Having been at school with Michael Portillo, I have to mention that we were never close. Indeed, despite spending several years in the same class, we rarely conversed and mixed in different circles. While his circle prospered, mine seems to have vanished without trace, but that's another story.
When I discovered, years later, that 'Polly', as he'd been known, was becoming a leading light in the Conservative party I was less than enthusiastic; my schoolboy recollections of him were such as to have left me with few feelings of fellowship towards him and I saw him as being simply another oily, grasping politician.
As time passed, I have to admit that I began to find him slightly less obnoxious and even found myself in agreement with him on various political issues. While the nation cheered his demise at the 1997 General Election, I found myself sympathising with the rather pathetic figure who'd just been so humiliated by his electorate. His later political manoeuverings seemed to be horribly unstructured and did him no favours, culminating in his withdrawal from the political stage. Which is when he found his true milieu.
For the last few years, Portillo's appearances on 'This Week', mostly alongside Diane Abbot, have been an absolute delight, combining serious political debate with charm and humour, but it is his most recent televisual series which has really been a revelation. "Great British Railway Journeys" is television at its very best; the amount of detail crammed into each 30 minute programme, with no apparent rush, is a tribute to Portillo's presentational style. His easy manner, yet full of genuine enthusiasm for his subject, should be a lesson for many other TV presenters who seem to 'gush' ceaselessly at every opportunity. In Portillo's programmes, it is his subjects - trains, railways, towns, people and industries - that take centre stage as he guides his viewers around some long-forgotten elements of this nation's history.
It's taken a long time but, after a 'Great British Journey', Michael Portillo has truly arrived. Good onya, 'Polly'.
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