A mother's hug for the first time in 51 years...

Alan and Anne's Long Lost Family reunion

- BY MARK JEFFERIES Showbiz Editor

Alan with his partner Sue and mum Anne after an emotional reunion in ITV series

IN an emotional embrace, a man hugs the mother who walked out on him when he was just five years old more than 50 years ago.

In a new series of ITV's Long Lost Family, Alan Parker, 56, is reunited with Anne, who left him and his younger brother and sister with their father.

He had never been able to find out why she left their home in Reading, Berks, 51 years ago but Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell come to his aid in the series, which returns tomorrow.

Alan can remember Anne giving him an Action Man on his fifth birthday before she walked out, but could no longer recall what she looked like.

He says: "I remember my mum handing me my birthday present. I was delighted and then my mum left. I was looking out of the window and that is the last time I recall seeing my mum.

"I can't remember my mums face or anything. Maybe it was too traumatic."