Abandoned review – this real-life mystery makes for TV that’s a wild helter-skelter ride

Now grown, three siblings search for clues as to why their parents left them at a Barcelona railway station in 1984 – and uncover a secret family history they could never have imagined

Did you know your surname when you were five years old? The more you think about it, the harder the question becomes to answer. Most of us will have been lucky enough for it not to matter – parents or guardians were always on hand to look after those details. But for Ramón, Elvira and Ricard, it was a very real issue. Their family name was a mystery. Over its four episodes, this gripping documentary series both shows and tells what that absence really means.

The three siblings were found by a station guard as they wandered around Barcelona’s Estació de França in 1984. They carried no luggage or ID. The oldest of them ( Ramón) was five. They had been driven there by a man they knew only as Denis. He had left, ostensibly to buy them sweets, and never returned. No adults came forward to claim them so they found themselves in the Spanish childcare system.

Abandoned is on Disney+
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