Showing results by author "Michael Portillo"

In Top of the Class, John Wilson meets leading figures in their fields and takes them back to the places and people they left behind.

In this episode from the third series, Michael Portillo heads back to his former school in Harrow. In his day, it was a boys' grammar school and in this visit, to celebrate one hundred years of the school, Michael is one of the guest speakers. At the school, Michael is reunited with one of his former teachers, Mr. Ken Waller, who remembers him as a very conscientious pupil.

Portillo's Secret History of Britain presents a compelling and wonderfully evocative history of Britain through the stories of its 'lost' or abandoned buildings. The chapters will cover a variety of historical themes: Crime and Punishment, Health and Medicine, Defence and Warfare, Manufacturing Industry, Transport and Communication, and Entertainment and Leisure. Using a combination of his own investigations and archive research, plus memories and quotations from the contributors he interviewed for the series, Michael will explain what the buildings were used for and by whom, why they were abandoned, and what they can tell us about our past. 

Great Continental Railway Journeys is now a firmly established series on BBC2, following in the illustrious tracks of its predecessor - Great British Railway Journeys. Both series are fronted by ex-politician Michael Portillo, and in this European odyssey he travels around continental Europe using George Bradshaw's 1913 Continental Railway Guide.