At the former Midlothian mining village of Newtongrange, Michael meets the son of a miner whose name loomed large in the disputes of the 1970s and 1980s, 'Red' Mick McGahey. On the outskirts of Edinburgh, at a recording studio in South Gyle, Michael is transported back to the wild world of 1970s pop with Bay City Rollers guitarist Stuart 'Woody' Wood.\n\nMichael leaves Edinburgh and takes the train north to Dalmeny for Queensferry, on the banks of the Firth of Forth. At the Progress Rail foundry, he marvels at the traditional skills still required to produce complex sets of rails for modern tracks in Britain and across the world.\n\nOn the south bank of the Firth of Forth, Michael recalls the construction during the 1950s and 1960s of the Forth Road Bridge, which he saw as a child from the train window while crossing the rail bridge.
Source: BBC 2
Series 11: 15. Attleborough To Skegness
Michael Portillo is in East Anglia on the last leg of his rail journey through 1930s Britain. He begins in Attleborough in Norfolk, at the headquarters of an international horse ...
30-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 14. Saxmundham To Norwich
Michael Portillo continues his railway journey through eastern England from Canterbury to Skegness steered by his 1930s Bradshaw’s guidebook. \n\nStopping at Saxmundham ...
26-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 13. Witham To Felixstowe
Michael Portillo's railway journey through 1930s Britain from Canterbury to Skegness reaches Witham in Essex. Here he visits the factory of the world's oldest supplier of metal ...
25-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 12. Limehouse To Rochford
Following his 1936 Bradshaw’s guidebook, Michael Portillo explores the east of England, in London and Essex, en route to Lincolnshire.\n\nOn this leg, Michael alights at L ...
24-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 11. Canterbury To Alexandra Palace
Steered by his 1930s Bradshaw’s guidebook, this week Michael Portillo explores the east of England in the interwar period.\n\nBeginning in Canterbury in Kent, Michael trea ...
23-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 15: 10. Dundee To Loch Of The Lowes
Michael’s rail journey through postwar Scotland takes him over the River Tay to Dundee on the trail of Joseph McKenzie, the father of modern Scottish photography.\n\nIn Pe ...
20-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 15: 9. Edinburgh To Queensferry
At the former Midlothian mining village of Newtongrange, Michael meets the son of a miner whose name loomed large in the disputes of the 1970s and 1980s, 'Red' Mick McGahey. On ...
19-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 15: 8. Shawlands To Livingston
Michael Portillo continues his postwar Scottish railway adventure, this time from Glasgow to the capital, Edinburgh.\n\nAt Pollok Country Park in Glasgow, Michael joins a women& ...
18-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 15: 7. Glasgow To Cumbernauld
At the home of Scottish football, Glasgow’s Hampden Park stadium, Michael admires the oldest football trophy in the world and hears how the 'passing game' was born there. ...
17-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 15: 6. Loch Lomond To Kelvinbridge
Michael Portillo boards the West Highland Line to begin a railway journey across Scotland’s central belt, from the Arrochar Alps to the Loch of the Lowes. \n\nAt the head ...
16-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 2. Urmston To New Islington
Michael Portillo’s railway journey through north west England from Preston to Hebden Bridge reaches Greater Manchester, where Michael celebrates new beginnings for the nat ...
20-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 8. Larne To Dumfries
Michael Portillo continues his journey from Northern Ireland across the water to Scotland. Leaving from the seaport of Larne he reaches Stranraer and the Mull of Galloway, where ...
08-07-2024
BBC 2
Series 3 - Windsor To Didcot
Michael Portillo visits a station fit for royalty in Windsor, and views an engineering triumph built by Brunel to span the Thames at Maidenhead.
13-10-2014
BBC 2
Series 12: 14. Blaenau Ffestiniog To Barmouth
In the Welsh mountains of Snowdonia, Michael Portillo reaches an abandoned mine, where in 1940 the wartime government sought sanctuary for the National Gallery’s priceless ...
15-11-2023
BBC 2
Series 1 - Carlisle To Glasgow
Travel documentary. Michael Portillo meets the wild Border Reivers clansmen, witnesses a wedding in Gretna Green and visits a World War I munitions factory.
13-10-2014
BBC 2
Series 2 - Durham To Grosmont
Michael Portillo visits Durham Cathedral and takes a Dracula tour in Whitby, before ending his journey on a steam train across the North Yorkshire Moors.
04-06-2014
BBC 2
Series 10: 13. Ealing Broadway To South Kensington
Michael Portillo reaches the capital on his rail journey from Warwick to Rye in East Sussex. In the Queen of the Suburbs, Ealing, he finds comedy at the home of British cinema a ...
20-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 12: 11. Crewe To Shotton
Michael Portillo is in Crewe, a town steeped in railway history and immortalised in Victorian music hall, to investigate the making of the iconic cinema classic The Night Mail d ...
09-11-2023
BBC 2