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Actors Gary Coleman Gary Wayne Coleman (February 8, 1968 – May 28, 2010) was an American actor, comedian, and writer. An adoptee, Coleman is one of the highest-paid child actors in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was rated first on a list of VH1's "100 Greatest Kid Stars" on television, and received several awards and nominations throughout his career, including winning two Young Artist Awards and four People's Choice Awards. He was best known for his role as Arnold Jackson in the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986), for which he received the Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor in a Comedy Series, as well as three other Young Artist Award nominations. Despite having a successful acting career, Coleman struggled financially in later life. In 1989, he successfully sued his parents and business adviser over misappropriation of his assets, only to declare bankruptcy a decade later. External Website

Films/Videos The Willoughbys 2020 The Willoughbys film (2020), a Netflix animated movie based on Lois Lowry’s book, follows four neglected siblings—Tim, Jane, and twins Barnaby A & B—who scheme to become orphans by sending their awful parents on a dangerous vacation. With help from a warm-hearted nanny and a quirky candy maker, the children escape their toxic home and ultimately form a loving, chosen family. Starring Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Alessia Cara, Terry Crews, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski and Ricky Gervais. The film blends dark humor with vibrant animation and delivers a heartfelt message: real family is built on love, not blood. External Website

Films/Videos An Angel for May 2002 Young Tom, who is unhappy at home because of his parents' separation, travels fifty years to the past after discovering a time machine. He meets May, a little orphan who has been traumatised. Now that he knows his friends' fate and his own, he will try to reorder the events and change their history. External Website

Plays & Musicals featuring Care Exp Jack Maggs Peter Carey 2024 Jack Maggs (1997) is a novel by Australia writer Peter Carey. Set in 19th century London, Jack Maggs is a retelling of Great Expectations (1861) by Charles Dickens with Jack Maggs as a central character (instead of Abel Magwitch). Jack Maggs was a foundling who was given in to foster care and trained to be a thief. After being betrayed, he is transported to the penal colony of New South Wales, where he does well and provides for his son in London, Henry Phipps (instead of Pip). Jack Maggs has been adapted for the stage by South Australian born playwright Samuel Adamson and the play has been put on by the State Theatre Company of South Australia in Adelaide during November 2024. Mark Saturno plays Jack Maggs and the story is told by another character who has a minor role in Great Expectations, Mercy Larkin (Ahunim Abebe), a housemaid. External Website

Films/Videos The Wizard of Oz 1939 In The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Dorothy Gale is an orphan who lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry on a farm in Kansas. Throughout the story, Dorothy takes charge of her circumstances, leading her friends—the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion—on a quest to meet the Wizard and find a way back home. This journey symbolizes her independence and search for security and family, which ultimately reinforces the theme that "there's no place like home". When a tornado rips through Kansas, Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog, Toto, are whisked away in their house to the magical land of Oz. They follow the Yellow Brick Road toward the Emerald City to meet the Wizard, and en route they meet a Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) that needs a brain, a Tin Man (Jack Haley) missing a heart, and a Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) who wants courage. The wizard asks the group to bring him the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) to earn his help. External Website

Television Shows The Last Anniversary 2025 The Last Anniversary (2025) is an Australian family drama series adapted from the eponymous novel by Liane Moriarty. Set on the fictitious Scribbly Gum Island, close to Sydney, journalist Sophie (Teresa Palmer) inherits a property from the now-deceased Connie (Angela Punch McGregor), one of 2 sisters who raised a child ostensibly not their own but abandoned by a couple decades ago. Connie & Rose – and their families – have been making a living out of telling the story of “Baby Munro”, abandoned by their parents who mysteriously disappeared; Scribbly Gum Island is now a tourist attraction. The truth revealed at the end of the series is that *spoiler alert* the baby, named Enigma, is the child of one of the sisters. External Website

Biography of Care Experienced People My Place Sally Morgan 2010 Looking at the views and experiences of three generations of indigenous Australians, this autobiography unearths political and societal issues contained within Australia's Indigenous culture. Sally Morgan traveled to her grandmother’s birthplace, starting a search for information about her family. She uncovers that she is not white but First Nations—information that was kept a secret because of the stigma of society. This moving account is a classic of Australian literature that finally frees the tongues of the author’s mother and grandmother, allowing them to tell their own stories of being taken from their parents. External Website

Films/Videos Foreign Correspondent: Saving the Children 2023 In this disturbing report we hear about the ongoing sexual abuse of children in the Philippines. Most perpetrators are from the United States and Australia and most ‘facilitators’ are parents. Included in the report is footage inside a shelter where children live when they’ve been removed from parents. Many of the children are distressed about being taken from their parents; some are relieved. External Website

Radio & Podcast Coco Chanel The Scandal Mongers Podcast 2024 French fashion designer Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel (1883-1971) was in an orphanage as a child. In this video, English biographer and social historian, Anne De Coucy speaks about Coco Chanel and her astonishing rise from orphanage kid to one of the best known women in France. Anne De Coucy also scotches long standing views of Chanel as pro-Nazi. External Website

Radio & Podcast Eleanor Roosevelt Short History of (Roosevelt) 2024 In this podcast, Eleanor Roosevelt’s childhood – including in kinship care and boarding school in England - is reviewed. Although Eleanor Roosevelt was born into privilege, she became an activist for social justice, a major theme discussed in this Short History. External Website

Television Shows My Mum Tracy Beaker 2021 My Mum Tracy Beaker is a British children's television miniseries that premiered on CBBC and BBC iPlayer on 12 February 2021. The series follows on from the events of its predecessors, The Story of Tracy Beaker, Tracy Beaker Returns and The Dumping Ground. My Mum Tracy Beaker saw Dani Harmer reprise her role as Tracy Beaker, and also included original cast members Lisa Coleman, Ruth Gemmell and Montanna Thompson, as well as new cast members Emma Davies and Jordan Duvigneau. External Website

Films/Videos James and the Giant Peach 1996 James and the Giant Peach is a movie starring Paul Terry, Joanna Lumley, and Pete Postlethwaite. An orphan who lives with his two cruel aunts befriends anthropomorphic bugs who live inside a giant peach, and they embark on a journey... External Website

Films/Videos War Horse 2011 War Horse (2011) is a film adaptation by Steven Spielberg of the Michael Morpurgo novel and the 2007 stage play written by Lee Hall & Richard Curtis. In this version, Joey and Topthorn are found by Emilie (Celine Buckens) and she hides them in her bedroom when German soldiers arrive. Emilie is allowed by her grandfather to ride Joey, but the horses are soon confiscated by the Germans. War Horse was nominated for 6 Academy Awards and was the American Film Institute’s Film of the Year 2011 External Website

Television Shows Untamed 2025 Untamed (2025) is an American murder mystery series set in Yosemite National Park. Eric Bana stars as Kyle Turner, a special agent at Yosemite National Park who leads an investigation into the death of a young woman whose body falls off El Capitan in the Park. *Spoiler Alert* “Jane Doe” is Lucy Cook who disappeared in 2007. We find out that Lucy Cook was actually taken by her unacknowledged father in 2007 & put into foster care in another state & with a supposedly “good” but anything but foster family. Eventually, Lucy/Grace ran away and back to Yosemite. External Website

Writers Nancy Reagan Nancy Reagan (1921-2016) was born Anne Frances Robbins in Queens, NYC. She was sent to live with relatives in Maryland after her parents separated. Nancy returned to live with her mother 7 years later after her mother remarried. Nancy was legally adopted by her stepfather in 1935. She began her working life as an actor, not retiring until 1962. Nancy then joined her husband, Ronald Reagan on the campaign trail when he announced his candidacy for Governor of California in 1966, and later for Presidency. She was First Lady during Ronald Reagan's presidency from 1981 to 1989. Nancy Reagan published her first book in 1982. To Love a Child was her book about the Foster Grandparents program which she began sponsoring when Ronald Reagan was Governor of California. She also wrote her memoirs and an autobiography, and I Love You, Ronnie (2002), a reflection of her long marriage to Ronald. External Website

Authors L Life of the Week: Frederick Douglass ➝ Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley ➝ A free lunch ➝ Lemn Sissay Is the One and Only ➝ Back to Top

Autobiography/Memoir A Chip Off What Block? Laurie Humphreys 2007 Tells of the life of Laurie Humphries, a child migrant who lived his early life without a family, an orphan who lost touch with his brothers and sisters when he came to Australia, and of his subsequent hard life of ' work, eat, and sleep'; then rise to become an long-time active council member. External Website

Authors E Every one of us has a different story': a historic portrait of care system success ➝ Back to Top

Television Shows Judge John Deed 2001 Judge John Deed (2001-2007) is a British legal drama. Martin Shaw plays Judge John Deed, a High Court judge who is determined to seek justice in the cases set before him. He is often hampered by political players who want to protect the interests of the nation and/or big business. In Series 1, Episode 5, John Deed discovers to his amazement that he was adopted as a baby. In the same episode there is another child protection story in which a woman has a baby removed because she won’t permit the child – not biologically hers – to have a test for HIV. Adoption is not mentioned again until Season 2, Episode 6 when Deed goes into therapy. There is an attempt to blame his womanising on him being adopted. From Series 2, Episode 8 a discussion begins about barrister Jo Mills (Jenny Seagrove), Deed’s long term love interest, adopting the son of a client who has died. The dominant story in Series 3, Episode 3 is that of a 13-year-old adoptee being accused of raping his teacher. The Council is alleged to have not provided a full report on the boy’s background to the adoptive parents. Another story in the same episode is that of a man who was sexually abused as a child – at home and in ‘care’ – killing a paedophile in prison to prevent him abusing others on his release. Series 4, Episode 1 has an accused who has spent 24 of his 29 years in some sort of institution. Series 4, Episode 3 also has a convicted youth who was in the care of the state. External Website

Radio & Podcast Maya Angelou (radio) World Book Club 2014 Maya Angelou reflects on some of her earliest and most difficult memories and talks about her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in this special commemorative edition of World Book Club from the archive. External Website