Episode 1
Oxford to Abingdon
30m
Michael Portillo strikes out on another series of railway journeys, starting with a tour of the Home Counties and beyond in the city of dreaming spires, Oxford.
Where to watch Great British Railway Journeys
TV series
Great British Railway Journeys
201016 seasons7.4 / 10
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. Portillo travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
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Checked Jul 22, 2026
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Synopsis
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. Portillo travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
Season 12 episodes
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Episode 2
Stoke Mandeville to Beaconsfield
30m
Michael Portillo continues his travels through England's Home Counties at Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire, where he discovers the legacy of a German Jewish doctor who fled the Nazis.
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Episode 3
West Ruislip to Windsor
30m
Michael Portillo heads for leafy Hatch End, where he investigates an illustrator whose work was so popular in the 1920s and 30s that his name entered the English dictionary.
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Episode 4
Guildford to Aldershot
30m
Michael Portillo resumes his tour of the Home Counties in the picturesque and historic county town of Guildford. English
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Episode 5
Farnborough to Winchester
30m
Michael is heading for Farnborough, Hampshire, famous today for its airshow and home to what was then the Royal Aircraft Establishment.
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Episode 6
Saxmundham to Dedham
30m
Armed with his 1930s Bradshaw's, Michael Portillo explores interwar East Anglia. Starting at Sutton Hoo, he visits the experimental Summerhill School and learns about the Kindertransport refugees.
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Episode 7
Colchester to Chadwell Heath
30m
Michael Portillo continues his Bradshaw's-inspired journey through East Anglia, where he discovers the Essex origins of the BBC and joins the Women's Land Army to pick damsons at Tiptree.
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Episode 8
Potters Bar to Cardington
30m
Michael's Bradshaw travels resume in leafy Hertfordshire, where he attempts a canoe slalom course, visits the estate of Dame Barbara Cartland and hears the shocking story of the R101 airship.
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Episode 9
Sawbridgeworth to Cambridge
30m
Steered by his Bradshaw's guide, Michael Portillo heads for the Hertfordshire village of Perry Green to learn about Henry Moore became one of the defining artists of British modernism.
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Episode 10
Newmarket to Walsingham
30m
Michael Portillo is in Suffolk on the last leg of his 1930s Bradshaw's inspired tour of East Anglia, visiting the racecourse at Newmarket and the Roman Catholic shrine at Walsingham.
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Episode 11
Crewe to Shotton
30m
Oh, Mr Porter, what could he do? Michael Portillo is in Crewe, a town steeped in railway history and immortalised in Victorian music hall, to investigate the making of the iconic cinema classic, The Night Mail during the 1930s.
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Episode 12
Rhyl to Anglesey
30m
Michael Portillo's 1930s Bradshaw's-inspired railway tour of North Wales takes him to a coast lined by magnificent castles and sweeping bays.
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Episode 13
Bangor to Betws y Coed
30m
Michael Portillo continues his 1936 Bradshaw's-inspired railway tour of North Wales in the coastal city of Bangor before turning south from Llandudno Junction to travel the Conwy Valley Line to Betws y Coed, the gateway to Snowdonia.
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Episode 14
Blaenau Ffestiniog to Barmouth
30m
In the Welsh mountains of Snowdonia, Michael Portillo reaches an abandoned mine, where in 1940 the wartime government sought sanctuary for the National Gallery’s priceless art collection. Michael hears how, as invasion appeared imminent, great masterpieces were transported by train and lorry to be stored hundreds of feet beneath the ground in a natural granite bunker. At Tan y Bwlch, Michael meets 'Blanche', who used to haul slate at Penrhyn quarry and was built in 1893. Now beautifully restored, she takes Michael on a memorable ride on the oldest narrow-gauge line in the world, the Ffestiniog Railway. In the harbour town of Porthmadog, Michael investigates the Welsh origins of a man forever associated with the Middle East, Lawrence of Arabia.
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Episode 15
Aberystwyth to Newtown
30mfinale
Armed with his 1930s Bradshaw's Guide, Michael Portillo travels from Aberystwyth into the Cambrian Mountains at Devil's Bridge and finishes in Newtown, Powys. Michael's 250-mile tour of North Wales draws to a close in style at the birthplace of the nation's first classical music festival, Gregynog Hall, near Newtown. Michael is intrigued to discover that its founders, sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, used the fortune they inherited from their grandfather, a noted Welsh railway builder, to establish the country estate as a centre for art and music from 1933. In the glorious music room, a Welsh harpist helps to evoke the spirit of festivals past and present.
Where to watch Great British Railway JourneysEpisode information updated Jul 24, 2026
More about Great British Railway Journeys
Cast
Michael PortilloSelf - PresenterProduction details
- Status
- Returning Series
- Series type
- Documentary
- Episodes
- 290
- Original language
- English
Networks & production
BBC TwoUnited Kingdom
Talkback ThamesUnited Kingdom
Fremantle UKUnited Kingdom
Themes
railroad
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