
Michael Portillo embarks on a journey through Britain steered by his Edwardian railway handbook. He begins in the East Yorkshire port of Hull, where he heads for the docks through which millions of migrants passed at the turn of the 20th century and which are today getting a second wind.\n\nAt Cottingham, Michael picks up the trail of the future King Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales. Bertie, as he was known in the family, became embroiled in scandal after a high-stakes game of cards in the grand house of Tranby Croft. \n\nNext stop is the beautiful seaside town of Scarborough, which Michael discovers was reeling in 1914 from bombardment by German warships and still carries the scars. Rose gardens, follies and Baroque architecture belonging to a radical countess entice Michael to the market town of Malton, where he finds Howards still inhabit their castle.
Source: BBC 2
Series 16: 20. Colchester To Chappel And Wakes Colne
Michael's exploration of Essex is drawing to a close. He visits Colchester, which was first mentioned in AD 77 and proudly claims to be Britain’s oldest recorded town. He ...
11-10-2025
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 ...
04-10-2025
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 ...
27-09-2025
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 ...
20-09-2025
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 ...
14-09-2025
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 ...
14-09-2025
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 ...
06-09-2025
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 ...
31-08-2025
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 ...
27-08-2025
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 ...
22-08-2025
BBC 2
Series 11: 1. Newcastle To County Durham
Michael Portillo begins a new series of railway journeys through 1930s Britain, armed with an interwar Bradshaw's guide. He explores an unmistakably modern era of glamorous loco ...
01-08-2024
BBC 2
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
Series 10: 3. Manchester To Elsecar
Armed with his early 20th-century Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo continues his journey from Warrington to the Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent.\nIn Manchester, at the magni ...
05-06-2024
BBC 2
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
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 ...
20-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 6. Newry To Portadown
Steered by his Edwardian Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo navigates his way by rail – and ferry - across Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands from Newry to ...
11-06-2024
BBC 2
Series 2 - Batley To Sheffield
Michael Portillo finds out about shoddy, a successful 19th-century recycling industry in the textile town of Batley, and meets a descendant of George Bradshaw.
10-06-2014
BBC 2
Series 11: 14. Saxmundham To Norwich
Michael Portillo continues his railway journey through eastern England from Canterbury to Skegness steered by his 1930s Bradshaw’s guidebook. \n\nStopping at Saxmundham ...
26-09-2024
BBC 2
Series 10: 8. Larne To Dumfries
Michael Portillo continues his journey from Northern Ireland across the water to Scotland. Leaving from the seaport of Larne he reaches Stranraer and the Mull of Galloway, where ...
08-07-2024
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 ...
27-08-2025
BBC 2