. All Liz remembers is that the man she had a holiday romance with in Albufeira three decades earlier was a bartender called Carlos, but the lack of information and big obstacles do not discourage Luke. \n\nLuke is resolved to try and find out as much as he can, not only in the hope of tracking down his biological father Carlos, but also to understand his new ethnic heritage and culture. Enlisting the help of genealogists, family friends and distant relations he finds online because they share his DNA, he begins the search of a lifetime.\n\nManchester-based Luke’s extraordinary journey takes him back to Portugal with his mum’s holiday companion Yvonne, to see if she can remember which bar Carlos was working in 30 years previously.\n\nThey meet Ângela Campos, a Portuguese historian and forensic genealogist, who accompanies them on their search for any signs of Carlos and the answers Luke is looking for.\n\nLuke’s search reveals much more than he ever imagined possible, uncovering six decades of family secrets and a brand new multiracial family. He also finds himself healing much more than just his own emotional pain.

Source: BBC 3