Heir Hunters is a BBC television programme focusing on attempts to find missing or unknown heirs, entitled to deceased people's estates before the British Treasury lawfully collects the money. The show follows the work of Probate researchers from a number of different firms to show how the results of time-consuming research turned out. It was announced in 2011 that Heir Hunters would be switched from BBC One daytime to primetime television on BBC Two that autumn.[1]
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The series is made by Flame TV. The first series was presented by Nadia Sawalha, while all subsequent series are narrated by Lisa Faulkner.
The series ran as part of BBC One's weekday lineup in the early morning factual slot (9.15 am - 10 am), alongside shows including Animal 24:7 and Helicopter Heroes. The second series had record viewing numbers for the time slot and beat the Jeremy Kyle show on ITV consistently during its run, prompting the BBC to immediately recommission a third series.
The title cards for the 2008 and later series spell 'Heir Hunters' as 'H£ir Hunt£rs', using the pound sterling sign as a capital E. In each programme of the first two series three unclaimed estates from Bona Vacantia are mentioned in the hope of information being given by a viewer which could help find an heir or heirs. One of these mentioned in the first series resulted in information that led to some heirs being found for an estate.
The term "Heir Hunter" has become known to refer to any person or firm who tracks down beneficiaries to estates of deceased persons. "Heir hunters" may also be known as probate detectives, probate researchers, heir searchers, or forensic genealogists.
The series has been repeated on the UKTV channels Watch and Yesterday.
In 2011 it began to be transmitted on the History Channel in the UK, New Zealand and Australia.
From 21 November - 2 December 2011, ten re-versioned episodes of series 5 were shown on BBC 2 at 7pm each weekday. The expanded episodes have an increased duration of 59 minutes and feature Lisa Faulkner on camera for the first time interviewing experts and Heir Hunters.
The series was aired in a stripped daily format, running Monday - Friday for 3, 4, 5 and 4 weeks respectively.[2][3][4]
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Repeats of series 2 followed series 3 in August 2009 and repeats of series 3 preceded series 4 in early 2010, and series 3 was repeated again in August/September 2010.