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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 during the 1930s.\n\nFollowing his Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael takes the train to Chester to discover the interwar origins of Britain’s most popular zoo. Michael learns how the work of Chester Zoo’s enlightened founder continues, and he helps to feed a young greater one-horned rhino.\n\nAcross the border in north Wales, Michael reaches the village of Gresford, the scene of one of Britain’s worst mining disasters, where 266 men lost their lives in 1934. Michael hears how it happened and how it is remembered in the community today. The Ifton Colliery Band plays Gresford - The Miners’ Hymn.\n\nOver the River Dee, at Tata Steel in Shotton, Michael discovers a wartime boost to steel production on the site, where John Summers & Sons manufactured up to 50,000 Andersen shelters a week. The steel shelters and others designed by the company for people’s back gardens protected families from aerial bombardment by German planes.
Source: BBC 2
Most recent episodes of Great British Railway Journeys
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
28-05-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
27-05-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
26-05-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
22-05-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
21-05-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
20-05-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
19-05-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
15-05-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
14-05-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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
Most popular episodes of Great British Railway Journeys
Great British Railway Journeys
Series 16: 17. Romford To The Blackwater Estuary
Michael’s exploration of Essex continues in Romford. He arrives on the London Overground’s Liberty Line to visit a state-of-the-art rail operating centre responsible ...
29-04-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
28-04-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
12-05-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
23-04-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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
Great British Railway Journeys
Series 5 - Brighton To Chichester
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.
24-09-2014
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
14-05-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
21-05-2025
BBC 2