Helen Skelton’s Lake District TV show Lost and Found will return in the new year.
The BBC programme, hosted by the Eden-based Helen, sees her lead a team of experts in search of precious items lost by people in the Lake District.
Its first series aired last year in January and proved a hit with viewers as one of BBC One’s highest rated unscripted shows.
It is now set to return on Monday January 5 at 2pm on BBC One and iPlayer for a second series.
Cumbria Crack’s Lucy Edwards caught up with Helen ahead of the new series to talk everything from getting emotional on set to her love for Cumbria and filming in the Lake District.
Helen said viewers can expect big emotions, moving stories and plenty of drama from the second series.
She said: “What has been great about this series is there is so many elements and beats to it. It’s all heart and warmth and love stories, and it’s about history and legacy.
“That’s what makes me really proud, that there’s so many different elements to it.
“It is never about the items that are lost, it’s about what those items represent and themes that are in all of our lives.”
Filming for series two of the show has taken place across the Lake District and Helen, who now lives in Penrith, said that helping and working with Cumbrian people has meant the world to her.
She added: “It has been absolutely bloody joyous. I’ve spent 20 years driving around the country for work, which has been an absolute joy and privilege, but I do have to get to school pick-up now!
“So to be able to make national network telly so close to home is a joy.
“But I’ve also been able to do it with my friends and people that I’ve worked with on Blue Peter 15 years ago, so to work with people I respect and love and who get it, has also been a joy.
“We’re also so lucky that most of our team of detectorists, free divers and scuba divers, live, work and play in Cumbria and to get to shine a light on what they do as well is brilliant.
“People often go on about how we get a lot of visitors to the Lake District, but do they really understand what makes us tick?
“I don’t know, but this show fully shines a light on people with big hearts, humility and selflessness, and I think that is what Cumbria is.”
Helen said she enjoyed working on the smaller lakes and waters the most during filming and also shared some of her favourite places to go in the county in her downtime.
She added: “I like the smaller waters, but it totally depends on who you go with. We watched a guy this series swim across Rydal Water with sideways rain and mist and because we filmed into autumn, the sun is lower and the light is stunning.
“I like the moody days, but I think it’s important to say that it is a landscape that is looked after and loved by the people who know it, our little island is glorious and green because people love it.
“But if I’m with my kids then it’s Rydal Caves and water, if I’m with my friends and I’ve got the chance to do a quick burnout, then I love Blencathra, but if I have loads of time, I love the North Pennines.
“I think what is so great about this part of the world is there’s a bit of everything.
“Places like Workington and Whitehaven are places that are not necessarily on everyone’s radar, but the coastline you get and nature and wildlife, that is second to none.
“Ultimately, people say, why has this show been a success this time around and I think you cannot underestimate the pictures and footage of the landscape, it is world class.
“We’re so lucky to make telly in the best part of the world with who I would argue are the best in the business.”
Helen said there were two parts of the upcoming programme that she loved filming the most.
She added: “The two best bits for me are first, obviously being in the water and finding things when I get to.
“Sometimes I go between locations, so I’m not always there for the whole thing. But when I get in the water and get involved, I love that, because otherwise I feel like I’m just on the sidelines like ‘yay go on guys!’ like some kind of overprotective parent!
“But I think the best thing is always getting to do the handbacks with people who have lost things.
“We have people on the show this year who have lost things for decades, so the chances of getting those things back is teeny tiny slim.
“A lot of people have lost things like rings or bracelets or little pieces of jewellery, so you’re literally looking for a needle in a haystack.
“So when you have that moment of going actually yes, we’ve found this for you, it’s the best feeling in the world.
“I also like the drama of the find, everyone is proper invested!”
Helen said filming the second series was also an emotional experience not just for her, but for the entire crew.
She added: “I’m always crying and the crew is always crying, I would say there’s more crying than non-crying and sometimes it’s with laughter at ridiculous situations!
“I’m such a sob! I’m very emotional – since I had kids I’m a weepy willow! People say about wearing your heart on your sleeve, it’s more like wearing it on a stick sticking out of your body, but I think that’s a testament to the crew.
“You don’t just turn up and do this and that and say right that’s done now, you hang out with these people and learn more about them.
“It’s not just about finding someone’s watch or phone, it’s about the photos on that phone and the feelings that taps into. There’s one story where there’s a teen who lost his phone and you think oh, a shame, but not really a shame.
“But it’s one of my favourite stories because the phone had pictures of his grandparents on it, so it sparked a whole conversation with him and his mum about his granny and her involvement in his life and all the memories they had together.
“You tap into the themes of people’s lives, through just one little item.”
Helen’s favourite story from series one revolved around a woman being reunited with a lost Paddington teddy bear figure that she had kept as a supportive mascot through her mother’s cancer journey.
She added that it’s the stories attached to the objects the team find that make the show special to her.
Helen said: “Often we’re looking for things like wedding rings. We had a gent who had lost his for 60 years and he was desperate to get it back.
“He said he’d had a wonderful life with his wife and adored her and that he was basically saying I have wonderful daughters and grandchildren and without the ring, he didn’t have that full stop on the story.
“I looked around and everyone on the crew was crying. It’s not about the little band, it’s about what that represents and he was saying that ring represents my life and what I’ve done with it.
“We also went to another lady who had not stayed with her husband and she said you’d think it wasn’t important because she got divorced, but she wanted to pass it to her daughters as a representation of all the happy times when she had been born.
“They’re not material objects they represent people’s lives and legacies.”
Helen added that during filming, crews also cleared up huge amounts of rubbish from waters across the Lake District.
When teams find unclaimed items on their searches, they are repurposed by the show’s craftspeople, who give the objects new leases of life and make something meaningful for families whose lost items cannot be found.
Helen said: “That is what the show was born out of, it’s about legacy and taking stuff away when you visit.
“The amount of rubbish we find is wild, we have a magnet fisher called Sophie, and we were in a massive body of water where kids jump in and they fished out two massive knives.
“Last series we fished out a motorcycle, so you can really see if you leave something, it will stay there. We’d like to think that message comes across.
“But the trash turning into treasure is absolutely joyous, I am one of those people with cupboards full of things to be upcycled, I have broken jewellery from when I was 19.
“But our crafters through creative genius they turn it into new stuff with so much meaning, they’re brilliantly clever in how they do it.”
Helen also said she hopes the show brings new people to Cumbria in different seasons rather than just in the summer.
She added: “I hope it has been a showcase for Cumbria. I know you get your people loyal to the Lake District who come every year, but what I hope is that it spills off and people don’t just come in the summer, but in autumn, spring and winter when it’s wonderfully quiet.
“I did a series with a friend in Yorkshire and we had a woman come up and say to us this is the reason why so many people are coming here, but I do hope people come here and spend money in local delis and restaurants and our independents.”
Helen said the crew behind the show were excited for people to tune in.
She added: “I hope people see chats that resonate with them, it’s a show that has conversations about grief, divorce, foster families and illness and ambition and job loss, it’s a conversation about a lot of big subjects in people’s lives, but it’s warm and true.
“A lot of things we don’t actually find, but we keep those stories in so it’s authentic and it shows the ups and downs of life and we like to think it leaves you warm and with a bit of a hug.”
The show’s second series is set to air on Monday January 5 at 2pm on BBC One and iPlayer
