Michael Heseltine

From backbench novice MP to the challenger for the party leadership and the man credited with ousting Margaret Thatcher, Michael Heseltine - now Lord Heseltine - has commanded more headlines than most.

In the 1970s he won a reputation as a maverick when he took up the mace in the House of Commons after being enraged at the Labour Party's voting tactics. He began the 1980s with a rousing speech to the Conservative Party Conference reminding members about the rights of ethnic minorities, but he ended the decade on the backbenches after walking out of a Cabinet meeting and resigning over the Westland Affair. In 1990 he challenged Margaret Thatcher for the party leadership. She eventually resigned, but Heseltine did not succeed her.

In the second programme of the series 'Meeting Myself Coming Back', Lord Heseltine listens back to his younger self in conversation with John Wilson. He talks frankly about the mace incident and relives the moment when he walked out of Cabinet. He discusses whether he could have been persuaded to return if his departure had not been witnessed by a cameraman outside Number 10. He also talks about the moment when Margaret Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister and he knew that his chances of becoming Conservative leader were at an end.

Producer: Emma Kingsley.