David Lomas' rock 'I CAN'T DO IT WITHOUT HER!'

The TV investigator reveals partner Clarinda makes him feel so lucky in love

- Fleur Guthrie

For the past seven years, Clarinda Franklin has become used to bidding her partner David Lomas au revoir regularly as he spans the globe, reuniting disconnected Kiwis with lost family members.

However, when school holidays aligned with the filming schedule of a trip to Lithuania and Greece for the new season of David Lomas Investigates, the Auckland principal bought herself a plane ticket and was welcomed as part of the crew.

Well, David came up with a more official - if not endearing - title for her while on the road.

“She was the ‘bag lady’,” he chuckles. “Usually, it’s just me and cameraman Ivars Berzins. So when he’s filming me walking down a busy street, we keep the camera bags close, but they’re unattended, and it’s hard keeping an eye on them while working at the same time.

“It sounds ridiculous, but you can’t believe how useful it is having that extra person to mind those bags and also, when I’m doing an interview, to neatly note down my questions instead of me trying to scribble them as I talk.”

So does she get an onscreen credit at the end?

“Yeah, personal assistant to Mr Lomas,” he laughs.

“No don’t put that in!”

In a case of what goes on tour doesn’t stay on tour, the couple is happy to share a few insights into what happens behind the scenes of David’s hugely popular TV series.

Chatting from Clarinda’s stunning Mediterranean-style seaside home, he says she brought a much-needed “woman’s touch”, especially when filming episode one.

It features 22-year-old Justina King, who was looking for her birth mother in Visaginas, known as Lithuania’s “nuclear town” for its now decommissioned Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant where the TV series Chernobyl was filmed.

The young Whanganui woman shares onscreen that she was born with fetal alcohol syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by exposure to alcohol before birth.