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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 journey from Merseyside to Teesside in a recreated 1950s street, where childhood memories are rekindled in the Beamish Museum hairdresser.
Source: BBC 2
Most recent episodes of Great British Railway Journeys
Great British Railway Journeys
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 ...
12-06-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
Series 12: 15. Aberystwyth To Newtown
Armed with his 1930s Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael travels from Aberystwyth into the Cambrian Mountains at Devil’s Bridge and finishes in Newtown, Powys.\n\nIn the elega ...
09-06-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
Series 12: 14. Blaenau Ffestiniog To Barmouth
In the Welsh mountains of Snowdonia, Michael Portillo reaches an abandoned mine, where in 1940 the wartime government sought sanctuary for the National Gallery’s priceless ...
04-06-2025
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
Series 12: 13. Bangor To Betws-y-coed
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 th ...
03-06-2025
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 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
Most popular episodes of Great British Railway Journeys
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: 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 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: 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 10: 4. Maltby To Hinckley
Michael Portillo continues his tour of Britain’s industrial heartlands guided by his early 20th-century Bradshaw’s. Michael heads for Maltby, where he is caught up w ...
06-06-2024
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
Great British Railway Journeys
Series 1 - Swindon To Bristol
Michael Portillo finds out about free holiday trains for the GWR workers in Swindon, samples the spa in Bath and tries his hand at glass blowing in Bristol.
14-10-2014
BBC 2
Great British Railway Journeys
Series 11: 9. Paignton To Tiverton
Michael Portillo's exploration of the West Country continues in south Devon. Guided by his 1930s Bradshaw’s, Michael arrives in Paignton to investigate an extraordinarily ...
15-08-2024
BBC 2