Lives Less Ordinary

Cassandra Madison and Julia Tinetti met working at the same bar in their 20s and were struck by how similar they looked. Their adoption records didn't match, but a surprise gift later revealed the extraordinary truth. From the moment they started chatting, Cassandra and Julia quickly realised they had lots in common: both had been adopted as babies, both grew up in Connecticut, and both had tattoo...

Separated from her family and trained as a child soldier, Loung Ung's unbreakable spirit helped her survive Pol Pot’s regime, which killed nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population. In the Chinese tradition of Loung Ung's mother, the element of fire was dangerous in a daughter: too bold, too defiant, too difficult to control. And, according to her, Loung had been born with ‘too much’ of it. But wh...

When 19-year-old Ann from Florida, USA was shot by her boyfriend in 2010, her family were thrust into a nightmare, one that meant taking the agonising decision to withdraw her life support. In this intensely moving account of violence and loss, Ann’s mother, Kate, tells Namulanta that instead of pursuing the traditional court process, she chose something almost unheard of at the time - restorative...

Jackie makes sporting history for Ireland and uncovers the truth about her past. Taken from her mother as a baby and raised in an Irish institution, Jackie McCarthy O’Brien grew up in silence, facing prejudice because of the colour of her skin, and with no real sense of who she was or where she belonged. Jackie shares her story over two episodes of Lives Less Ordinary. In this second part of her s...

A black girl in a white town, Jackie’s made to grow up silenced and alone. This episode contains outdated racial language that some might find offensive. Jackie McCarthy O’Brien was just a baby when police officers flanked by a nun and a priest came to her unmarried mother’s door in Limerick, Ireland and took her. She would grow up in an industrial school where silence is expected, questions are d...

Ify Adenuga grew up with strict parents. As a mum, she rewrote the rulebook and encouraged creativity in her children, with her son Skepta becoming an award-winning music artist. Ify Adenuga is parent to a musical powerhouse. Her son Skepta is a seminal figure in British culture, helping to propel grime into the mainstream. Ify has always been supportive of her son’s music career, nurturing a crea...

Filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman railed against Hollywood his whole career as the founder of cult B-movie production house, Troma, while his daughter Lily-Hayes dreamt only of fitting in. Lloyd Kaufman has been the father of anti-establishment filmmaking for over 50 years. His production company Troma Entertainment is known for its gory, controversial and politically-charged movies. His daughter Lily-Hayes...

M People star Andrew Lovell’s home life hid a terrible – yet beautiful – secret. It would take him decades to find out the truth. At the height of his fame, drummer Andrew ‘Shovell’ Lovell had everything he’d dreamed of: sex, drugs and regular appearances at the top of the charts with the dance music band M People. But sell-out shows, first-class travel and five-star hotels couldn’t stop the quest...

While Francois Pierron was homeless in London he taught himself to play a public piano at St Pancras train station – from scratch. His mastery of music helped change his future. Francois had a difficult start in life. He was abandoned as a newborn on the streets of Dakar, Senegal, shortly after his birth in 1994, but was found by police and taken to an orphanage. He was soon adopted by a French co...

Maggie Robin raised a bear cub who grew into an extraordinary companion. When Maggie Robin and her wrestler husband Andy brought home a bear cub in 1970s Scotland, their friends thought they were mad. But the couple raised him as one of the family. Named Hercules, the tiny cub grew into a towering but gentle bear who slept by the fire, played in the garden and travelled everywhere with them. Attit...

While filming in rebel-held Syria, Loubna Mrie is falsely accused of being a spy – an accusation that spirals into a life-threatening ordeal, triggering the deepest loss of her life. In 2011, Loubna Mrie broke from her loyalist family to join Syria’s underground network of activists. She used her Alawite identity – the same minority sect as the ruling Assads – to move through checkpoints and secre...

From a powerful Alawite family in Syria, Loubna Mrie trusted the Assad regime – until witnessing its violent crackdown led her to defy loyalty and secretly film the uprising. In 2011, 20‑year‑old Loubna Mrie was an English literature student from a high-profile Alawite family, the same minority sect as the Assads who had ruled Syria for decades. For most of her life, loyalty felt like survival. Lo...

An ordinary couple foiled the country's biggest drugs deal, all by doing a good deed. It involves a boat, a fake funeral at sea and the criminal underworld's least able seamen. That ordinary couple of 35 years, Ed and Heather we're calling them to protect their identities, lived a quiet life in the far north of New Zealand. Ed is Māori and a well-respected mechanic and fisherman; Heather's the sor...

Rob Smethurst bought a bankrupt football club while his life was unravelling – then they went on to make football history and save him in the process. Entrepreneur Rob Smethurst never planned to become the owner of a football club. In the grip of alcohol addiction, and on a four-day drinking binge, he bought Macclesfield FC – a bankrupt small-town club, way down in the rankings with a crumbling fo...

Colm Tóibín is a celebrated Irish writer, but as a child words didn't come easily. Navigating grief as a boy when his father died, he developed a stammer. Instead of talking, Colm watched and listened, collecting stories that wove their way into his novels. He's won a string of awards and been nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize three times. His novel Brooklyn was made into a movie starring...

Willis Chimano is one of Kenya’s biggest pop stars. With the boyband Sauti Sol, he’s won a string of awards and even danced with President Barack Obama. But behind the success, Chimano had a secret: being gay in a country where gay sex is criminalised and people who identify as LGBT+ can experience violence and harassment. Since his childhood, Chimano had been hiding his sexuality but then in 2018...

When she was 14, Krystal Evans survived a lethal house fire. Years later, to come to terms with what she’d experienced, she turned it into a stand-up show. The women in Krystal's family have always been funny, she says; her mother was no exception. But as well as being hilarious she also struggled with mental illness, and life in Krystal’s childhood was chaotic. With very little money, the family...

Joanne Briggs had always thought of her dad as a bit of a superhero. But he was hiding a dark secret. She only saw him a couple of times a year during her childhood in the UK, but that was because Professor Michael Briggs was off travelling the world being a very important scientist. Or at least that was the story she grew up to believe. It was only in 1986, when Joanne was 23, that she first got...

Fatima Whitbread grew up in a UK children’s home. She found both a mother and a coach in one person – going on to break the javelin world record and become an Olympic medallist. Fatima spent her first 14 years in a series of institutions after being abandoned as a baby. She longed for stability and love, and found both in an unexpected place – on the sports field. Coach Margaret Whitbread spotted...

When Ijeoma Uchegbu arrived back in the UK as a single mum of three young children she soon found herself living in a homeless shelter; now she is a pioneer in the field of nanoparticles in medicine. Ijeoma Uchegbu has dedicated her career to studying pharmaceutical nanoscience, seeking out ways to carry medicines to parts of the body that are notoriously hard to reach. But as a schoolgirl in the...

Swedish youth worker Nicolas Lunabba had one strict rule: never get attached to the kids you help. Then 13-year-old Elijah moved in — and turned his mentor’s flat into a home. In Malmö, Sweden, where poverty and violence shaped young lives, detachment was Nicolas' survival strategy. Then he met Elijah, an eight year old with a mohawk, a basketball under his arm, and a fearless, sometimes dangerous...

N-Dubz singer Tulisa Contostavlos survived betrayal and a tabloid sting. Tulisa was born into a family of musicians in Camden, London, and says music was part of her everyday life. But her childhood was impacted by her mother's severe mental health episodes that would often end up with her being held in psychiatric institutions. After her parents divorced, Tulisa would frequently have to care for...

The incredible story of the football icon who changed a boy's life. Craig Bromfield's start in life was difficult: there was often no electricity in his childhood home, and he didn’t even own a coat. He was in and out of the social care system, and would ask for money on the street. This is what 11-year-old Craig was doing with his brother Aaron, one fateful day in 1984, on a windswept seafront in...

When Jenny Evans was sexually assaulted and confidential details appeared in a national newspaper, she decided to investigate – uncovering police corruption, tabloid spying, and phone-hacking. Jenny got a role in her first feature film when she was just 19 years old. At a film party in London she became separated from her friends and was sexually assaulted by a public figure she'd just met. At fir...

Hayley Williams’ grandpa Rusty nurtured her musical dreams – now, she’s returning the favour. As the lead singer of American rock band Paramore, Hayley Williams has won three Grammy Awards and toured the world. Behind the scenes, her grandad Rusty has been her biggest supporter and musical hero, nurturing her childhood passion and later her career. Rusty is the one who taught Hayley how to play th...