''Heir Hunters'' is a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

television programme focusing on attempts to find missing or unknown heirs, entitled to deceased people's estates before the

British Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, taxa ...

lawfully collects the money. The show follows the work of

probate research Probate research deals with finding heirs and proving their right to an inheritance. In some estates, there may be no known heirs, or there may be missing heirs whose names are known but their contact information is not. Succession law determines ...

ers from a number of different firms to show how the results of time-consuming research turned out. The main firms followed have been Fraser and Fraser, Celtic Research and Finders International. It was announced in 2011 that ''Heir Hunters'' would run in both

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

daytime and in primetime television on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

that autumn. The eleventh series was aired on BBC One from 27 February 2017.

Description

The series is made by Flame TV, which is part of the Avalon Group. The first series was presented by

Nadia Sawalha Nadia Sawalha (; born 18 November 1964) is an English actress, television personality, writer, TV cook and vlogger. She is best known as a long-term regular panellist on the ITV daytime talk show '' Loose Women'', being one of the original pane ...

, while all subsequent series are narrated by

Lisa Faulkner Lisa Tamsin Faulkner (born 19 February 1972) is an English actress, presenter and television chef. She has had roles in '' The Lover'' (1992), '' Dangerfield'' (1995), '' Brookside'' (1997–1998), '' Holby City'' (1999–2001), '' Spooks'' (2 ...

up to series 11. Series 12 is presented by

Michael Buerk Michael Duncan Buerk (; born 18 February 1946) is a British journalist and newsreader. He presented BBC News from 1973 to 2002 and has been the host of BBC Radio 4's '' Moral Maze'' since 1990. He was also the presenter of BBC One's docudrama ...

. The programme combined the worlds of legal probate genealogy and family history for the first time attracting audiences of over 1.2 million. The series was devised and developed by Jezz Wright for Irish Production company MINT TV after a meeting with Hector Birchwood from Celtic Research and Fraser and Fraser who features in the series. BBC Daytime executive Richard Thomson commissioned the first series to run alongside ITV's Trisha which had moved to Channel 5. MINT TV opted for a co-production with FLAME TV for the first series. The series runs as part of

's weekday lineup in the early morning factual slot (9:15 am – 10:00 am), alongside shows including ''Animal 24:7'' and '' Helicopter Heroes''. The second series had record viewing numbers for the time slot and beat ''

The Jeremy Kyle Show ''The Jeremy Kyle Show'' is a British tabloid talk show presented by Jeremy Kyle and produced by ITV Studios. It premiered on the ITV network on 4 July 2005 and ran for seventeen series until its cancellation on 10 May 2019. It was the most pop ...

'' on ITV consistently during its run, prompting the BBC to immediately recommission repeatedly series after series with series 11 being filmed in the autumn of 2016. The title cards for the 2008 and later series spell 'Heir Hunters' as 'H£ir Hunt£rs', using the pound sterling sign as a capital E. In each programme of the first two series three unclaimed estates from

Bona Vacantia Unowned property includes tangible, physical things that are capable of being reduced to being property owned by a person but are not owned by anyone. ' (Latin for "ownerless goods") is a legal concept associated with the unowned property, which e ...

are mentioned in the hope of information being given by a viewer which could help find an heir or heirs. One of these mentioned in the first series resulted in information that led to some heirs being found for an estate. The term "Heir Hunter" has become known to refer to any person or firm who tracks down beneficiaries to estates of deceased persons. "Heir hunters" may also be known as probate genealogists,

ers, heir searchers, or forensic

genealogists Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

although the latter is mainly an American term for the industry. Heir Hunters are unregulated in the UK although STEP (the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) have endorsed their use. The series has been repeated on the A+E Networks UK channels

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

and Bio. and UKTV channels

Watch A watch is a timepiece carried or worn by a person. It is designed to maintain a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or another type of ...

and Yesterday. In 2011, it began to be transmitted on the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

in the UK, New Zealand and Australia. Despite being syndicated around the world the participants only received a nominal £1.00 in return for signing a standard Flame TV/reality television waiver. From 21 November to 2 December 2011, ten re-versioned episodes of series 5 were shown on BBC Two at 7pm each weekday. The expanded episodes have an increased duration of 59 minutes and feature Lisa Faulkner on camera for the first time interviewing experts and Heir Hunters. BBC Two had ordered 20 episodes in total the 2nd set of 10 were from series 6 and were aired in January 2013.

Transmissions

The series was aired in a stripped daily format, running Monday – Friday for 3, 4, 5 and 4 weeks respectively. Series 10 was set to be re-edited into repeated 30-minute versions later in 2016 whilst filming for series 11 got underway. Series 11 began screening in 2017 and filming for Series 12 began in June 2017.

References

External links

BBC Guide
The latest episodes detailed by the BBC and available to buy
Lynn Sharpe
Guest blog: my experience with the heir hunters 11 May 2012 * * {{IMDb title, id=1046552 2007 British television series debuts 2018 British television series endings 2010s British television series BBC One original programming British genealogy British non-fiction television series Television series about family history

Description

Transmissions

See also

References

External links