Great Continental Railway Journeys
Great Continental Railway Journeys is a TV show on BBC2. All aboard! Michael Portillo explores Europe’s most beautiful, historic and enchanting regions by rail, uncovering how nature and history have shaped the continent. The program has been available since 2025. A total of 65 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in August 2026.
Last episode
Great Continental Railway Journeys
Michael Portillo’s railway journey through the islands of Sardinia and Corsica sees him leave Sardinia and arrive into Corsica, the most mountainous island in the Mediterranean.
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1:00:00
Michael Portillo travels through Germany, revealing how British yachtsmen spied on the German navy in the early 20th century.
1:00:00Michael Portillo travels from Turin to Venice, recreating a scene from The Italian Job and investigating the British love affair with Lake Como in the 20th century.
Series 9
Michael Portillo continues his Sardinian railway adventure, arriving in Mamoiada to investigate the town’s extraordinary pagan traditions.
Series 2 1:00:00
1:00:00Michael Portillo travels through Spain as he once again ventures onto the European rail network, visiting Madrid, Cordoba, Seville, Algeciras and Gibraltar.
Series 1 1:00:00
1:00:00Michael Portillo travels through Holland and Belgium and ends his journey in France's Forest of Compiegne, where the WWI armistice was signed.
Series 9
Michael Portillo’s railway tour of Sardinia heads inland towards the island's dramatic mountain landscapes, which he discovers were frequented by DH Lawrence.
Series 1 1:00:00
1:00:00Passing through the Harz Mountains, Michael Portillo travels from Berlin to the Rheingau.
1:00:00Michael Portillo explores the once-great empire of Austria-Hungary.
1:00:00Armed with his 1913 guide, Michael Portillo follows the most popular Edwardian route through France, stopping at Paris and the Cote D'Azur along the way.
Series 9
Michael Portillo embarks on a stunning railway adventure through the western Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica, beginning in Sardinia’s capital, Cagliari.
Series 8
Aboard the Golden Pass Express, Michael Portillo wends his way in style down steep mountainsides from Interlaken to the Swiss Riviera. In Lausanne, he contends with a knife-wielding robotic arm.
Michael Portillo scales the Swiss Alps on one of the the steepest cog railways in the world and visits the 19th-century fairy-tale Grand Hotel Giessbach.
In Zurich, Michael has a brush with the absurd in the anarchic paintings of the Dadaists and visits the Grossmunster Church to learn about the rebellious pastor at the centre of the Swiss Reformation.
Michael Portillo ventures into the bowels of an immense hydroelectric dam to learn how the Swiss use their mountainous environment to power the country.
Michael Portillo is transported back in time to the tiny Alpine village home of Switzerland’s most famous child, Heidi. He then heads to the Rhine Gorge, also known as the Swiss Grand Canyon.
Michael Portillo concludes his epic rail journey across Norway and Denmark, crossing an 18-kilometre box girder bridge between the islands of Funen and Zealand, known as the Great Belt Bridge.
Michael Portillo’s Scandinavian rail adventure reaches Denmark’s second city, Aarhus, an architectural playground with dazzling contemporary buildings set alongside historic half-timbered houses.
Michael’s saga resumes in Larvik on Norway’s southern coast, where he investigates the city’s prized natural resource, a distinctive blue rock named larvikite.
Michael Portillo’s rail journey continues on the Bergen Line, heading towards the Norwegian capital of Oslo, with its fine modernist architecture and 19th-century parliament building.