Great British Railway Journeys
Great British Railway Journeys is a TV show on BBC4. All aboard! Michael Portillo explores the UK the railways made. Uncover hidden gems and fascinating communities from across the nation. The program has been available since 2025. A total of 158 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in July 2026.
Last episode
Great British Railway Journeys
Michael Portillo joins Navy Wings pilots for a spectacular close formation flight in the skies over Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton and visits the magnificent Elizabethan mansion of Longleat.
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Beginning at London Marylebone, the last great Victorian railway terminus to be built in the capital, Michael Portillo embarks on a postwar exploration of Britain’s southern counties.
Series 9
35:00
35:00Michael Portillo embarks on train journeys through Edwardian Britain, exploring the grand estates of Norfolk and a bivouac on Brownsea Island on the way.
Series 14 25:00
25:00From Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, Michael Portillo visits Coleford in the Forest of Dean, Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, and Bristol Temple Meads.
25:00Michael Portillo stops in Wolverhampton, where he finds out about the impact of Enoch Powell's 1968 speech, and also visits Cheltenham.
35:00Michael Portillo sees the work being done for the new HS2 railway in Warwickshire, and in Stratford-upon-Avon he learns about the founding of the RSC.
25:00Michael Portillo hears of the destruction of Coventry's gothic cathedral by the German Luftwaffe, and visits the factory where the London taxi is built.
25:00Michael Portillo journeys from the Midlands to the West Country, visiting Derby's famous 19th-century railway works and the Walkers crisps factory in Leicester.
25:00Michael Portillo explores RAF Lakenheath, the market town of Brandon on the border between Norfolk and Suffolk, and he ends his journey in Cambridge.
35:00Michael Portillo explores Felixstowe, which suffered catastrophic flooding in 1953, and in Norwich, he admires the Norman Cathedral.
25:00Michael Portillo ventures deep underground onto London's newest railway - the Elizabeth Line - enjoying a smooth ride from Paddington to Tottenham Court Road.
25:00Michael Portillo visits London's South Bank, where the 1951 Festival of Britain drew more than eight and a half million visitors.
25:00Michael Portillo travels from London's Docklands to the Barbican, examining the story of the arrival at Tilbury in 1948 of over a thousand passengers from the Caribbean.
35:00Michael Portillo continues his post-war exploration of northwest England in Bradford and Shipley, before ending at Hebden Bridge.
25:00In Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Michael Portillo visits the National Coal Mining Museum for England at Caphouse Colliery.
25:00Michael Portillo visits Oldham's Victorian theatre, attends a knife-making workshop in Sheffield and goes to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield.
25:00Michael Portillo is in Greater Manchester, hearing about the birth of the NHS and the first episode of Coronation Street.
Series 13 35:00
35:00Michael Portillo discovers the origins of Harry Beck's map of the London Underground, and explores the headquarters of Churchill's war cabinet.
25:00Michael Portillo is in London, where he tracks the River Thames from east to west. Starting in Dagenham, he ends up at the iconic Battersea Power Station.
25:00Michael Portillo travels to Hampstead, where he learns more about the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, before making his way to Islington.