Eleven years ago, aged just 16, Ben Way made a life changing business deal worth 25 million pounds, making him one of Britain’s youngest self-made millionaires. Six years later, he’d lost the lot. Now, aged 26, Ben has successfully rebuilt his fortune. But, now fully aware of how tough life can be when you hit rock bottom, he wants to find others who deserve a helping hand. “I’ve been incredibly lucky to have ended up on this side of the tracks. I see it a bit like Russian roulette. My life played Russian roulette with me. Fortunately I won and some people haven’t and I can find those people and change their lives.” Tonight, Ben says goodbye to his private plane, his central London bachelor pad and his fine dining to live on one of the toughest estates in London. He travels just seven miles across town to Hackney – one of the city’s most deprived areas – notorious for gang culture, violent crime and where nearly 60 percent of the kids grow up in single parent families. For ten days he works as a volunteer youth worker at the Pedro Club alongside its inspirational manager, Ufu, who greets Ben by saying, “welcome to murder mile.” During his stay, Ben lives in a room in a shared flat on the local estate.
62-year-old John Elliott from Bishop Auckland - a life-long supporter of the Conservative Party and one of the richest people in England. He employs more than three hundred people at his factory making water coolers. John’s now one of the largest suppliers in the world, but life did not begin this way. He grew up in poverty two miles from where he lives now. His father died when he was a small child and his mother raised three children single-handedly. This upbringing has left John with a real sense of what it is like to have nothing and he never takes his wealth for granted. “I did at one point”, says John, “think it may be good to get rid of it and start all over again, then there would be the real pressure of doing it again. A bit like getting to the end of the fish and chip queue and then going to the end and starting again. That would take some strength wouldn’t it?” John is incredibly charitable, giving away thousands each year to different causes. But now he wants a more hands on approach to giving and feels he wants to get as close as possible to the people who really need it. “It’s very easy to write cheques out for organisations… but it is important to get out there and identify people with real needs”. This is why he has agreed to live undercover for ten days - leaving his lifestyle and even his identity behind to live in a small rented flat on the equivalent of state benefits in Kensington, Liverpool, one of the poorest parts of Britain. According to a Government report, the social and economic deprivation there is severe and deep rooted. Its residents have a 50% greater chance of dying earlier than the average person in England. But John does not believe in spending or giving away money for the sake of it. He is very careful not to be wasteful or casual with his giving. So how easy will he find it to identify individuals who he feels are really deserving of his assistance? And, when faced with the realisation that he may hav
Last year Charan Gill, the curry-house king of Scotland, sold his restaurant empire for £16 million pounds. He became one of the richest men in the country overnight. Now, he lives with his wife and family in his dream home. But Charan’s not always been used to having money. He moved to Glasgow from India when he was 9 years old and started out working in the shipyards at the age of 15. He spent the next 25 years learning about business and by the time he was in his 40s he owned 17 Indian restaurants. Today, Charan feels he wants to help others who haven’t been as fortunate as himself. “I’ve worked hard, but I know that there are a lot of people who have worked harder than me who are still on the poverty line. I hope I can do some good. I would like to think there’s more to me than just curry.” This week, the 51-year-old Sikh becomes the third Secret Millionaire to go under cover and try to find people that he believes are worthy recipients for some of his fortune. He travels to Thetford, Norfolk, to join the thousands of unskilled workers who survive in rural Britain on the minimum wage. For the next ten days, he’s agreed to leave his millionaire lifestyle and start again with only £10 pounds in his pocket. As far as the locals are concerned he’s taking part in a documentary about people moving to the area hoping to start a new life. Unemployment levels in Thetford are low, but with most people working for the minimum wage, poverty levels are high, so it’s not going to be easy. During his stay, Charan has to fend for himself. He lives in a small rented flat on a housing estate costing £60 per week, so he has to make money fast and after a visit to the local job centre he lands his first day’s work as a fruit packer in a factory earning £5.25 per hour. He moves from job to job daily and soon discovers more about what life is like for the low wage earners of Thetford. At the end of his first week, and 48 hours of hard labour, his
Paul Williams started in business 25 years ago. He’s now worth £60 million and lives in a country mansion on the richest private estate in England. But for 10 days, Paul has agreed to say goodbye to his millionaire lifestyle and live undercover as part of the community on the Thorntree estate, Middlesbrough, one of the poorest areas in Britain. He wants to make a difference in people’s lives and give away some of his fortune. “When you’ve got a lot of money and wealth you do feel a little bit guilty. So one of the things for me, giving money away does, is to alleviate that guilt to some extent. It makes me feel better, it makes me feel I’m doing something and that I’m dealing with my wealth responsibly.” But he’s not going to Middlesbrough alone. Tonight, The Secret Millionaire has decided to take his 20-year-old son Ben with him. As a self made man, Paul tried to give Ben everything he himself didn’t have as a youngster. But now he feels it’s time to teach his son about financial responsibility and is hoping to show him what life is like without the finer things. “What I want Ben to learn from this is just what a lucky young man he is and how much he’s really got and what a privileged position he has in life”. So father and son head north for Middlesborough to see how the other half lives. On the Thorntree estate nearly 60% of the residents aren’t working, over half the children leave school without any qualifications at all and the crime rate is 50% higher than the national average. On arrival at their new home, Paul and Ben are greeted by a local with the words “You don’t wanna live round here mate…. it’s full of heroin addicts mate, you’ll be burgled in a day”. Noticeably shocked but determined to continue their quest, Ben starts work as a volunteer in the local homeless shelter and Paul starts his search for businesses and people to invest in. Just how easy will it be for Ben when he comes face to face with t
Britain's richest female entrepreneur Emma Harrison heads to Dagenham, one of the country's poorest areas, and works undercover as a toilet cleaner. The multi-millionaire's aim is to find someone worthy enough to receive tens of thousands of pounds of her own money, in a bid to make their lives better. Last in series
Gill is the first of two female millionaires in this new run. She's the first secret millionaire ever to give away nearly a quarter of a million pounds of her own money at the end of her tear-jerking, heart-warming and self-confessed “life changing” undercover experience.
At 42, Chek is one of the richest men in England and one of the country’s most successful property developers. Married with a young family, Chek enjoys the finer things in life and spends much of the year – in between taking risks and making lucrative business deals – on his yacht in France. Not a bad life for the son of a lorry driver who grew up on one of the poorest housing estates in Britain.
Having made his money through the pink pound, running nightclubs and bars for the gay scene in Leeds, Terry also runs Mr Gay UK and it has brought him a multi-million pound fortune. Terry leads a very pampered life in a castle complete with full time staff and a designer wardrobe fit to bursting. But for the next ten days he will be saying goodbye to his luxuries, his beloved elderly mother Teresa and his husband Michael to live in one of Britain’s poorest rural communities.
Mo has made his fortune having fun as the owner of Water World, the biggest aqua park in the UK. He came to Britain aged eight. He couldn’t speak a word of English and was the only Asian boy in his class. A combination of this severe culture shock, insecurity and his father’s grocery business going bust, has driven Mo to become the determined and hard working success story that he is today. He vowed he would make his first million by the time he was 30, which he did, and now he runs a business empire worth nearly 60 million pounds.
London-based property magnate David Pearl is leaves his wealth behind to go undercover as a volunteer at the Queen Alexandra, the largest hospital in Portsmouth. The people he meets and is introduced to during his ten day stay will be told he has recently retired and is taking part in a documentary about volunteer work. To help his cover story, David will get by on just a state pension and for the first time in his life, he will be working for nothing.
American businesswoman Margaret Heffernan – who made millions 15 years ago as an internet pioneer – says goodbye to her Somerset mansion, her two kids and husband, in exchange for a flat above a corner shop in one of Nottingham’s poorest areas. Once a thriving town, the city has gained a recent reputation for guns and drugs. But what worries Margaret more than the thought of living in potential gang land territory, is the fact that she has just nine days to identify people who she feels are worthy of her money. As an entrepreneur herself and a highly successful published author, Margaret is particularly interested in finding people who are already entrepreneurial in their instincts, people who are already making a difference but who may just need a bit of help.
The first programme in the series sees one of Britain's highest-flying young entrepreneurs coming face-to-face with street crime in 'the Asbo capital of Britain', Manchester. Leaving behind his wife and four children and swapping his treasured Lotus Elise for a clapped-out Nissan Sunny, James will live in Moss Side, an area with a reputation for knife and gun crime, while he's living undercover he'll volunteer as a youth worker.
The second programme in the series follows a successful businesswoman as she travels to an area with some of the highest unemployment in the country to meet people who've never had the support and opportunities she herself has had. Leaving her luxurious, Versace lifestyle and family behind, Kavita travels to Ladywood in Birmingham, an area suffering from some of the highest unemployment rates in the country.
Worth an estimated £200 million, property tycoon Nick Leslau is this series' richest millionaire. Now he's swapping his luxury lifestyle to work with severely disabled people in Glasgow.
In this week's programme marketing millionaire Carl Hopkins travels to the former mining town of Easington in County Durham, setting for Billy Elliot and one of the most deprived areas in Britain, to see if he can help the declining community.
26-year-old millionaire Daniel Smith goes undercover for ten days, living in a council block in Elephant and Castle.
Fifty-one-year-old Hilary Devey has built up a business turning over £100 million a year in the male-dominated haulage industry. Now Hilary wants to give something back, so she's going undercover on a tough housing estate in her native north west. Growing up in Bolton, near Manchester, Hilary was driven by her publican dad's ethos: "If you can walk, eat and sleep, you can work." She travels to Rochdale, just a few miles from Bolton, to live undercover for ten days on the Falinge estate, which has a reputation as a no-go area, and is notorious for having the highest percentage of people on incapacity benefits in the country.
Gavin Wheedon runs a successful translation business, but leaves his millionaire's lifestyle behind to return to the faded North Wales resort of Rhyl, where he spent his childhood holidays. Working undercover at a B&B, and living on benefits, Wheedon searches for people he can help in a community that has gone downhill since the advent of the cheap package holiday.
Caroline Marsh relocated from Zambia to England in 2003, and made her first million after discovering a talent for property investment. Caroline goes undercover in Toxteth in Liverpool, and is the first Secret Millionaire to bring their child with them as she takes her two-year-old son Ashley to an area where three quarters of children live in poverty.
Kevin Morley goes under cover in Haringey, North London to help those less fortunate than himself.
Millionarre Gary Eastwood goes undercover in Blackpool to help those less fortunate than himself this week.
Jennifer Cheyne leaves her rich lifestyle behind to help those less fortunate than herself in the Welsh village of Aberfan.
Jonathan Hick goes undercover in Sunderland to help those less fortunate than himself.
Rob Lloyd leaves his lavish lifestyle behind to travel to Belfast to help those less fortunate than himself.
Martin Stamp gives up his lavish lifestyle and becomes a teaching assistant in Hull to help those less fortunate than himself.
Rob Calcraft goes under cover in Barrow-in-Furness helping those less fortunate than himself.
Roisin Isaacs goes undercover to help those less fortunate than her in Dundee.
Thirty-six-year-old Liz Jackson lost her sight ten years ago. Determined that her disability will not define who she is, Liz is spending eight days living undercover in South London, where she will be introduced to people who may need her help.
Forty-five-year-old Kevin Green is one of the biggest landlords in the country. He's agreed to swap his beautiful country home for a tiny rented bedsit in the heart of Barnstaple, North Devon. It may look like a pretty market town but it is also one of the most deprived areas in rural England.
Tony leaves behind his millions to adopt a secret identity in Anfield, Liverpool, where he looks for and is introduced to people who may need his help.
Dominic List made his fortune in telecoms and has a string of IT companies. Now he's agreed to leave his luxuries behind and go undercover in Peckham.
As the boss of a plumbing empire, Charlie is used to calling the shots. Now he's willing to give up this enviable position to go undercover in Warrington.
London taxi baron John Griffin is worth more than £50 million. He goes undercover in Newcastle's Westside, where he looks for and is introduced to people who may need his help.
Multi-millionaire Dawn Gibbins goes undercover in one of the most deprived areas of south west England, looking for people who may need her help, before returning home a changed woman.
Multi-millionaire Paul Ragan travels to Derby. From the age of five, Paul had to deal with his mother's schizophrenia. Now he wants to help people who devote their lives to caring for others.
Iranian-born Jahan Abedi, who considers himself Welsh through and through, has made millions from property. He goes undercover in Leicester, one of Britain's most racially diverse cities.
Fil Adams-Mercer puts his success down to a strong work ethic. He goes undercover to find people who might need his help in Doncaster, reassessing his opinions about unemployment along the way.
Secret Millionaire David Jamilly travels to Redcar on Teesside as the people of the town wait to discover the fate of Corus, the local steel plant that has been earmarked for partial mothballing.
Gadget-mad entrepreneur Chris Brown accepts that some people might consider him a geek. He enjoys cross-stitch, owns a radio controlled train set and a robot Hoover, and has been known to wear his Star Wars Stormtrooper costume around the house.
Karate expert and father of four Richard North is in the business of fun. His multi-million-pound company invents gifts and toys that sell all around the world, to some of the biggest toy retailers. For eight days Richard goes undercover in Cardiff and despite the massive regeneration in central Cardiff, areas on the outskirts of the city have been left behind. Richard spends his time undercover living on the Ely council estate, one of the biggest in Europe and with a reputation for drugs and crime; but finds it hard to discover a cause worthy of his money until he meets Pete and Linda Sullivan who dedicate their lives to making Ely a better place for their grandchildren to live.
Sixty-year-old dotcom millionaire Marcelle Speller made her millions relatively late in life. After spending many years with an ordinary amount of money, the fortune she has now has hardly changed her. Despite being worth over £10 million, Marcelle's only extravagance is her art collection. Now, inspired by people who get their hands dirty helping others, Marcelle wants to find out what it feels like to make a change at ground level.
In this week's Secret Millionaire 30-year-old self-made multi-millionaire Mark Pearson gives away over £150,000 to three worthy members of Nottingham's community. Mark steps out of his comfort zone to move into a rented house in Nottingham, one of the most violent towns in Britain, with crime rates at twice the national average.Mark discovers an anti-gun and knife campaign run by Clayton Byfield in his spare time. Posing as an unemployed chef looking for voluntary work, Mark joins Clayton at his youth groups and workshops, where he learns the harsh realities of knife and gun crime.
Multi-millionaire Bradley Reback goes undercover in Brighton to find people he can help, visiting a homeless centre, a drop-in centre for the unemployed and other local projects.
Having made his fortune in London, Gordon McAlpine returns to his Scottish roots, going undercover in Govan, one of the poorest parts of Glasgow, where the unemployment rate is twice the national average.
Tom Mairs, the son of a multi-millionaire, has become a millionaire in his own right. He leaves his home in the Wirral to cross the Mersey and go undercover in Bootle, one of the most deprived areas of Britain.
Ex-Para and Falklands veteran Tony Banks returns to the tough streets of Liverpool to see how the people he first met there are getting on and how they benefited from the money he donated.
Paul Ragan fulfils his promise to return to Derby in order to look for new way to make a difference in the community he originally visited as a secret millionaire.
When she originally appeared on The Secret Millionaire, Dawn Gibbins' life was at a crossroads. She'd just sold the £50 million global flooring empire she'd built up with her father and set up a new company reflecting her holistic lifestyle. Dawn had recently finalised her divorce after 25 years of marriage and, with her two daughters away at university, she'd set up house on her own in the middle of the countryside. In October 2009 Dawn Gibbins spent a week living in inner-city Bristol as a Secret Millionaire. Dawn told people she met that she was being filmed for a documentary about the impact of the recession on local communities. During her stay, she discovered a world she never knew existed and faced up to some of her biggest fears.
IT recruitment entrepreneur Sean Gallagher travels to Middlesbrough to find people he can help, including a charity that assists people with a medical condition that has personal significance for him.
Simrin Choudhrie, who's seven months pregnant, descended from Indian royalty and the heiress to a multi-million pound fortune, goes undercover in Burngreave in Sheffield to find people she can help.
The joint chief executive of a communications and IT consultancy, Piers Linney has been named one of the country's most influential black people. He goes undercover in a prison for young offenders; but can giving direct personal help to a prisoner ever be right?
Millionaire Lyn Cecil goes undercover to find people she can help in Islington, where, like in so many other parts of London, the super-rich and the desperately poor live side by side.
Sue Stone has been described as one of Britain's most positive people. She has made her money as a confidence coach and now she's going under cover to look for people who need help.
Aria Taheri came to England from Iran when he was 17, leaving his family behind. He's since built up a multi-million-pound computing business. He goes undercover in ethnically diverse Sparkbrook in Birmingham.
Forty-year-old celebrity hairdresser Adee Phelan shot to fame after giving David Beckham his iconic World Cup Mohican. A decade on, Adee has his own international product range, an exclusive salon in Covent Garden complete with A-list clientele, and another multi-million-pound project underway.
When Ivan Massow started work as a 17-year-old insurance clerk, he spotted a gap in the gay market. It has made him a multi-millionaire. Ivan goes undercover in Edinburgh's Pilton Estate.
Inventor Edward Douglas-Miller had a privileged start in life but suffered tragedy when one of his daughters died at two days old. Undercover in Norwich, he meets people overcoming trauma.
Lee Stafford, one of Britain's most successful celebrity hairdressers, goes undercover in Salford, where his experiences help him come to terms with his mother's cancer and his brother's brain damage.
Dr Chai Patel used to own the Priory Clinic, the centre often associated with celebrity rehab. Chai goes undercover as a doctor in Sheffield, to help people at the opposite end of society.
Mike Greene is a self-made millionaire who attributes his success to starting work at the age of seven. He returns to his home town, Peterborough, to see if he can change other young lives.
Charles Allen has been Chief Executive of ITV and Chair of EMI; he's on the board of Tesco and Virgin Media, and the Olympic Committee for 2012. He goes undercover in Leeds.
Self-made millionaire Mike Holland goes undercover in Grimsby, where the organisations he works with help him deal with tragedy from his own family past.
Sixty-two-year-old David King is one of the world's most successful international musical theatre producers, with hit shows around the globe, and the biggest employer of dancers in Europe. David has an estimated fortune of over £20 million from making his own versions of successful shows. He's known for his ruthless no-nonsense approach, but nothing could prepare him for the shocking event that takes place on The Secret Millionaire. Based in Monaco, David shares his luxurious lifestyle with his 30-year-old ex-chorus line dancer girlfriend, but life wasn't always like this; before David hit the big time he ran a small jewellery business, took too many risks, got on the wrong side of the law and lost everything, including his wife and family. His wheeler-dealer attitude put a strain on his relationship with his disapproving father, who passed away before he could see David turn his life around and become a success.
Matthew Newbury, a property developer who lost his leg in a motorcycle accident at the age of 15, goes undercover in Manchester to find disability charities to donate some of his £9million fortune to. During his time working with the organisations, Matt swaps his £50,000 bionic limb for a standard-issue NHS model, which causes him pain throughout the week.
Arfan Razak runs one of the most successful Indian restaurants in the country. He goes undercover in Oxford, where a quarter of the population suffer significant financial hardship. The experience leads him to question his family priorities.
Millionaire Carol Hayes is a London-based agent representing celebrities such as Gok Wan and Arlene Phillips. But Carol leaves the glamour of showbiz behind when she travels to East Glasgow's desolate Easterhouse Estate, one of the most deprived areas in the UK, where life expectancy is just 54 in some places. Carol finds charities she really cares about, and she throws herself into volunteering for organisations that help local kids and people with early stage dementia. The people she meets help the tough businesswoman get in touch with her softer side.
Damage to Bobby Dudani's Computer Exchange shops in the 2011 riots cost him hundreds of thousands of pounds. Bobby visits Croydon, which was hard hit by the riots, to find people to help.
Philip Johnston was given up for adoption when he was six weeks old. He goes undercover in Swansea, where there's been a 55% increase in the number of children taken into care in 10 years.
A special one-off programme returns to find out the difference made by donations from six of the millionaires. Property developer Chek Whyte revisits Salford to meet the local people struggling to save their homes form demolition. Millionaire Gill Fielding goes back to the East End streets she grew up in to see how Sabrina, a local woman on a mission to help single parents, is faring. And businesswoman Emma Harrison returns to Crossroads, the respite centre for disabled children she supported in Dagenham and meets up with pensioner Wyn. Meanwhile young entrepreneur Ben Way returns to Hackney's 'murder mile' to meet the inspirational manager Yufu at the Pedro youth club. Terry George goes back to the care home for the elderly in Cornwall that had such an effect on him. And Mo Chaudry revisits the Asian radio station he supported in Leeds and talks about the school mentoring scheme he has since set up.
