The House I Grew Up In

Writer Toby Young, son of Open University founder Lord Young of Dartington, visits his childhood, recalling how grammar school saved him where his progressive education failed.

Campaigner against forced marriage Jasvinder Sanghera returns to her Sikh childhood home of Derby. She ran away from home aged 15, causing a family rift which never fully healed.

Terry Waite, who was held hostage in Beirut for nearly five years in the late 1980s, returns to his childhood in the small Cheshire hamlet of Styal.

British politician Baroness Shirley Williams returns to her childhood homes in London's Chelsea and the New Forest in Hampshire. Born in 1930 into privilege, she traces the roots of a life in politics.

The writer and journalist, Peter Hitchens, grew up in Portsmouth. He takes Wendy Robbins back to the homes and haunts of his post-war childhood and explores the root of his teenage rebellion and the fractured relationship with his brother, Christopher Hitchens. This programme was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2010.

The series which revisits the childhood homes and neighbourhoods of influential Britons, uncovering the experiences which shaped their lives. Ahead of the new Radio 4 series, presenter Wendy Robbins presents highlights from past programmes.

School super-head, Sir William Atkinson, first came to the UK from Jamaica aged 7 in the 1950s. The family settled in Battersea, South London, a white working-class neighbourhood. Despite a difficult educational start, school became his saviour. He went into education to return the favour. He revisits his childhood home with presenter Wendy Robbins.

TV screenwriter Kay Mellor was born into a working class Leeds household in the 1950s and brought up by her mother from the age of three. Money was tight, she did badly at school and was married with a child, at just sixteen. Kay takes presenter Wendy Robbins to her childhood home and haunts in Leeds.

Businesswoman Julia Hobsbawn was the daughter of the Marxist historian, Eric. She grew up amid the country's leading thinkers. She takes Wendy Robbins to childhood homes in Hampstead and rural north Wales.