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Great British Railway Journeys
Great British Railway Journeys Episodes
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 15: 5. Wokingham To Heathrow
Michael begins the final leg of his journey at the Transport Research Laboratory in Wokingham, where they have been keeping Britain’s roads safe for 90 years. From Reading ...
13-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 15: 4. Havant To Guildford
Michael Portillo reaches Havant, a town that rapidly expanded after the Second World War and attracted new manufacturing, including a factory making a new and exciting toy &ndas ...
12-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 15: 3. Swanage To Portchester
Michael Portillo reaches England’s south coast to continue his exploration of postwar Britain. He begins in Dorset on the Swanage Railway, riding a glorious 1940s steam lo ...
11-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 15: 2. Chippenham To Yeovil
Michael Portillo joins Navy Wings pilots for a spectacular close formation flight in the skies over Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton. He also visits the magnificent Elizabethan ...
10-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 15: 1. Denham To Swindon
Beginning at London Marylebone, the last great Victorian railway terminus to be built in the capital, Michael Portillo embarks on a postwar exploration of Britain’s southe ...
09-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 15. Tewkesbury To Filton
Michael Portillo is on the last leg of his railway journey from the train-building city of Derby to the aircraft manufacturing base of Filton. From Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, ...
06-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 14. Wolverhampton To Cheltenham
At the African and Caribbean Heritage Centre in Wolverhampton, Michael finds out about the impact of Enoch Powell's 1968 speech on immigration in Wolverhampton and across the na ...
05-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 13. Long Itchington To Moseley
Michael Portillo’s railway journey reaches the heart of the Warwickshire countryside, where work is underway on a section of the biggest project of new railway infrastruct ...
04-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 12. Coventry To Leamington Spa
In Coventry, Michael recalls the destruction by the German Luftwaffe of the city’s gothic cathedral in November 1940. He hears how architect Basil Spence won a competition ...
03-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 11. Derby To Hinckley
Michael Portillo explores the postwar Britain of his youth on a railway journey from the Midlands to the West Country.\n\nBeginning in Derby's famous 19th-century railway works, ...
02-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 10. Brandon To Cambridge
Michael Portillo completes his railway journey through the east of England during the post-war period. At RAF Lakenheath, he discovers a slice of America dropped into the Britis ...
30-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 9. Felixstowe To Norwich
Michael Portillo continues his rail exploration of the east of England, beginning with the seafront at Felixstowe, where in January 1953, the town was engulfed in the worst floo ...
29-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 8. Paddington To Ongar
Michael Portillo ventures deep underground onto London’s newest railway: the Elizabeth Line. Emerging into the sunshine in Bedford Square, he recalls the choking smogs whi ...
28-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 7. Waterloo To Regent's Park
Michael Portillo continues his railway exploration of the post-war Britain of his youth on a journey from London to Cambridge. \n\nHe begins on the capital’s South Bank, ...
27-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 6. Tilbury To Barbican
Michael Portillo travels through the Britain of his youth from London’s Docklands and East End to the ‘city within a city’, the Barbican. \n\nAt Tilbury, he t ...
26-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 5. Bradford To Hebden Bridge
Michael Portillo continues his postwar exploration of north west England in Bradford, Shipley and Hebden Bridge.\n\nIn Centenary Square in Bradford, Michael encounters Bradford& ...
23-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 4. Wakefield To Leeds
From Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Michael visits the National Coal Mining Museum for England at Caphouse Colliery. He pauses to admire the tall spire of Wakefield Cathedral and it ...
22-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 14: 3. Oldham To Wakefield
Greater Manchester’s Metrolink tram delivers Michael to the former cotton town of Oldham on the edge of the Peak District. In the stalls of the Oldham Coliseum, the town&r ...
21-08-2024
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 14: 1. Preston To Rawtenstall
Michael Portillo strikes out to explore the Britain of his youth. He’s a 'boomer', born in the decade after the end of the Second World War, and he recalls the optimism an ...
19-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 10. Taunton To Salisbury Plain
Michael Portillo crosses the county line from Devon into Somerset on his rail exploration of the West Country steered by his 1930s Bradshaw's guide.\n\nHe sees first-hand how wi ...
17-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 9. Paignton To Tiverton
Michael Portillo's exploration of the West Country continues in south Devon. Guided by his 1930s Bradshaw’s, Michael arrives in Paignton to investigate an extraordinarily ...
15-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 8. Bodmin To Totnes
Clutching his 1930s Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo reaches Bodmin en route to Totnes as he explores the West Country from St Ives to Salisbury Plain. \n\nOut on the ru ...
14-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 7. Truro To St Mawgan
Michael Portillo is in Cornwall’s county town, Truro, with his 1930s Bradshaw’s Guide. In the surrounding countryside, he finds the historic estate of Trewithen, who ...
13-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 6. St Ives To St Day
Michael Portillo boards the Great Western Railway at the Cornish seaside resort of St Ives. Steered by his 1930s Bradshaw’s Guide, this week he explores the West Country b ...
12-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 5. Elgin To Loch Ness
Michael Portillo is in the Scottish Highlands on the last leg of his rail journey through 1930s Britain. He begins in Elgin's port, the coastal town of Lossiemouth, where James ...
08-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 4. Dundee To Aberdeen
Michael Portillo continues his railway journey from Newcastle to Loch Ness, steered by his 1930s Bradshaw's Guide. \n\nStopping at Dundee, Michael heads for Glamis Castle, wher ...
07-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 3. Falkirk To Dundee
Michael Portillo's railway journey through 1930s Britain from Newcastle to Loch Ness reaches Falkirk in Scotland. Here he discovers the Westerglen Transmitting Station, from whe ...
06-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 2. Kielder Forest To Edinburgh
Steered by his 1936 Bradshaw's Guide, Michael Portillo is in Northumbria en route to the Highlands. \n\nOn this leg, he explores Kielder Forest, beginning at the County Show in ...
05-08-2024
BBC 2
Series 11: 1. Newcastle To County Durham
Michael Portillo begins a new series of railway journeys through 1930s Britain, armed with an interwar Bradshaw's guide. He explores an unmistakably modern era of glamorous loco ...
01-08-2024
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 15: 15. Northallerton To Chester-le-street
Michael Portillo confronts a detachment of Gurkhas, produces a fine heritage cheese and discovers a monster cracker that is key to making plastic, before ending his postwar jour ...
05-07-2024
BBC 2
Series 15: 14. York To Skipton
Michael Portillo’s postwar exploration of Merseyside to Teesside finds him in York, a paradise for rail enthusiasts. In the company of some of the most famous locomotives ...
26-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 15. East Malling To Rye
Steered by his Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo is on the last leg of his journey from Warwick to Rye in East Sussex. In the orchards of East Malling, Kent, Michael disc ...
26-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 14. Piccadilly Circus To Gravesend
Michael Portillo hits the West End to explore an exotic store, which was a favourite among Edwardian ladies. At Covent Garden’s Royal Ballet School he hears how in 1909 a ...
25-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 15: 13. Lincoln To York
Michael Portillo’s postwar journey from Merseyside to Teesside resumes at Brayford Pool in Lincoln, where England’s oldest canal, the Fossdyke, meets the city of Lin ...
23-06-2024
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 15: 12. Derby To Nottingham
Michael Portillo reaches the jet age in the Derby suburb of Peartree, where he tours the engineering colossus Rolls-Royce. In Derby city centre, Michael is on the trail of littl ...
19-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 12. Reading To Taplow
Armed with his Edwardian Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo picks up his rail journey from Warwick to Rye along the River Thames. In Reading, he traces the origins of educ ...
19-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 11. Warwick To Radley
Michael Portillo embarks on a journey through Edwardian Britain, steered by his early twentieth century Bradshaw’s Guide. In Warwick’s medieval castle he uncovers th ...
18-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 15: 11. Liverpool To Uttoxeter
Michael Portillo twists and shouts through postwar Liverpool, arriving in the city where the 60s burst into life to find the strikingly contemporary concrete and glass Liverpool ...
17-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: Episode 10
Armed with his Edwardian Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo falls into line with the University of Glasgow’s Officer Training Corps. Founded in the early 20th centur ...
17-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 9. Glasgow To Cumbrae
Michael Portillo continues his journey through western Scotland by exploring the industrial heartland of Glasgow and its mighty River Clyde before taking the ferry to the island ...
13-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 7. Belfast To Portrush
Michael Portillo continues his rail journey through Northern Ireland steered by his Bradshaw’s Guide. In Belfast’s grand Edwardian City Hall, Michael investigates th ...
12-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 6. Newry To Portadown
Steered by his Edwardian Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo navigates his way by rail – and ferry - across Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands from Newry to ...
11-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 5. Birmingham To The Potteries
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 Highb ...
10-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 4. Maltby To Hinckley
Michael Portillo continues his tour of Britain’s industrial heartlands guided by his early 20th-century Bradshaw’s. Michael heads for Maltby, where he is caught up w ...
06-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 3. Manchester To Elsecar
Armed with his early 20th-century Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo continues his journey from Warrington to the Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent.\nIn Manchester, at the magni ...
05-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: Episode 2
Michael Portillo continues his rail tour of Britain’s industrial northwest, steered by his early nineteenth century Bradshaw’s guide. \nIn Blackburn, he catches a r ...
03-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: Episode 1
Armed with his early 20th century Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo embarks on a new journey through Britain’s industrial heartland in the footsteps of King George ...
30-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 13: 10. Park Royal To Westminster
Michael’s rail journey through the interwar capital follows Harry Beck’s radical map for the London Underground, embraced by Londoners since its launch in 1932. Mich ...
29-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 13: 9. Dagenham To Battersea
Armed with his 1930s Bradshaw’s guide, Michael is in London, where he tracks the River Thames from east to west. Michael is drawn to the industrial eastern suburb by the u ...
28-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 13: 8. Hampstead To Islington
Michael’s Bradshaw’s-inspired rail tour of London continues in Hampstead, where shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, a groundbreaking Jewish doctor f ...
27-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 13: 7. Hackney Wick To Oxford Circus
Michael continues his travels through the capital in the heart of London’s East End. Michael explores Hackney Wick, today transformed from the time of his 1930s Bradshaw&r ...
23-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 13: 6. Chislehurst To Kennington
Michael continues his journeys in greater London. Beginning on its southeastern fringe in the leafy and historic village of Chislehurst, Michael finds surprising imperial connec ...
22-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 13: 5. Herne Bay To Leeds Castle, Kent
Armed with his interwar copy of Bradshaw’s Guide to the Railways, Michael reaches the Kent seaside resort of Herne Bay, where he learns about a pioneering aviatrix who beg ...
21-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 13: 4. Deal To Margate
From the Kent Cinque Port of Deal, Michael heads to the splendid Walmer Castle, home during the 1920s to a Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Lord Beauchamp. Michael’s guide ...
20-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 13: 3. Rye To Dungeness
Michael Portillo follows his 1930s Bradshaw’s guide to the unspoilt East Sussex Cinque Port of Rye. On the windswept harbour beach, he hears how, in 1928, a generation of ...
16-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 13: 2. Hassocks To Benenden
Starting in Hassocks, Michael makes his way to the beautiful Sussex village of Ditchling, where, between the wars, a Roman Catholic community of artists made their home. Michael ...
14-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 13: 1. Biggin Hill To Ashdown Forest
Michael Portillo experiences a terrifying ‘victory roll’ in a World War II Spitfire, high above the most famous aerodrome of the Battle of Britain, Biggin Hill. The ...
13-05-2024
BBC 2
Series 12: 15. Aberystwyth To Newtown
Armed with his 1930s Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael travels from Aberystwyth into the Cambrian Mountains at Devil’s Bridge and finishes in Newtown, Powys.\n\nIn the elega ...
16-11-2023
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 12: 13. Bangor To Betws-y-coed
Michael Portillo continues his 1936 Bradshaw’s-inspired railway tour of north Wales in the coastal city of Bangor before turning south from Llandudno Junction to travel th ...
14-11-2023
BBC 2
Series 12: 12. Rhyl To Anglesey
Michael Portillo’s 1930s Bradshaw’s-inspired railway tour of north Wales takes him to a coast lined by magnificent castles and sweeping bays.\n\nIn Colwyn Bay, he he ...
13-11-2023
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
Series 12: 10. Newmarket To Walsingham
Michael Portillo is in Suffolk on the last leg of his 1930s Bradshaw’s inspired tour of East Anglia. He begins at the home of British horseracing, Newmarket, where he lear ...
08-11-2023
BBC 2
Series 12: 9. Sawbridgeworth To Cambridge
Steered by his Bradshaw’s guide, Michael Portillo heads for the Hertfordshire village of Perry Green, where, in 1940, a young couple fleeing the bombing of London chose to ...
07-11-2023
BBC 2
Series 12: 8. Potters Bar To Cardington
Michael Portillo’s Bradshaw travels resume in leafy Hertfordshire, where he attempts a canoe slalom course at the Lee Valley White Water Centre, built for the London Olymp ...
06-11-2023
BBC 2
Series 12: 7. Colchester To Chadwell Heath
Michael Portillo continues his Bradshaw’s-inspired journey through East Anglia, where he discovers the Essex origins of the BBC, joins the Women’s Land Army to pick ...
02-11-2023
BBC 2
Series 12: 6. Saxmundham To Dedham
Armed with his 1930s Bradshaw’s guide, Michael Portillo explores East Anglia between the wars. His railway journey begins at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, where archaeologists ma ...
01-11-2023
BBC 2
Series 12: 5. Farnborough To Winchester
Michael is heading for Farnborough, Hampshire, famous today for its airshow and home to what was then the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Richard Gardner of the Farnborough Air S ...
31-10-2023
BBC 2
Series 12: 4. Guildford To Aldershot
Michael Portillo resumes his tour of the Home Counties in the picturesque and historic county town of Guildford. His 1936 Bradshaw’s guide commends its 'fine old castle ke ...
30-10-2023
BBC 2
Series 12: 3. West Ruislip To Windsor
Michael Portillo heads for leafy Hatch End, where he investigates an illustrator whose work was so popular in the 1920s and 30s that his name entered the English dictionary. Wil ...
26-10-2023
BBC 2
Series 12: 2. Stoke Mandeville To Beaconsfield
Michael Portillo continues his travels through England's Home Counties at Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire, where he discovers the legacy of a German Jewish doctor who fled t ...
25-10-2023
BBC 2
Series 12: 1. Oxford To Abingdon
Michael Portillo strikes out on another series of railway journeys, this time through Britain between the world wars, armed with his 1930s Bradshaw’s guide.\n\nHe begins w ...
24-10-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 15. Criccieth To Caernarfon
With his Edwardian Bradshaw's railway guide tucked under his arm, Michael Portillo begins the last leg of his journey from Hull to Caernarfon. In picturesque Snowdonia, he brave ...
02-03-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 14. Liverpool To Dolgarrog
Michael Portillo's Edwardian railway guide takes him to the city of Liverpool, where King Edward VII had recently laid the foundation stone for a grand Anglican cathedral at the ...
01-03-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 13. Sheffield To Nantwich
With his Edwardian railway guidebook tucked under his arm, Michael Portillo is in the steel city of Sheffield, where he discovers an enormous and beautifully preserved early 20t ...
28-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 12. York To Frizinghall
Armed with his Edwardian Bradshaw's guide, Michael Portillo conducts important research in an historic tea room, built by an Edwardian immigrant to the city of York. Research of ...
27-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 11. Hull To Malton
Michael Portillo embarks on a journey through Britain steered by his Edwardian railway handbook. He begins in the East Yorkshire port of Hull, where he heads for the docks throu ...
23-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 10. Plymouth To The Lizard
Steered by his early 20th-century Bradshaw's railway guide, Michael Portillo boldly goes to the moon by way of the Cornish Riviera Express! On the trail of an historic achieveme ...
22-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 9. Taunton To Newton Abbot
With purple, green and yellow ribbons flying, and sporting ankle bells, Michael Portillo is led a merry dance in Stogumber - all in the name of fertility. He visits a celebrated ...
21-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 8. Newport To Clevedon/yatton/bristol Channel
Steered by his early 20th-century Bradshaw's guide, Michael discovers the birthplace of British aviation in Bristol and prepares an Airbus 380 for a smooth landing at Filton. In ...
20-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 7. Pontyclun To Ebbw Vale Town
Armed with his Edwardian Bradshaw's guide, Michael strikes gold at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, where after much frisking, he gains access to the inner vaults.\n\nAt Cardiff A ...
16-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 6. Whitland To Swansea
Dressed in the colours of the Welsh flag and with his 'new' Edwardian Bradshaw's guide in hand, Michael Portillo embarks on a railway adventure, from the coalfields of south Wal ...
15-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 5. Swanwick To Brownsea Island
Steered by his Edwardian Bradshaw's guide, Michael Portillo promises to do his best on the island where Robert Baden Powell began the Scout movement in the early 20th century. J ...
14-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 4. Chichester To Cowes
His early 20th-century Bradshaw's guide in hand, Michael Portillo is in Chichester, West Sussex, where he encounters an Edwardian motoring duo patronised by King Edward VII. Aft ...
13-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 3. Croydon To Shoreham-by-sea
Steered by his Edwardian Bradshaw's guide, Michael Portillo arrives in west Croydon, where he uncovers a once-celebrated, now forgotten, mixed-race composer with an uncannily fa ...
09-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 2. Letchworth Garden City To Herne Hill
Armed with his early 20th-century Bradshaw's guide, Michael Portillo explores an Edwardian utopia with a radical plan at its heart. Michael joins a garden party where a fourth-g ...
08-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 9: 1. Cromer To Cambridge
Michael Portillo fast tracks to the early 20th century to embark on a new series of railway journeys through Edwardian Britain. His \
07-02-2023
BBC 2