Missing Live to return

BBC1's daytime show Missing Live, which attempts to reunite missing people with their families, has been recommissioned after a successful first run. Recently arrived BBC daytime controller Liam Keelan has ordered a second series of the BBC1 show after the first run managed to reunite 17 missing people with their families.

Fronted by BBC Breakfast's Louise Minchin and Crimewatch's Rav Wilding, Missing Live follows the work of the police and the charity Missing People. Among those found as a direct result of the programme are 50-year-old Paul Hopkins and Chinese pensioner Lin Sinh Luc. The first series ran for four weeks at 9.15am every weekday on BBC1 and concluded today. Guests who appeared on Missing Live included Kate and Gerry McCann and Bob Geldof.

The programme was also praised in parliament when Liberal Democrat MP Susan Kramer and the former Conservative minister Peter Bottomley signed an early day motion recognising Missing Live's "immense value in bringing wider understanding and exposure to the reasons many people go missing, as well as the technology and techniques involved in trying to find them".

During the series, methods used to help find those who have disappeared included age-progression techniques and behavioural recognition cameras. Keelan said: "I had no hesitation in recommissioning Missing Live. Not only has it proved extremely popular with the audience, but it has received praise in the Commons and crucially 17 people have been found. It's exactly the sort of programming that BBC Daytime should be doing."

Missing Live is made by independent producer Leopard Films. Leopard chief executive and Missing Live executive producer James Burstall said: "Missing Live is a truly interactive programme as it has directly asked the British public for help in finding missing persons - and they responded. "This is public service TV at its most compelling best - we've built a two-way relationship with our audience and they have helped us return a number of people to safety. We very much look forward to building this relationship with the BBC1 audience into the future."

Missing People chief executive Paul Tuohy added: "Missing Live has without doubt enabled successful resolutions to cases that might otherwise remain unresolved."