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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 Argyll and Bute.\n\nEarly 20th-century Britain was reeling from industrial strife and suffragette outrages, but the biggest crisis of all was the conflict in Ireland. Beginning in Newry, Michael finds a specially chartered train would deliver demonstrators campaigning for Irish Home Rule to a rally in the town.\n\nOn the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic at Glaslough, Michael is amused to discover a christening robe belonging to Sir Winston Churchill and hears how he and his American mother saved the impressive Castle Leslie.\n\nMichael finds himself in a sticky situation at an Edwardian bakery in Portadown when he attempts to make an Irish staple, soda bread. At Scarva, Michael discovers the importance of Irish linen for aircraft during the First World War, and in the hangars of the Ulster Aviation Society he learns how a replica Ferguson Flyer from 1909 was built.
Source: BBC 2
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Series 16: 4. Gatwick Airport To Royal Tunbridge Wells
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
03-06-2025
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Series 1 - Liverpool To Eccles
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Series 16: 16. Loughton To Audley End
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Series 10: 4. Maltby To Hinckley
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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 ...
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Michael Portillo discovers the history behind the Pavilion at Brighton and learns that Queen Victoria was not an admirer of the Prince Regent's taste.
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Series 13: 4. Deal To Margate
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Series 15: 10. Dundee To Loch Of The Lowes
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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 ...
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