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Cartagena may be baking in the August heat, but Michael Portillo looks perfectly at ease. The former Conservative cabinet minister turned much loved travel presenter is in the historic port city filming his latest project, bringing with him the same mix of curiosity and charm that has made his documentaries so popular.

 

Portillo has deep roots in Spain. His father was a Spanish Republican exile from the Second Republic era, and his mother was Scottish. In 1955, when he was just two years old, he first travelled here with his mother and brother, arriving by boat in Vigo before continuing to Salamanca to visit relatives. By the age of nine, he was already making the trip alone to stay with an uncle in a village where, as he recalls, “absolutely no one spoke English.”

 

Now living in Carmona, near Seville, Spain is as much home as the UK to him. In 2023 he presented Portillo's Andalucia, a six part BBC series exploring the people, landscapes and history of the region, from Seville to the Alhambra. His trademark style blends travel, history and human encounters, with a focus on sharing the stories of the people he meets along the way.

 

When asked about his approach, he has said: “I always look for the history of the place and the best way I can interpret and convey it to the viewer.” That philosophy, rooted in his earliest memories of Spain, runs through all his work.

 

“The first trips I made were to Spain,” he has explained. “Many people write to me to say that, because of age or mobility, they cannot travel, but they travel with me. That is why I feel responsible for being enthusiastic about everything I see and do.”

 

Although his filming often involves high end hotels and busy schedules, Portillo thrives on personal connections. Language differences, he says, are never a barrier. “I really like breaking the ice when I’m interviewing someone, even if they’re from a completely different society,” he has said, describing conversations that quickly become warm and memorable. In Cartagena, a half hour chat with a young woman named Adriana left them feeling “like lifelong friends.”

 

Trains, of course, remain one of his great passions. To him, they are “romantic” and “nostalgic”, offering views, conversations and a pace of life that air travel cannot match. His future railway wish list spans Sri Lanka, China when politics allow, and Latin American countries where he can travel by train.

 

While he once navigated the corridors of Westminster, Portillo’s greatest journeys now are the ones that bring history, culture and the landscapes of Spain to audiences around the world and invite them to travel alongside him, even if only from their armchair.

 

 

Image: wikicommons