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 20 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in November 2025.
Last episode
28:50
28:50Great British Railway Journeys
Michael'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 c...
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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.
29:03Michael 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 greatest poet, Robert Burns. At his mausoleum, he reflects on Burns' enduring legacy before enjoying one of his songs performed in the Scots language.
29:03Michael Portillo's railway journey through Cumbria and Dumfriesshire takes him to the rolling countryside around Aspatria to meet a couple who swapped their old life for organic dairy farming. Embracing regenerative principles, they've traded quantity for quality - alongside their beloved cow named Taylor Swift. At a hi-te...
29:04Michael Portillo's railway journey through Cumbria and Dumfriesshire heads to the hills as he follows in the footsteps of the Lakeland poets. In Keswick, he retraces the adventurous walks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, discovering how one of his legendary routes has been used as a form of therapy. Michael visits the striking ...
28:55Michael 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, an old iron ore mine now transformed into an arts centre and producing vibrant pigments from the haematite. In Ulverston he discovers the cradle of Quaker...
29:03Michael Portillo begins a railway tour of the spectacular border counties of Cumbria and Dumfriesshire starting in the stunning Lake District National Park, where he discovers the violent geological history of volcanoes and colliding continents that shaped this breathtaking landscape. For an aerial view he takes to the ski...
29:14Michael Portillo's railway tour of the green and pleasant landscape between the North and South Downs, known as The Weald, nears its conclusion. Near Chichester, Michael finds the Weald and Downland Living Museum and hears how 53 historic rural buildings dating from 950AD to 1910 were rescued from dereliction or the bulldo...
28:58Michael 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 connects the busy airport in the South East of England with the capital, London. Michael is amused to learn the name of the airport derives from the Old Engl...
29:02Michael Portillo's railway tour of The Weald reaches spectacular Surrey countryside, where he finds a surprising connection to the darker reaches of the universe. In a sprawling Victorian mansion south of Gomshall, is the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, where 200 scientists and engineers design and build space hardware. ...
28:57Michael Portillo's rail exploration of the historic wooded region of southeast England known as The Weald continues from Tonbridge at the heart of the area's rail network. Touring hazelnut orchards near Hildenborough, Michael learns about the Kentish cobnut and lends a hand to crack and roast the crop.
29:03Michael 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 hills of the North and South Downs little more than an hour's rail journey from London, he finds the pretty 12th century church of St Peter and St Paul in ...