Great British Railway Journeys
Great British Railway Journeys is a TV show on BBC4. Documentary series in which Michael Portillo travels the country by train. The program has been available since 2024. A total of 285 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in August 2025.
Last episode
35:00
35:00Great British Railway Journeys
Michael Portillo travels from Middlesbrough to Hexham, learning about eighth-century monk the Venerable Bede at St Paul's monastery in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear.
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25:00Michael Portillo travels from Hessle in East Yorkshire to York, along the way learning about the technology that made the Humber Bridge possible.
Series 12
25:00
25:00Michael Portillo travels to leafy Hatch End in north-west London, where he meets the great-nephew of the famous illustrator William Heath Robinson.
25:00Michael Portillo continues his travels through England's Home Counties at Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire, before making his way to Beaconsfield.
35:00Michael Portillo sets out on another railway adventure as he explores Britain between the world wars, beginning a tour of the Home Counties and beyond in Oxford.
Series 11 25:00
25:00Michael Portillo reaches the Westerglen Transmitting Station in Falkirk, before visiting Gleneagles and Berry Town on route to the city of Dundee.
Series 6 35:00
35:00Michael Portillo travels from the south Lincolnshire town of Boston to Hensall, North Yorkshire, discovering the origins of a favourite Victorian apple along the way.
25:00Michael Portillo begins a journey from Derby to Lindisfarne, learning about a high-street chemist's origins and visiting a former grocer's shop in Grantham.
Series 16
Michael Portillo is in Ironbridge Gorge on the River Severn, a hotbed of 18th-century innovation which features the world's first coke blast iron furnace.
Series 11 25:00
25:00Michael Portillo begins the last leg of his rail journey through 1930s Britain in Norfolk at the headquarters of an international horse welfare organisation.
25:00Michael Portillo's journey takes him to the Snape Maltings music and arts venue, the Norfolk seaside resort of Great Yarmouth and the city of Norwich.
35:00Michael Portillo's railway journey from Canterbury to Skegness reaches Witham in Essex. He visits the factory of the world's oldest supplier of metal-framed windows.
25:00Michael Portillo is in Northumbria, discovering what lay behind a national initiative to plant one of the largest manmade woodlands in Europe.
Series 6 35:00
35:00Michael Portillo embarks on his final journey in London, learning about the darker side of Vauxhall's flower market in the Victorian era.
25:00Michael Portillo heads to the West End as he explores 19th-century engineering used in theatres and learns how diseases were rife in Victorian London on a visit to Soho.
Series 11 25:00
25:00Michael Portillo explores the east of England en route to Lincolnshire. He learns how the Crossrail project is helping to conserve birds.
25:00Michael Portillo explores the east of England in the inter-war period, his journey beginning in Canterbury and ending at Alexandra Palace in London.
35:00In Bath, Michael visits the ex-home of a refugee emperor, whose country was invaded by the Italian dictator Mussolini.
25:00Beginning in Jarrow, Michael uncovers the desperation which led 200 men to march 300miles to Westminster in order to petition the Government for work.
Series 6 35:00
35:00Michael Portillo explores the legacy of the Olympic Park in Stratford, and learns about the big makeover currently under way at Victoria underground station.