David Lomas, the man who loves to bring people together, shares his most precious connection. Photo / Emily Chalk
You don’t hear it much on screen, but off screen – when he’s relaxing with his long-term love Clarinda Franklin – TV investigator David Lomas has one heck of an infectious laugh.
As he offers up “school ma’am” Clarinda’s freshly made cheese scones to the Weekly team, there goes his chuckle again.
“I only suggested we do the photoshoot at her house in the hope she’d make these!” he jokes.
It’s impossible not to laugh with him.
Sitting companionably together on the couch, with the sound of waves lapping on the North Auckland beach outside, David is trawling through his phone showing us photos of the couple’s recent trip through South Africa, Botswana and Zambia.
The pair took in incredible views along some fairly precarious bluffs and immersed themselves in the African wilderness, where they saw among many animals, lions, rhinos, elephants and a solitary leopard roaming freely through the untouched savannah.
It was Clarinda’s first time there. Her highlight was going on safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana and Mukuni Village in Zambia, where 8000 people live in thatched huts, most with no electricity, no running water and no sewer system.
“The kids there were delightful – and I couldn’t help myself checking their ability to count,” tells the primary school principal.
And David’s highlight?
“Just having her along with me,” he grins. “I had been to Africa before, but seeing it through Clarinda’s eyes made it for me.
“It was just the most perfect scenario – I was filming for my new series, and the guy I was reuniting with family in South Africa could only get leave from work between Christmas and early January.
“I thought, ‘Well, that’s a shame, isn’t it?’” he jokes, knowing it would, in fact, align with Clarinda’s school holidays. She bought herself a plane ticket and was once again welcomed as part of the crew.
The last time Clarinda had joined David for a work trip, he quickly gave her the endearing moniker of “the Bag Lady”, where she happily minded all of the camera bags at their various filming locations.
“Well, this time, she became ‘the Lookout Lady’,” explains David. “We were driving past miles of squatter camps and we wanted to get some drone shots of them, so we pulled up on a motorway off-ramp. Malcolm, our cameraman, started flying the drone, but one of us had to stay in the car as the getaway driver, so if anything went wrong, we were ready to take off. So I stayed in the car with the engine running and volunteered Clarinda to be on the lookout, making sure that no one came.”
However, within minutes, the police turned up.
“They saw us out there and said to Malcolm, ‘Do you realise where you are?’ He replied, ‘Yes, we’re on the motorway off-ramp, but we didn’t think we’d cause any trouble for other drivers.’ The police said, ‘No, you’re in great danger standing here by the squatters.’”
Clarinda adds, “They were very concerned for us. Yet we could only see all these little kids curiously watching us, so we didn’t feel unsafe at all.”
Television stalwart David is still incredibly passionate about helping reunite disconnected Kiwis with lost family members around the globe. Around 16,000 people have contacted him since his first show Missing Pieces began in 2009.
He says this series of David Lomas: Breakthrough features one of the most heartfelt, emotional reunions he has ever witnessed, when Christchurch woman Shararah ‘Sha’ Nadali meets the Iranian father she hasn’t seen since childhood.
“It was an amazing story trying to connect a guy in Iran, who had come to New Zealand as a halal butcher in the 1980s, started a relationship, then a family, with a local Māori lady. But he abruptly returned for the Iran/Iraqi war in the late ’80s, when his daughter Sha was only two. So she had never really known her dad or had any contact with him.
“Nobody knew where he was – his brother in New Zealand and sister in Tehran had lost contact with him.”
Soon after David started to investigate, the man’s sister found him on WhatsApp. Messages were exchanged for months, though he never committed to meeting Sha.
“Finally, he said he’d do it!” tells David. “I was trying to get to Iran, but my company wouldn’t let me go because it was too dangerous. So we were trying to get him to New Zealand. However, visas were impossible. So it was agreed the meeting would take place in Armenia, which neighbours Iran.
“And then Israel attacked Iran. I was in Europe about to fly to Armenia to meet him, but he couldn’t get out of Iran because the airport was closed.”
Eventually, David set up the meeting again. But right up until the moment it happened, he still wasn’t sure how the reunion would go.
“The whole time I was wondering how father and daughter would get along because he is a fundamentalist Muslim, yet Sha is into fashion, bikinis on the beach and having beers at a barbecue,” shares David.
“The dad had asked if Sha would wear the hijab [headscarf] to cover her hair. When she turned up for the reunion, there was a bit of hair showing, so we used ‘stickies’ – adhesives for attaching a microphone – to stick her hair down.
“There was a hint of make-up, but Sha had said, ‘I’ll do it my way’ and she looked amazing. She and her father bonded instantly. It was one of the most incredible reunions I’ve ever seen.
“Two different cultures – bang,” says David, clapping his hands together. “Just beautiful! She spent the whole time with him for the following three days. I’m thankful we could make that happen before the current US-Iran war. The world’s gone crazy now.”
David has not often spoken about his own two children from previous relationships. His daughter Kate, 32, is preparing to move to Minnesota, where her partner lives, and he says a wedding looks to be on the cards in the US next year.
Son Jett, 23, graduated from Otago University in 2024 and now travels the world working as a maritime surveyor.
David explains, “His first year was spent in Norway and he’s currently in Perth overseeing ocean surveying off Australia being done by using the largest non-military, remote-controlled ship in the world.
“He has a fascinating life,” says the proud dad. “I’m getting worried that Jett is going to overtake me and go to more countries than I’ve been to. Kate has also done a hell of a lot of travelling.”
David, who is in his early seventies, has always worked hard to keep fit and active, and still runs an average of 50km a week.
Although he’s not a fan of competing in marathons any more (“I’ve never enjoyed them”), David likes going for a run whenever he arrives in a new city to get a feel for the place, as well as checking out suitable filming locations.
As he approached 70, he decided that every year onward, he would attempt “something interesting and off-road” to challenge himself physically.
This year’s version saw him do a 22km trail run from the Desert Road to the Chateau Tongariro, which involved a 500m climb between Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu.
“It was quite rough,” he tells. “I’m not competitive – I just do the runs for the fun of it and usually on my own.”
Previous challenges include running the 18km Aotea Track on Great Barrier Island, as well as the 30km Rakiura Bush Track on Stewart Island. Closer to his Ponsonby home, he is often greeted by people who are homeless and gang members who recognise him.
“Those guys yell out to me when I run past the City Mission on Hobson Street, so I stop and have a quick chat,” he tells. “They watch the programme in the shelter.
“It’s unbelievable the number of gang guys who love the programme. They’re part of the disconnected, so they relate to the show big time.
“I’ve always thought that most people are decent people. I used to do a lot of big-feature crime stories and even a lot of the bad guys are good.”
While the show is funded for another series, David doesn’t know how long the programme will go for – every year he lives in hope it will receive continued backing for another season – he’s certain he doesn’t want to retire.
At the moment, though, another project is taking his attention. David is chained to the keyboard writing “the stories behind the stories” for a book due to be released later this year.
As a young journalist, he originally made his name at The Dominion newspaper, building a stellar reputation as a crime reporter and covering the likes of the Mr Asia drugs syndicate case.
“It’s that funny thing,” he pauses thoughtfully. “A lot of what I’ve done, including snippets of my journalism life, are quite interesting, I suppose. I had always thought I’d like to write a book and had never got around to it until now.”
So will his autobiography be titled after that well-known opening line “I’m David Lomas”?
“Ha! Probably,” he says. “‘I’m David Lomas and today I’m in a book!’”
And there is that hearty laugh again.
Quick fire:
What’s the last thing that you and Clarinda watched on TV together? “We actually don’t watch TV – well, other than my programme when it airs.”
Do long-lost family members ever swear at you? “There have been occasions over the years. It happens very rarely, but in South Africa recently I got sworn at over the phone by the person we were trying to find.”
David, are you really just a big softy? “I suppose I might be. I’d rather watch a rom-com than a bang-bang movie. I like that they always have a happy ending.”
Clarinda: “If ‘big softy’ is another way of saying ‘compassionate’, then yes. His compassion comes through all the time.”
David Lomas: Breakthrough screens Tuesday nights, 7.30pm on Three and ThreeNow.