Great British Railway Journeys
Great British Railway Journeys is a TV show on SBS ONE. The program has been available since 2025. A total of 30 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in January 2026.
Last episode
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29:02Great British Railway Journeys
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Michael 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-...
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Michael 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... 29:01 Expired
Michael 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. 29:04 Expired
Michael 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... 28:58 Expired
Michael 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... 28:59 Expired
Michael 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... 28:54 Expired
In 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... 28:55 Expired
Greater 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... 29:01 Expired
Michael 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... 28:56 Expired
Michael 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 16
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28:50Michael's exploration of Essex is drawing to a close. He visits Colchester, which was first mentioned in AD77 and proudly claims to be Britain's oldest recorded town. He learns of the rebellion in AD60 by English warrior queen, Boudica, against the Romans and visits the Norman castle, which was built on top of the foundati...
29:03Arriving in the Essex market town of Witham, Michael heads into the countryside to visit one of the county's great country houses, Terling Place. He hears how, in the late 19th century, the Victorian scientist the 3rd Baron Rayleigh discovered the atmospheric gas, Argon, here. Michael meets the current Lord Rayleigh and t...
29:03Michael 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 to be built on the Great Eastern Main Line for over 100 years. Michael learns how the station is designed to alleviate congestion in Chelmsford city cent...
29:02Michael'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 for the whole of the East Anglian rail network. He discovers how signallers and operators control the movements of over 4,000 trains a day and learns how the...
29:03Michael Portillo embarks on a new series of railway adventures to explore Britain's most beautiful and historic regions. Beginning on the fringes of the capital, London, Michael takes the Underground to the ancient woodland of Epping Forest in Essex. He admires the gnarled hornbeams and beeches, a legacy of centuries of po...
28:58On this final leg of his Midland's tour Michael Portillo travels to Solihull the home of iconic British brand Land Rover. He discovers that the factory here, now owned by Indian Tata Motors, produced the first model in the 1940's. Michael gets to put a modern Range Rover through its paces in a hair raising off road experie...
29:02Arriving 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 are being lovingly preserved and gets a bird's eye view of where the 225 mile an hour service will arrive, in the heart of the city.
29:03Michael 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 navigable tunnel in the UK, he marvels at the beauty of a vast cave known as the Singing Cavern.
29:00Michael 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 in the iron bridge itself and the world's first coke blast iron furnace. The list of 'firsts' in this valley is breathtaking including the wild con...
29:02Sharp as an arrow and armed with a longbow, Michael Portillo reenacts the Battle of Shrewsbury, fought at the Shropshire village of Battlefield in 1403. He hears how the rebel 'Harry Hotspur' challenged English King Henry IV for the crown and is impressed by the decisive role of the longbowmen.