December 21st, 2009 by Lisa McGarry.
London taxi baron John Griffin is worth more than £50 million. He started his business from nothing, and has made some tough decisions, but they have paid off. With 2,500 cabs and a turnover of £176 million in the last year, his company Addison Lee is the biggest taxi operator in Britain. Now John is looking for a new challenge. Over eight days, he gives up his luxury lifestyle to live undercover in Newcastle’s Westside, where he looks for and is introduced to people who may need his help. He’ll eventually give away more than £155,000 of his own money.
Thursday 24 December 2009
9:00pm, Channel 4
September 16th, 2009 by Lisa McGarry.
Forty-five-year-old Kevin Green is one of the biggest landlords in the country. In just eight years he has built up a portfolio of over 300 houses and a nine-million-pound fortune. He’s agreed to swap his beautiful country home for a tiny rented bedsit in the heart of Barnstaple, looking for people and causes who may need his help. At the end of his stay, he’ll give away tens of thousands of pounds of his own money. On the way, Kevin finds himself having to confront his own personal tragedy before revealing himself as a Secret Millionaire .
Wednesday 23 September 2009
9:00pm, Channel 4
September 15th, 2009 by Lisa McGarry.
Thirty-six-year-old Liz Jackson lost her sight ten years ago. She has her own telemarketing business over 100 employees, and an MBE. Liz is spending eight days living undercover in South London, where she will be introduced to people who may need her help. She’ll meet people in the area who are not only living with disabilities and financial problems, but are helping others to live with theirs. Liz is inspired by the people she meets and is forced to confront her own disability, before giving away tens of thousands of pounds of her own money.
Wednesday 16 September 2009
9:00pm
Channel 4
April 19th, 2009 by Lisa McGarry.
Property developer Rob Lloyd leaves his home in rural Cheshire to go undercover in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a city struggling to recover after three decades of unrest. From his base in the Shankill Road – where one of the Troubles’ most notorious bombings took place in 1993 – Lloyd learns at first hand the personal cost of the conflict which tore apart the community. He sees how the residents are now rebuilding their lives, from a local boxing club to a housing project in Ardoyne, helping him …
Sunday April 19th Channel 4, 9PM
April 5th, 2009 by Lisa McGarry.
Jennifer Cheyne has turned a £2,000 loan from her father into a multi-million-pound fortune and one of Edinburgh’s top hairdressing empires. But Jennifer is leaving behind her luxurious lifestyle to go undercover in Aberfan, a former coal mining village in the Welsh valleys, which was the scene of the 1966 tragedy. Now the coal mines are long gone, leaving behind an ageing population. As she gets to know the local community, Jennifer is struck by the extraordinary lengths people go to for their neighbours. After an emotional few days, Jennifer must make some hard decisions about who to help.
Sunday 5 April 2009
9:00pm, Channel 4
March 29th, 2009 by Lisa McGarry.
Gary Eastwood started his business with a £100 loan from his grandfather. Now his hugely successful scrap metal business is worth £20 million. For nine days Gary lives a secret life in Blackpool where he looks for and is introduced to people who may need his help. He starts work as a volunteer in the local homeless shelter, where he meets a recovering heroin addict whose harrowing story forces Gary to confront the ghosts of his own past. Gary’s sisters were both victims of a heroin addiction that eventually resulted in their tragic deaths.
Sunday 29 March 2009
9:00pm, Channel 4
August 5th, 2008 by Lisa McGarry.
Back for a new seven-part series, the critically-acclaimed and award-winning The Secret Millionaire returns with a new batch of wealthy benefactors seeking to change the lives of others for the better.
Each week a millionaire leaves their luxury life behind, takes on a secret identity and lives undercover in a deprived area of the UK for ten days. Living on a limited budget with no mod-cons they must forge their own way in the community – working and volunteering alongside the locals and finding individuals and projects who they think deserve a cut of their fortune. Read more & comment »
November 6th, 2007 by Lisa McGarry.
Channel 4′s most successful new series in the 9pm slot last year, the Rose d’Or-winning The Secret Millionaire , returns with six brand new episodes. In each programme a millionaire goes undercover and assumes a new identity to enable them to live anonymously as part of the community before revealing who they really are. At the end of their ten-day visit, the millionaires reveal their true identity to the individuals and groups they have met during their stay and who they feel are the most deserving of their own hard-earned cash. Tonight’s millionaire is Gill Fielding who goes undercover in London’s East End.
Wednesday 7 November 2007
9:00pm
February 13th, 2007 by Lisa McGarry.
A cafe that was given £15,000 by millionaire Charan Gill as part of Channel 4′s Secret Millionaire programme, was closed down last month due to its failure to pay its bills.
Its such a shame that after being given the lifeline by Charan, this business couldn’t survive. But I suppose it shows that any amount of money can be plunged into a business, but if its not a viable prospect it will just be a waste of resources.
February 12th, 2007 by Lisa McGarry.
Channel 4, has announced that there will be a second season of the hit documentary series The Secret Millionaire.
The first series of The Secret Millionaire was the most popular new series on Channel 4 in the 9pm slot last year attracting audiences of 3.5million. Read more & comment »
