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 reaches Bodmin en route to Totnes, as he explores the West Country from St Ives to Salisbury Plain, learning more about Daphne du Maurier on the way.
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25:00Michael Portillo visits Cornwall's county town, Truro, heading to the historic estate of Trewithen, whose gardens were stocked from China by plant hunters.
35:00Michael Portillo explores the West Country between the wars, setting off from the Cornish seaside resort of St Ives and ending in the former mining village of St Day.
25:00Michael Portillo visits Lossiemouth and Inverness. His journey ends at Loch Ness, where he joins a Deep Scan research team searching for the elusive monster.
25:00Michael Portillo travels from Dundee to Aberdeen, stopping off at Glamis Castle, where the Queen Mother grew up, and making an excursion into the Eastern Highlands.
25:00Michael Portillo reaches the Westerglen Transmitting Station in Falkirk, before visiting Gleneagles and Berry Town on route to the city of Dundee.
35:00Michael Portillo is in Northumbria, discovering what lay behind a national initiative to plant one of the largest manmade woodlands in Europe.
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 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.
40:00Michael 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.
25:00Michael Portillo visits London's South Bank, where the 1951 Festival of Britain drew more than eight and a half million visitors.
35:00Michael 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.