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 2025. A total of 275 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in November 2025.
Last episode
25:00
25:00Great British Railway Journeys
Michael 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.
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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.
35:00Michael 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.
25:00Michael 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.
35:00Michael 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.
25:00Michael 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.
35:00Michael 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.
25:00Michael Portillo explores the Britain of his youth, starting at Preston's Fulwood Barracks and heading to Bury Bolton Street Station in Greater Manchester.
Series 13
25:00
25:00Michael Portillo discovers the origins of Harry Beck's map of the London Underground, and explores the headquarters of Churchill's war cabinet.
35:00Michael 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.
25:00Michael Portillo continues his travels through the capital in the heart of London's East End, making his way from Hackney Wick to Oxford Circus.
25:00Michael Portillo continues his travels in Greater London, ending up in Kennington to learn about the childhood of Charlie Chaplin.
35:00Michael Portillo reaches the Kent seaside resort of Herne Bay, eventually crosses the North Downs to Lenham, and pays a visit to Leeds Castle.
25:00Michael Portillo heads to Walmer Castle, home during the 1920s to Lord Beauchamp, and in Margate he discovers the connection to TS Eliot.