From the postwar era through the early 1980s, over 250,000 unmarried women across the UK had their babies forcibly taken for adoption by the state. In July 2026, the government accepted responsibility and apologised, with the Prime Minister calling it "a stain on our history", following similar apologies in Australia and across the Commonwealth.
Through powerful first-hand testimony from mothers, adoptees, former workers within the system, and those who exposed it decades later, the film uncovers the state-built systems behind one of the most significant human rights injustices of the modern era.
PRESS FEATURES
RADIO TIMES - The Handmaid's Tale was a fiction that talked to a reality – and our documentary Stolen Babies shows just that
BBC - I was told I was unworthy to be a mother, then they stole my baby
THE GUARDIAN - The scale of this cruelty is almost impossible to fathom
THE HERALD - Stolen Babies review: I watched in sympathy, then fury
THE TELEGRAPH - A searing exposé on the forced adoption scandal shames the church and state
***** [Five Stars]
THE SUN
***** [Five Stars]
IRISH INDEPENDENT
***** [Five Stars]
THE HERALD
***** [Five Stars]
THE TELEGRAPH
**** [Four Stars]
THE GUARDIAN
"Landmark feature documentary."
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
"An enraging account of a brutal injustice."
THE TIMES
"The kind of documentary that knocks you sideways."
THE TELEGRAPH
"Remarkably, there are some joyful moments to hang on for."
THE GUARDIAN
"I watched in sympathy, then fury... outstanding documentary."
THE HERALD
"Sobering, landmark documentary."
THE HERALD
"Searing... enraging."
IRISH INDEPENDENT
"Documentary-making at its best."
THE HERALD
"Horrifying... will leave you outraged."
WOMAN & HOME
"Staggering."
THE TELEGRAPH
"Harrowing."
THE GUARDIAN
"Remarkable."
THE TELEGRAPH
"The sense of loneliness, trauma and shame is palpable in each account."
THE TELEGRAPH
"Harrowing detail... to watch Stolen Babies is to run a 90-minute relay between sympathy and fury."
THE HERALD
"This film is ultimately about the power of good. Despite the cruelty on display, some people knew this was wrong and were prepared to shout long and hard about it."
THE HERALD
"Pick of the week."
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
"Doc of the week."
THE HERALD
"Pick of the day."
THE I
"Pick of the day."
DAILY STAR
"Doc of the day."
DAILY MIRROR
"Top pick."
THE GUARDIAN