BBC One's 'Missing Live' Recommissioned

BBC One's daytime series 'Missing Live' has been recommissioned, following the success of the first series in which 17 missing people featured on the show were found, Liam Keelan, Controller of BBC Daytime has announced.
Presented by Louise Minchin from 'BBC Breakfast' and former Metropolitan Police detective Rav Wilding from 'Crimewatch', 'Missing Live' is a live studio programme based on the previous BBC Daytime documentary series 'Missing'.
The series follows the work of police and the charity Missing People in their efforts to discover the whereabouts of some of the 200,000 people who are reported missing each year.
The BBC said that they move to a live programme had proved "very successful", attracting a strong audience during the four-week run, as well as finding 17 people who were featured in appeals during the show.
Hundreds of phone calls and sightings were reported to the programme during the series.
Among those found as a direct result of the programme is Paul Hopkins. In his 50s, Paul has autism and lives in Berkshire with his parents. He went missing after failing to turn up for work one morning at his local supermarket.
After an appeal on 'Missing Live', a sighting of Paul in Brighton was reported. Paul's dad and brother-in-law headed down to Brighton to look for him and within hours they found him. He is now back home with his family.
Others who have been found include Lin Sinh Luc, a Chinese pensioner who has lived and worked in North London for more than 30 years. He was reported missing by his family to the police when he didn't come home from his daily walk.
Following an appeal on the show, he was spotted by a taxi driver in west London who had watched the programme.
Positive leads are also being followed up on a number of other missing persons cases from information provided as a result of the programme.
Made by Leopard Films, 'Missing Live' used filmed reconstructions of individual cases, alongside live studio interviews with friends and family, to explore the true-life drama of missing persons' investigations.
The series also included direct appeals for missing people, up-to-the-minute information on cases featured and stories of loved ones reunited with people who have been missing - sometimes for years.
Among the guests featured in the series, Kate and Gerry McCann were live in the studio to discuss the disappearance of their daughter and their campaign to introduce an 'Amber Alert' system to help track missing children in Europe, while Bob Geldof also appeared to discuss his involvement in helping to find missing children.
During the series, groundbreaking technology and techniques used to help find those who have disappeared were demonstrated - from age-progression techniques to behaviourial recognition cameras.
(KMcA/JM)