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Annie: Out of the Ashes

Documentary in which a woman, who was adopted after her mother supposedly tried to kill her when she was young, tries to uncover the truth about her past.

Annie has grown up believing that her severe facial scarring is the result of her Irish Traveller mother trying to kill her by setting fire to the caravan in which Annie was sleeping. Could she have been driven by a fear of being ostracised by the community, having had an affair and given birth to a mixed-race baby?

Annie was adopted, and 30 years later, she wants to investigate her past. Armed with just a few names and dates from the original social services documents concerning her adoption, Annie is determined to find people who know the truth of what happened that night in 1986.

Annie was adopted by a white family. Her adoptive mother taught her there was nothing she couldn't do. But she felt her identity was a 'blur' - part Afro-Caribbean, part Traveller, part white. Annie has had no contact with the Gypsy community and is desperate to understand what it was within the culture that might have caused her birth mother to take such extreme measures. Was it the colour of Annie's skin? That she was the product of an affair? Or both?

In a meeting with representatives from the Gypsy Council to find out about Gypsy culture, a shocking revelation causes Annie's investigation to change direction. Did her mother really do it? Or was she simply blamed for an accidental caravan fire by her outraged community? Supported by her fiance and her adopted family, Annie won't give up until she tracks down the people who can give her the truth.

47 minutes

Last on

Thu 12 Apr 2018 00:10
主播大秀 One Northern Ireland HD & Northern Ireland only

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:10

    Ludovico Einaudi

    Night

  • 00:19

    Frances

    Grow

  • 00:20

    Fink

    Looking Too Closely

  • 00:36

    Agnes Obel

    Falling, Catching

Credits

Camera Operator Annie Keel
Producer Annie Keel
Director Annie Keel
Executive Producer Jane Merkin
Executive Producer Denman Rooke
Production Company October Films Ltd

Broadcasts

  • Mon 2 Oct 2017 23:25
    主播大秀 One except Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland HD, Scotland, Scotland HD, Wales & 1 more
  • Mon 2 Oct 2017 23:50
    主播大秀 One Northern Ireland HD, Wales HD, Northern Ireland & Wales only
  • Tue 3 Oct 2017 00:25
    主播大秀 One Scotland HD & Scotland only
  • Sat 13 Jan 2018 01:20
    主播大秀 Two
  • Wed 11 Apr 2018 23:15
    主播大秀 One except Northern Ireland & Northern Ireland HD
  • Thu 12 Apr 2018 00:10
    主播大秀 One Northern Ireland HD & Northern Ireland only

Featured in...

  • Real Lives

    Documentaries revealing the lives of modern-day Britons.