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 made a staggering discovery. Laura Howarth from the National Trust walks Michael to the top of a mound in a field, where in 1939 a 27-metre-long Anglo-Saxon ship was found buried in the earth. Buried along with the ship were precious objects from across the world.\n\nAt Leiston, Michael visits the oldest children’s democracy in the world, Summerhill School, founded in 1921 by a forward-thinking Scottish educator called A.S. Neill. Today, his daughter Zoe Readhead is school principal, and she introduces Michael to the school’s ethos and some of its pupils.\n\nIn the Essex village of Dedham, Michael unearths a nasty brush between painters. East Anglian art experts explain the antipathy between traditional artist Sir Alfred Munnings and the modern art school established in the village by Cedric Morris.\n\nMichael takes the harbour ferry from Felixstowe to Harwich to find out about the young Jewish passengers who arrived in Harwich in 1938, having fled Nazi Germany as part of the Kindertransport. Siblings Ruth Jacobs and Harry Heber, now in their 80s, were among them, and Michael is moved to hear their story.
Source: 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 ...
29-03-2024
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 ...
28-03-2024
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& ...
27-03-2024
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. ...
26-03-2024
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 ...
25-03-2024
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 ...
22-03-2024
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 ...
21-03-2024
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 ...
20-03-2024
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 ...
19-03-2024
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 ...
18-03-2024
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. ...
26-03-2024
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 ...
21-03-2024
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 ...
18-03-2024
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& ...
27-03-2024
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 ...
25-03-2024
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 ...
20-03-2024
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, ...
04-09-2023
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 ...
28-12-2022
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 ...
19-03-2024
BBC 2