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 275 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in October 2025.
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Great British Railway Journeys
Michael's exploration of Essex is drawing to a close. He visits Colchester, which was first mentioned in AD77 and proudly claims to be Britain’s oldest recorded town.
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Arriving in the Essex market town of Witham, Michael heads into the countryside to visit Terling Place, one of the county’s great country houses.
Series 8
35:00
35:00On the last leg of Michael Portillo's long journey from Wexford to Westport, a fashionable Victorian seaweed bath is followed by a steamy scene in Ballina.
25:00Michael Portillo continues his Irish journey from Dromod to Sligo. Along the way he discovers how the landscape inspired WB Yeats and learns to make a potato pancake.
25:00Michael Portillo continues his journey across Ireland, travelling from Navan to Mullingar, where he uncovers a controversial Victorian dig at the sacred Hill of Tara.
35:00At Trinity College, Dublin, Michael Portillo discovers one of Ireland's greatest treasures, and also explores the house and gardens of Powerscourt in County Wicklow.
25:00Michael Portillo begins a journey across Ireland, starting in the port of Wexford, where he takes to the seas in a 100-year-old lifeboat.
25:00Michael Portillo embarks on the final leg of his journey following the route of the North Country Continental service, heading to Harwich, Essex.
25:00Michael Portillo travels from Gainsborough to Ely, along the way learning about a Victorian machine that changed shopping for ever and the poet Alfred Tennyson.
35:00Michael starts his journey in Chapeltown, Sheffield, following what was once known as the North Country Continental service, and finishing in Doncaster.
25:00Michael Portillo's journey to the North Sea continues and he investigates the Victorian scientist who invented modern atomic theory.
25:00Michael Portillo travels from Blackpool to Manchester unveiling a monument to railwaymen of the London and North Western Railway who died in the Great War.
25:00In Musselburgh, Michael Portillo gets a taste of life as a fishwife, before exploring Edinburgh where a popular 19th-century mode of transport is making a comeback.
35:00Michael Portillo journeys from Darlington to Dunbar, following the route taken by George Stephenson's steam engine on its 1825 journey.
25:00Michael Portillo journeys from Newark-on-Trent to Stockton-on-Tees, and a scandalous novel written in Thirsk leads him to a wildlife centre.
Series 11 35:00
35:00Michael 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.
Series 8 25:00
25:00Michael Portillo explores a Swiss garden in Bedfordshire, drives a 'locomobile', and discovers the Victorian origins of the fertiliser industry.
25:00Michael Portillo sets out on the first leg of a trip from London to Edinburgh aboard the Flying Scotsman, beginning at King's Cross as he heads for York.
Series 16
Michael’s exploration of Essex reaches Chelmsford, where the city's bishop relates her story of escape from Iran after the Islamic revolution of 1979.