Catch up TV
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 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
Most recent episodes of Great British Railway Journeys
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
06-08-2026
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
05-08-2026
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
04-08-2026
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
30-07-2026
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
29-07-2026
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
28-07-2026
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
23-07-2026
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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& ...
22-07-2026
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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. ...
21-07-2026
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
16-07-2026
BBC 2
Most popular episodes of Great British Railway Journeys
Great British Railway Journeys
Series 2 - Newcastle To Chester-le-street
Michael Portillo visits the first locomotive factory in the world opened by George Stephenson and searches for the lost pit village of Marsden.
03-06-2014
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
02-06-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
04-08-2026
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
05-08-2026
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
Series 1 - Bugle To Mevagissey
Michael Portillo visits the largest clay mine in the world, goes pilchard fishing in Mevagissey and finds out how the estate of Heligan shaped British gardens.
12-07-2014
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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
Great British Railway Journeys
Series 1 - Liverpool To Eccles
Michael Portillo journeys around Britain by train. He learns to speak Scouse in Liverpool and finds out about the first railway fatality.
29-09-2014
BBC 2