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Lives Less Ordinary

The mystery of the tartan twins

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6814 Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A baby left in a car, another in a telephone box. It would take decades to find out why.

When he was just a baby, David McBride made headline news in Northern Ireland. He had been discovered in the front seat of a stranger’s car, with no trace of who had left him there or why. David was a foundling, and as he grew up he started to want answers. Then, a chance encounter led him to Helen Ward. She was also a foundling, and she was on a very similar mission.

Presenter: Andrea Kennedy Producer: Maryam Maruf Editor: Munazza Khan

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You are about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about what goes into making one.

0:06.5

I'm Sadata Sese, an assistant commissioner of podcasts for BBC Sounds.

0:11.1

I pull a lot of levers to support a diverse range of podcasts on all sorts of subjects,

0:16.0

relationships, identity, comedy, even one that mixes poetry, music and inner city life.

0:22.4

So one day I'll be helping host develop their ideas, the next fact-checking, a feature,

0:28.3

and the next looking at how a podcast connects with its audience. And maybe that's you.

0:33.6

So if you like this podcast, check out some others on BBC Sounds.

0:38.4

Love, Janessa, a brand new true crime podcast from the BBC World Service and CBC Podcasts.

0:45.5

It's a story about love, deceit and survival.

0:48.7

And it's available now.

0:50.5

Find out more at the end of this podcast.

0:55.5

The newspaper article said I was found in the front seat of a car on the 16th of January, 1962.

1:01.3

A lady came out to check her car to get her shopping, and I was on the front seat apparently in a tartan bag.

1:09.6

In a tartan bag?

1:10.7

Yeah. I was apparently dressed all in a tartan bag. In a tartan bag? Yeah.

1:12.7

I was apparently dressed all in blue.

1:15.0

It said that the clothes were handmade clothes.

1:18.2

I was well fed, well looked after.

1:20.6

And she picked me up from the car, took me into her house, put me on a kitchen table.

1:26.2

She said she was in shock and left me and run about 75 yards

1:31.2

across the road to get a neighbour to say that she'd found a baby. A neighbour come across, they phoned

1:36.8

the police, the police turned up and they took me away. It was in the national press in Northern

...

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