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 rare glimpse of Edwardian life on celluloid and marvels at how factory workers and schoolchildren alike were drawn to seek fame on film.\nContinuing east to Nelson, Michael braves the enemy camp to have a pint of tea with the socialist working classes in Britain’s last Clarion House. Way out of his comfort zone, he is heartened by their warm welcome.\nTaking his rail campaign south, Michael reaches a magnificently renovated mid-19th century Manchester Victoria station, from where he heads to the Manchester Art Gallery to investigate reports of an outrage in 1913.\nMichael discovers the former home, now a museum and women’s centre, of the radical family that advocated such outrages, the Pankhursts. He hears from the curator what motivated Emmeline and her daughters, Christabel and Sylvia and learns how they made themselves heard.
Source: BBC 2
Series 16: 16. Loughton To Audley End
Michael Portillo embarks on a journey across Essex. Beginning on the fringes of London, he takes the underground to the ancient woodland of Epping Forest, with its gnarled hornb ...
14-09-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 15. Solihull To Birmingham International
On the final leg of his Midlands tour, Michael Portillo travels to Solihull, the home of iconic British brand Land Rover. He discovers that their factory, now owned by Indian Ta ...
14-09-2025
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 ...
06-09-2025
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 ...
31-08-2025
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 ...
27-08-2025
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 ...
22-08-2025
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 ...
12-08-2025
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 ...
05-08-2025
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 ...
29-07-2025
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, ...
22-07-2025
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 ...
06-09-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 15. Solihull To Birmingham International
On the final leg of his Midlands tour, Michael Portillo travels to Solihull, the home of iconic British brand Land Rover. He discovers that their factory, now owned by Indian Ta ...
14-09-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 16. Loughton To Audley End
Michael Portillo embarks on a journey across Essex. Beginning on the fringes of London, he takes the underground to the ancient woodland of Epping Forest, with its gnarled hornb ...
14-09-2025
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 ...
27-08-2025
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 ...
31-08-2025
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 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 ...
01-07-2025
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 ...
13-05-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 18. Chelmsford To Tollesbury
Michael Portillo’s exploration of Essex reaches Chelmsford. At a huge construction site on the outskirts of the city he discovers Beaulieu Park, the first railway station ...
30-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 19. Witham To Saffron Walden
Arriving in the Essex market town of Witham, Michael heads into the countryside to visit Terling Place, one of the county’s great country houses. He hears how in the late ...
01-05-2025
BBC 2