Great British Railway Journeys
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28:59Michael Portillo is on the last leg of his journey from the train-building in Derby to the aircraft manufacturing base of Filton. From Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, he heads to the fairy tale castle of Eastnor.
29:11On this leg of his railway journey from the industrial West Midlands to the rural counties of the southwest, Michael stops in Wolverhampton. Where the ever-increasing demand for workers during the post war boom years saw immigrants from the Caribbean and South Asia arrive in Britain.
29:02Michael railway journey through the Midlands and West Country reaches the heart of the Warwickshire countryside, where the on-going construction of Britain's biggest railway project takes place.
28:55Beginning this time in Coventry, Michael recalls the destruction by the German Luftwaffe of the city's gothic cathedral in November 1940. He hears how architect Basil Spence won a competition to build it anew and tours the breathtakingly modernist concrete structure built alongside the medieval ruin.
28:48Michael begins in the city of Derby at its famous 19th century railway works, he hears how the Victorian sheds now house some of the latest assembly lines in Britain for building electric trains.
29:02Michael completes his railway journey through the east of England during the post-war period. At RAF Lakenheath, he discovers a slice of America dropped into the British countryside. Michael visits Quorn Foods to find how a seemingly modern meat substitute emerged out of a post-war food crisis.
29:03Michael Portillo continues his rail exploration of the east of England from London's Tilbury docks to Cambridge. Today he begins on the seafront at Felixstowe, where in January 1953 the town was engulfed in the worst flooding to hit England in the 20th century. Michael hears how a surge tide swelled in the North Sea and ov...
29:01Michael Portillo ventures deep underground onto London's newest railway: the Elizabeth Line. From pole position in the driver's cab Michael enjoys an impressively smooth and screech-free ride from Paddington to Tottenham Court Road.
29:04Michael Portillo continues his railway exploration of the post-war Britain of his youth on a journey from London to Cambridge. He begins on the capital's South Bank, where during 1951 a Festival of Britain drew more than eight and a half million visitors to admire fantastical buildings designed to inspire and celebrate the...
28:58Michael Portillo travels through the Britain of his youth from London's Docklands and East End to the 'city within a city', the Barbican. At Tilbury, he traces the arrival in 1948 of the Empire Windrush, bringing over a thousand passengers from the Caribbean to work in Britain. Making his way along the Tilbury Bridge Walkw...
28:59Michael Portillo continues his post-war exploration of northwest England in Bradford, Shipley and Hebden Bridge. In Centenary Square in Bradford, Michael encounters Bradford's literary giant, J.B. Priestley, and at Bradford University library, he finds out about Priestley's politics and humour. Michael then visits the Brad...
28:54In Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Michael Portillo visits the National Coal Mining Museum for England at Caphouse Colliery. His guide, an ex-miner, takes him 140 metres down into the mine to imagine the conditions men faced and tells him how the strikes of the 1970s and 1980s affected mining communities. Michael then pauses to...
28:55Greater Manchester's Metrolink tram delivers Michael Portillo to the former cotton town of Oldham on the edge of the Peak District. In the stalls of the town's Victorian repertory theatre, Michael hears how the lifting of censorship in the late 1960s allowed theatres to stage risque productions from playwrights such as Ten...
29:01Michael Portillo's railway journey through northwest Britain from Preston to Hebden Bridge reaches Greater Manchester, where Michael celebrates new beginnings for the nation in the years after the Second World War. At Trafford General Hospital, he investigates the birth of the National Health Service in 1948. Later, Willia...
28:56Michael Portillo strikes out to explore the Britain of his youth. He's a 'boomer', born in the decade after the end of the Second World War, and he recalls the optimism and excitement of rebuilding a nation exhausted by conflict. He'll relive the agony and the ecstasy of British Rail and marvel at the new society and cultu...
Season 11
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Michael is in Cornwall’s county town, Truro, with his 1930s Bradshaw’s Guide. In the surrounding countryside, he finds the historic estate of Trewithen, whose gardens were stocked from China by professional plant hunters commissioned by its owner. 29:02 Expired
Michael Portillo is in East Anglia on the last leg of his rail journey through 1930s Britain. He begins in Attleborough in Norfolk at the headquarters of an international horse welfare organisation which was established in the late 1920s, learning about the charity’s pioneering founder. 28:52 Expired
Michael continues his railway journey through eastern England from Canterbury to Skegness steered by his 1930s Bradshaw’s guidebook. Stopping at Saxmundham in Suffolk, Michael heads for Snape Maltings - a concert and arts venue, and learns how the music and life of one of Britain’s greatest composers was shaped by the sea ... 29:03 Expired
Michael explores the east of England, in London and Essex, en route to Lincolnshire. On this leg, he alights at Limehouse in East London for Cable Street, which became the focus of Britain’s fight against fascism in the 1930s. 29:07 Expired
Michael explores the east of England in the inter-war period. Beginning in Canterbury in Kent, Michael treads the boards as he uncovers the political message behind a play, published in 1936, inspired by the 12th century murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket.