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’s running club, the Bellahouston Harriers, for a warm-up session. In parkland above the pits en route to Cuningar Loop, he finds Glasgow’s geoenergy observatory, where the British Geological Society is researching how mine water heated naturally underground can be harnessed to save energy.\n\nAt Livingston North, Michael investigates a puzzling incident in 1979 in Dechmont Woods. And at Edinburgh’s famous 12th-century castle, he discovers the origins of a spectacle that has attracted tourists from far and wide since 1950, the Edinburgh Tattoo.
Source: BBC 2
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
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
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
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
Series 16: 15. Solihull To Birmingham International
On the final leg of his Midlands tour, Michael Portillo travels to Solihull, the home of iconic British brand Land Rover. He discovers that their factory, now owned by Indian Ta ...
25-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 14. Birmingham New Street To Wednesbury
Arriving in Birmingham, Michael Portillo heads to Curzon Street for a tour of the HS2 terminus still under construction. He discovers that parts of the site’s 1838 station ...
24-04-2025
BBC 2
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
Series 16: 12. Ironbridge To Coseley
Michael Portillo is in Ironbridge Gorge on the River Severn, where he discovers the Silicon Valley of the 18th century. Exploring this hotbed of industrial innovation, he takes ...
22-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 11. Shrewsbury To Telford
Sharp as an arrow and armed with a longbow, Michael Portillo re-enacts the Battle of Shrewsbury, fought at the Shropshire village of Battlefield in 1403. He hears how the rebel ...
21-04-2025
BBC 2
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 ...
18-04-2025
BBC 2
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
Series 16: 4. Gatwick Airport To Royal Tunbridge Wells
Michael Portillo’s rail exploration of the spectacular countryside of the Weald in Surrey, Sussex and Kent continues - this time, aboard the Gatwick Express train, which c ...
10-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 2. Hildenborough To Robertsbridge
Michael Portillo’s rail exploration of the historic wooded region of south east England, known as the Weald, continues from Tonbridge, at the heart of the area's rail netw ...
08-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 11. Shrewsbury To Telford
Sharp as an arrow and armed with a longbow, Michael Portillo re-enacts the Battle of Shrewsbury, fought at the Shropshire village of Battlefield in 1403. He hears how the rebel ...
21-04-2025
BBC 2
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 ...
07-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 3. Dorking To Lingfield
Michael Portillo’s railway tour of the Weald reaches the spectacular Surrey countryside, where he finds a surprising connection to the darker reaches of the universe.\n\nI ...
09-04-2025
BBC 2
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 ...
18-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 7. St Bees To Grange-over-sands
Michael Portillo’s railway tour of Cumbria and Dumfriesshire continues as he travels along the scenic Cumbrian Coast Line. Just outside Egremont, he visits Florence Mine, ...
15-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 5. Chichester To Amberley
Michael Portillo’s railway tour of the green and pleasant landscape between the North and South Downs, known as the Weald, nears its conclusion.\n\nNear Chichester, Michae ...
11-04-2025
BBC 2
Series 16: 14. Birmingham New Street To Wednesbury
Arriving in Birmingham, Michael Portillo heads to Curzon Street for a tour of the HS2 terminus still under construction. He discovers that parts of the site’s 1838 station ...
24-04-2025
BBC 2