Michael Portillo in Lucca

Emerging from my front door into the bright May sunlight flooding into Piazza Cittàdella I saw a man holding a camera and fluffy microphone by the statue of Giacomo Puccini. He was quite different from the usual hordes of tourists with cameras that normally congregate here so I looked around and noticed the familiar face of Michael Portillo.

He carried in his hand an old book which I assumed was a copy of the 1913 edition of Bradshaw’s Continental Railway Guide. Being of a similar age I shook hands and introduced myself as an English resident of Lucca with an interest in history, particularly art history and the music of Puccini. He confirmed that he was making another series on continental rail journeys and had indeed arrived by train to Lucca to and from Florence.

I said I had watched with interest many of the five series of BBC2 programmes Great British Railway Journeys from 2010 to 2014 where he used Bradshaw’s Descriptive Railway Hand-Book of Great Britain and Ireland (1863 edition) to travel across Britain visiting recommended places of interest noted in the guide book, and often staying in many recommended hotels. So popular were the broadcasts that facsimile copies of the 1863 edition became a best seller in the UK in 2011.

In 2012 and 2013 Portillo created two new series of Great Continental Railway Journeys similar to the broadcast he made about his journey between Granada and Salamanca in his ancestral country Spain. Portillo himself was born in North London in 1953.

Michael Portillo’s official website offers a brief biography:   

Michael Portillo attended Harrow County grammar school and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read history. He worked for the Conservative Party and for government ministers between 1976 and 1983. He entered the House of Commons in 1984. He was a minister for eleven years and had three positions in the Cabinet, including Secretary of State for Defence. He lost his seat at the 1997 election, and began to develop a career in the media. He returned to the Commons between 2000 and 2005, was shadow Chancellor, and contested the leadership of the party in 2001, unsuccessfully. Since leaving politics, he has devoted himself to writing and broadcasting. He is a regular on both BBC 1’s sardonic political “This Week” programme and Radio 4’s "The Moral Maze”. He has made radio and television documentaries on a wide range of subjects, including five series of "Great British (and recently Continental) Railway Journeys" for BBC2. In 2008 he chaired the judges of the Man Booker prize, and chaired the Art Fund prize for museums and galleries in 2011

I await with interest to see the broadcast showing Lucca, its railway and Portillo’s chosen interest in Puccini and opera, stroking the statue fondly and listening to the staged musical interlude of two singers performing a short extract from La Bohème in the local osteria Tosca which was included in his ‘shots to camera’. He appeared as I had expected, a suave, dignified and erudite man with the confident manner that comes from a successful career yet with a charm and personality obtained from a colourful private life. 

Recommended website: www.michaelportillo.co.uk