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 the Conwy Valley line to Betws-y-Coed, the gateway to Snowdonia.\n\nAt Bangor Station, Michael hears how, when war broke out in September 1939, 2,000 children from the cities of northern England were evacuated by train to north Wales. Michael learns that while children’s lives were turned upside down by Operation Pied Piper, many evacuees would look back fondly on their days in rural Wales.\n\nHeading inland alongside the River Conwy, Michael reaches Tal-y-Cafn, where he alights to visit the magnificent Bodnant Garden. Here, during the interwar era, a partnership flourished between the owner, Lord Aberconway, and his gifted head gardener, Frederick Puddle. Michael searches for lost rhododendron varieties with a metal detector!\n\nAt Dolgarrog, Michael investigates the worst dam disaster in Welsh history, which devastated the small community in 1925. On the memorial trail to the 16 people who lost their lives, Michael hears how the tragedy unfolded.\n\nThere's Welsh rarebit for lunch in Betws-y-Coed to fuel our intrepid traveller before he attempts to climb one of Snowdonia’s lesser peaks under the watchful eye of an expert from the first national climbing club exclusively for women, the Pinnacle Club, founded in 1921.
Source: BBC 2
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 ...
05-04-2024
BBC 2
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 ...
04-04-2024
BBC 2
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 ...
03-04-2024
BBC 2
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 ...
02-04-2024
BBC 2
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 ...
01-04-2024
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: 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: 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 ...
01-04-2024
BBC 2
Series 9: 6. Whitland To Swansea
Dressed in the colours of the Welsh flag and with his 'new' Edwardian Bradshaw's guide in hand, Michael Portillo embarks on a railway adventure, from the coalfields of south Wal ...
15-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 3: 25. Goes To Ireland - Ballymoney To Londonderry
07-11-2014
BBC 2
Series 3 - Windsor To Didcot
Michael Portillo visits a station fit for royalty in Windsor, and views an engineering triumph built by Brunel to span the Thames at Maidenhead.
13-10-2014
BBC 2
Series 9: 12. York To Frizinghall
Armed with his Edwardian Bradshaw's guide, Michael Portillo conducts important research in an historic tea room, built by an Edwardian immigrant to the city of York. Research of ...
27-02-2023
BBC 2
Series 10: Episode 2
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 r ...
29-08-2023
BBC 2
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 ...
31-05-2022
BBC 2
Series 11: 2. Kielder Forest To Edinburgh
Steered by his 1936 Bradshaw's Guide, Michael Portillo is in Northumbria en route to the Highlands. \n\nOn this leg, he explores Kielder Forest, beginning at the County Show in ...
21-11-2023
BBC 2