Michael Collins (born 12 February 1961) is a British author, journalist and television presenter.

Early life

Collins was born in

Walworth Walworth () is a district of south London, England, within the London Borough of Southwark. It adjoins Camberwell to the south and Elephant and Castle to the north, and is south-east of Charing Cross. Major streets in Walworth include the Old ...

, south east London, England. He attended Archbishop Michael Ramsey comprehensive school in Camberwell. In 1977, as part of the Great Education Debate, the school was the subject of the

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

documentary ''Our School and Hard Times''. That same year, aged 16, he left school and trained as a bespoke tailor.

Career

Throughout the 1990s, he worked in television production as a scriptwriter and producer. During this time he wrote the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

documentaries ''The Battersea Bardot'' (1994) and ''The National Alf'' (1994). His book ''The Likes Of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class'' won the George Orwell Prize in 2005. The book was serialized in ''The Guardian'' and became the Channel Four documentary ''The Biography of the British Working Class'', which was written and presented by the author. In 2011, he wrote and presented ''The Great Estate'', a documentary about social housing in the UK. broadcast on

BBC4 BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

and BBC2. His BBC4 documentary on suburbia, ''Everyday Eden: A Potted History of the Suburban Garden'' was broadcast in April 2014. Collins has contributed to BBC TV's ''

The Culture Show ''The Culture Show'' is a British magazine programme about books, art, film, architecture, music, visual fashion and the performing arts. The show was broadcast weekly on BBC Two between 2004 and 2015. Early history Launched in November 2004, t ...

'' and ''

The Politics Show ''Politics Show'' is an hour-long BBC One television political programme which was broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sundays between 2003 and 2011, broadcasting usually at midday. ''Politics Show'' was superseded by ''Sunday Politics'', a weeke ...

'' as well as Radio 4's ''

Start the Week ''Start the Week'' is a discussion programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 which began in April 1970. The current presenter is the former BBC political editor and the BBC's former political Sunday morning presenter Andrew Marr. The previous regular ...

'', ''

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by ...

'', ''Saturday Review'' and ''The Long View''. He has also written on television, film, new media, politics and history for numerous newspapers and magazines, including the ''

Observer An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment. Observer may also refer to: Computer science and information theory * In information theory, any system which receives information from an object * State observer in co ...

'', '' Guardian'', ''

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

'', '' TLS'', '' Sunday Telegraph'', '' Prospect'', ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

'', ''

Literary Review ''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Its offices are on Lexington Street in Soho. The magazine was edited for fourteen years by v ...

'', ''

Wallpaper Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so ...

'', '' French Vogue'' and ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...

''.

References

External links

Another Michael Collins
- official website
Michael Collins at Journalisted

Michael Collins articles
at ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

''
"Junkspace" (short story) by Michael Collins
''

'', 13 Dec. 2009
The Great Estate: The Rise and Fall of the Council House (documentary)
BBC Four
Everyday Eden: A Potted History of the Suburban Garden (documentary)
BBC 4, 2014
The Biography of the British Working Class (documentary)
at

Michael Collins interviewed by Andrew Marr
BBC Radio 4, "

Start The Week ''Start the Week'' is a discussion programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 which began in April 1970. The current presenter is the former BBC political editor and the BBC's former political Sunday morning presenter Andrew Marr. The previous regular ...

" programme, 2004
Michael Collins: The Demonisation of the White Working Class
The New Culture Forum Channel, 2020 1961 births Living people British male journalists British republicans {{UK-journalist-stub