Oranges and Sunshine

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Sue, right now,

your baby needs to be safe

and you need a bit of support,

don't you?

I know you love her.

Of course you do.

But this will give you a chance

to sort yourself out.

I couldn't get on top of it,

with everything...

Don't, Margaret. Don't take her.

Do you want to put her down, Sue?

Just put her in the carrycot.

You all right, love?

Yeah?

Put her down.

There you go.

You'll be able to see her tomorrow.

I'll take you to her and you'll

be able to see that she's fine.

Whoa, darling.

Don't!

Don't! Please! Margaret, please!

I'll do better, I will!

The thing I love about this group

is that you don't have to

explain yourself here.

We've all been adopted as kids

and OK, we've all had different

experiences after that,

but it's a big bottom line, isn't it?

Anyway, I'm glad to be here tonight.

I don't mind telling you.

I've been getting a lot of grief at work.

Things have been

getting me down, really.

Been feeling a bit, a bit lonely.

You know, when you always think

is it because of what happened

when I was a kid?

You know,

maybe I'll never be right.

But you can't always know that,

can you?

You just...

you just always wonder...

Is this where the Triangle Group is?

Yes, that's right,

but we've finished for the night.

Charlotte. Charlotte Cooper.

Can I have a quick word?

It won't take a minute.

Well, what you're looking for

isn't really what this group does.

This is a local support group, really.

I might be able to refer you to somebody

who'd be able to offer you counselling.

I don't want counselling.

I want to find out who I am.

Well, this isn't really the way to...

I don't even know if my name

and birth date are right.

I remember leaving England...

I was four years old...

I was in a children's home

because my parents were dead.

They sent me in a boat to Australia.

All I know for certain is

I was born in Nottingham.

What do you mean

they put you on a boat?

They put us all on a boat for Oz.

Hundreds of us.

Your adoptive parents were emigrating?

No. No parents, no guardians.

Just a couple of hundred kids,

they sent us away.

- That can't be right.

- What do you mean?

It's simply not legal. There's no way

a group of unaccompanied children

would be shipped off like that.

- You calling me a liar?

No, of course not.

That is the one thing I know...

I know about who I am.

Don't you tell me that's not true.

OK, look. I can see you're upset.

Why don't you come to my office

on another day?

Take this.

That's my name,

that's all I've got to tell anyone

where I've come from.

It is 10:
30 at night-

I can't find anything else.

I've tried everything.

I've been everywhere.

Now, my time's running out.

I'm flying back.

So you have a look and you write

and tell me how wrong I am.

You come 10,000 miles to find home,

they call you a liar.

Wait.

You're not a bloody saint.

You were tired.

Yeah, I know,

but I should have seen it coming.

You can't always see it coming.

- Why's Ben out of bed?

- Oh, hello, miss. Ben spilled his juice.

- It wasn't my fault.

- What are you doing out of bed?

I can't sleep. Can I read?

No. Go on, go back up to bed

and I'll come tuck you up in a minute.

It's not fair, I'm older than him.

- Happens all the time.

- Come on, up you go.

I just hope I did the right thing.

Margaret, we're social workers.

There's no right thing.

There's social-work practice,

court decisions...

My professional judgement.

Which means that sometimes

you're doing the right thing,

and sometimes

you're oppressing the poor

with the middle-class values

of a reactionary government.

Don't make that face at me.

Kiss from Mummy.

Sometimes, you're just tired.

Ooh, you're heavy. Now, then.

Mum?

Mum?

Had bad dream.

Oh, sweetie. You OK?

What happened?

It was a long, long tunnel thing

and I couldn't...

You couldn't what?

Couldn't get out and I couldn't find you.

Darling, I'm here.

I lost you.

Oh, sweetie. I'm here now.

I'm not going anywhere, OK?

All right?

You going to go back to sleep?

All right.

- I think you have to talk about it.

- Exactly.

I only told my husband

just this last year.

Good for you.

What do you think, Nicky?

Um, well, I know what you mean,

but sometimes I think it sounds stupid

if I told everyone

what was bothering me.

What is it?

Um...

It's my brother, my brother Jack.

Uh...

I don't really see him, you see.

Do you want to tell everyone

who Jack is, Nicky?

Mmm...

Uh, yeah.

- That's my brother, Jack.

- That's lovely.

He found me a few years ago.

Um...

Just got a letter out of the blue.

'Dear Nicky, I think I may be

your brother Jack.'

And he was.

Well, soon as I saw him, I knew.

I mean...

I remembered. That's right.

Once upon a time,

I used to have a brother.

So where is he?

Australia.

Can you believe it?

It was the Sally Army

who found me for him.

They'd taken us both in

and put me in my first foster home

and shipped Jack off to Australia.

So, uh...

I mean, I know I have family,

I suppose,

but he's so far away,

and sometimes it's hard to feel...

Anyway.

So was he adopted

by an Australian family?

Uh, no. No.

It was just kids, Jack said.

A big ship full of kids from 5 to 13,

all being sent off to Australia.

You never told me that bit, Nicky.

Didn't I?

Well, that's what happened.

Could still all be

just coincidence.

Do you think so?

Well, if children did emigrate

to Australia in any numbers,

there must be some record of them.

I was just wondering

if you had any records

of any unaccompanied children

sent to Australia in the 1940s and '50s.

I don't think we ever had those

records in Australia House.

So there were children sent out there?

Um, do you know how many?

When? Why were they sent?

I've already told you.

We don't have any more information.

So who would know?

Why don't you ask your own government?

They're the ones

who sent the kids out there.

I know, I couldn't believe it.

I mean, I was still half thinking

that the story couldn't be true

and he just came out with it.

Yeah.

No, no. I think I'm going to...

I think I'm going to still get the later train

and I'm going to try

St Catherine's House now.

See if I can find

Charlotte's birth certificate.

If I can get her mother's

name off that,

then I can probably find out

when she died

and then when Charlotte

was placed in an orphanage.

We can start to trace her journey.

Maybe get some clues about why

Nicky's brother was sent away as well.

Charlotte's mother wasn't dead.

Lovely to see you, Merv.

How was your day?

Charlotte said

she was in an orphanage in 1950

because both her parents were dead.

Well, I found a record of a woman

with her mother's name

who got married in Nottingham in 1956,

not dead, very much alive

and eating wedding cake.

Might not be the same woman.

I've ordered up the certificate

but why would Charlotte have been sent

if she wasn't an orphan?

So if her mother was alive in '56,

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