Armed with his Bradshaw’s guide, Michael Portillo reaches Birmingham and discovers how a radical reformer would make his mark on the city of a thousand trades. \nAt Highbury Hall, he finds Joseph Chamberlain’s splendid mansion home and hears how he established a political dynasty including a prime minister and a foreign secretary.\nNext stop is Cradley Heath, at the time of his Bradshaw’s one of five chain-making towns in the West Midlands. Michael learns how 90 per cent of the chain workshops in England and Wales were located here and that female workers earned a pittance to produce goods in their homes. He discovers how discontent came to a head in 1910 and a Scottish woman led workers to strike for the first time.\nA book on Railway Law for the Man in the Train is required reading for Michael as he travels to Landywood, where he engages in some detective work on behalf of its author, one George Edalji. Michael follows an investigation carried out by Arthur Conan Doyle in the early 1900s into a miscarriage of justice.\nAt the centre of Britain’s ceramic industry in Stoke-on-Trent, Michael visits Wedgwood, established by the Queen’s Potter Josiah Wedgwood in 1759 and visited in 1913 by King George V and Queen Mary. He hears how the royal couple used their visit to forge links with working people and thereby strengthened the monarchy. Touring the factory, Michael admires the exquisite decoration of the ceramic painters and tries his hand at clay spinning.
Source: BBC 2
Series 16: 14. Birmingham New Street To Wednesbury
Arriving in Birmingham, Michael Portillo heads to Curzon Street for a tour of the HS2 terminus still under construction. He discovers that parts of the site’s 1838 station ...
24-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 13. Dudley To West Bromwich
Michael Portillo boards a barge on the Dudley Canal, built in 1775 as a vital transport link for the town’s coal and limestone mines. Travelling through the second-longest ...
23-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 12. Ironbridge To Coseley
Michael Portillo is in Ironbridge Gorge on the River Severn, where he discovers the Silicon Valley of the 18th century. Exploring this hotbed of industrial innovation, he takes ...
22-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 11. Shrewsbury To Telford
Sharp as an arrow and armed with a longbow, Michael Portillo re-enacts the Battle of Shrewsbury, fought at the Shropshire village of Battlefield in 1403. He hears how the rebel ...
21-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 10. Dumfries To Auchinleck
Michael concludes his journey from Cumbria to Dumfriesshire by crossing the Solway Firth into Scotland, where he visits the beautifully preserved last home of Scotland’s g ...
18-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 9. Aspatria To Carlisle
Michael Portillo’s railway journey through Cumbria and Dumfriesshire takes him to the rolling countryside around Aspatria to meet a couple who swapped their old life for o ...
17-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 8. Maryport To Penrith
Michael Portillo’s railway journey through Cumbria and Dumfriesshire heads to the hills as he follows in the footsteps of the Lakeland poets. In Keswick, he retraces the a ...
16-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 7. St Bees To Grange-over-sands
Michael Portillo’s railway tour of Cumbria and Dumfriesshire continues as he travels along the scenic Cumbrian Coast Line. Just outside Egremont, he visits Florence Mine, ...
15-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 6. Windermere To Sellafield
Michael Portillo begins a railway tour of the spectacular border counties of Cumbria and Dumfriesshire, starting in the stunning Lake District National Park, where he discovers ...
14-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 5. Chichester To Amberley
Michael Portillo’s railway tour of the green and pleasant landscape between the North and South Downs, known as the Weald, nears its conclusion.\n\nNear Chichester, Michae ...
11-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 4. Gatwick Airport To Royal Tunbridge Wells
Michael Portillo’s rail exploration of the spectacular countryside of the Weald in Surrey, Sussex and Kent continues - this time, aboard the Gatwick Express train, which c ...
10-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 2. Hildenborough To Robertsbridge
Michael Portillo’s rail exploration of the historic wooded region of south east England, known as the Weald, continues from Tonbridge, at the heart of the area's rail netw ...
08-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 1. Paddock Wood To Frant
Michael Portillo takes to the rails to explore one of Britain’s oldest surviving landscapes, the woods and pasture of the Weald in south east England. Between the chalk hi ...
07-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 7. St Bees To Grange-over-sands
Michael Portillo’s railway tour of Cumbria and Dumfriesshire continues as he travels along the scenic Cumbrian Coast Line. Just outside Egremont, he visits Florence Mine, ...
15-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 3. Dorking To Lingfield
Michael Portillo’s railway tour of the Weald reaches the spectacular Surrey countryside, where he finds a surprising connection to the darker reaches of the universe.\n\nI ...
09-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 5. Chichester To Amberley
Michael Portillo’s railway tour of the green and pleasant landscape between the North and South Downs, known as the Weald, nears its conclusion.\n\nNear Chichester, Michae ...
11-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 10. Dumfries To Auchinleck
Michael concludes his journey from Cumbria to Dumfriesshire by crossing the Solway Firth into Scotland, where he visits the beautifully preserved last home of Scotland’s g ...
18-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 6. Windermere To Sellafield
Michael Portillo begins a railway tour of the spectacular border counties of Cumbria and Dumfriesshire, starting in the stunning Lake District National Park, where he discovers ...
14-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 13. Dudley To West Bromwich
Michael Portillo boards a barge on the Dudley Canal, built in 1775 as a vital transport link for the town’s coal and limestone mines. Travelling through the second-longest ...
23-04-2025
BBC 2