Documentary series in which Michael Portillo travels the country by train.
Episode 1
Preston to Rawtenstall
Jun 19, 2023
Michael Portillo strikes out to explore the Britain of his youth, starting at Preston’s Fulwood Barracks and heading across to Bury Bolton Street station in Greater Manchester.
Episode 2
Urmston to New Islington
Jun 20, 2023
Michael’s journey through north west England from Preston to Hebden Bridge reaches Greater Manchester, where Michael celebrates new beginnings for the nation in the years after the Second World War.
Episode 3
Oldham to Wakefield
Jun 21, 2023
Greater Manchester’s Metrolink tram delivers Michael to the former cotton town of Oldham. He heads across to Wakefield and the striking postwar sculptures of Barbara Hepworth.
Episode 4
Wakefield to Leeds
Jun 22, 2023
From Wakefield, West Yorkshire, Michael visits the National Coal Mining Museum for England at Caphouse Colliery. He pauses to admire the tall spire of Wakefield Cathedral and its resident peregrine falcons before heading to the banks of the River Calder. In a vast factory, he finds the headquarters of a shirt manufacturer, Double Two, a pioneering wartime business co-founded by a Jewish refugee from Austria. In Leeds, Michael heads for the Chapeltown area to investigate the origins of the Leeds West Indian Carnival in 1967 and try his hand on the steel drums. In the city's Harehills district, he admires the back-to-back houses once condemned as slums but now highly prized for their character and community.
Episode 5
Bradford to Hebden Bridge
Jun 24, 2023
Michael Portillo continues his postwar exploration of north west England in Bradford, Shipley and Hebden Bridge. In Centenary Square in Bradford, Michael encounters Bradford’s literary giant JB Priestley, author of An Inspector Calls. Just north of Bradford, at Shipley station, Michael discovers a nature reserve in the middle of a car park that's home to more than 14 species of butterfly and moth.
Episode 6
Tilbury to Barbican
Jun 26, 2023
Michael Portillo travels through the Britain of his youth from London’s Docklands and East End to the ‘city within a city’, the Barbican.
Episode 7
Waterloo to Regent's Park
Jun 27, 2023
Michael Portillo continues his railway exploration of the post-war Britain of his youth on a journey from London to Cambridge, starting at South Bank.
Episode 8
Paddington to Ongar
Jun 28, 2023
Michael Portillo ventures deep underground onto London’s newest railway: the Elizabeth Line. He travels across London before transferring to the Epping Ongar Heritage Railway.
Episode 9
Felixstowe to Norwich
Jun 29, 2023
Michael Portillo continues his rail exploration of the east of England, starting on the seafront of Felixstowe and finishing in the plate glass campus of the University of East Anglia.
Episode 10
Brandon to Cambridge
Jun 30, 2023
Michael Portillo completes his railway journey through the east of England during the post-war period, heading from RAF Lakenheath to the city of Cambridge.
Episode 11
Derby to Hinckley
Jul 17, 2023
Michael Portillo explores the postwar Britain of his youth on a railway journey from the Midlands to the West Country, beginning in the city of Derby.
Episode 12
Coventry to Leamington Spa
Jul 18, 2023
In Coventry, Michael recalls the destruction by the Luftwaffe of the city’s Gothic cathedral in November 1940, before heading to Leamington Spa to visit the Guide Dogs for the Blind National Centre.
Episode 13
Long Itchington to Moseley
Jul 19, 2023
Michael Portillo’s railway journey reaches the heart of the Warwickshire countryside, where work is underway the biggest project of new railway infrastructure in Britain for a hundred years: HS2.
Episode 14
Wolverhampton to Cheltenham
Jul 20, 2023
At the African and Caribbean Heritage Centre in Wolverhampton, Michael finds out about the impact of Enoch Powell's 1968 speech on immigration in Wolverhampton and across the nation.
Episode 15
Tewkesbury to Filton
Jul 21, 2023
Michael visits the fairy-tale castle of Eastnor at the foot of the Malvern Hills, before heading to the Severn Estuary and Filton, the centre of Britain's postwar aviation industry.