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 arrives in Paignton, where the Dartmouth Steam Railway takes him to the home of Agatha Christie, in the company of her great-grandson.
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25:00Michael 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.
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.