Series 15
15 episodes · Mar 18, 2024
Documentary series in which Michael Portillo travels the country by train.
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S15E1Denham to Swindon
Mar 18, 202428mBeginning at London Marylebone, the last great Victorian railway terminus to be built in the capital, Michael Portillo embarks on a postwar exploration of Britain’s southern counties.
S15E2Chippenham to Yeovil
Mar 19, 202429mMichael Portillo joins Navy Wings pilots for a spectacular close formation flight in the skies over Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton and visits the magnificent Elizabethan mansion of Longleat.
S15E3Swanage to Portchester
Mar 20, 202428mMichael Portillo reaches England’s south coast to continue his exploration of postwar Britain, beginning on the steam-powered Swanage Railway in Dorset.
S15E4Havant to Guildford
Mar 21, 202428mMichael Portillo reaches Havant, where the Scalextric factory was located, and Haslemere, the surprise birthplace of a musical phenomenon: the plastic recorder.
S15E5Wokingham to Heathrow
Mar 22, 202428mMichael goes on a tour around Heathrow Airport, taking an eerie walk around the mothballed Terminal 1 building and ending up atop the iconic 87.5 metre control tower.
S15E6Loch Lomond to Kelvinbridge
Mar 25, 202429mMichael Portillo boards the West Highland Line to begin a railway journey across Scotland’s central belt, from the Arrochar Alps to the Loch of the Lowes.
S15E7Glasgow to Cumbernauld
Mar 26, 202428mAt the home of Scottish football, Glasgow’s Hampden Park stadium, Michael admires the oldest football trophy in the world and hears how the 'passing game' was born there.
S15E8Shawlands to Livingston
Mar 27, 202429mMichael Portillo continues his postwar Scottish railway adventure, this time from Glasgow to the capital, Edinburgh.
S15E9Edinburgh to Queensferry
Mar 28, 202428mAt the former Midlothian mining village of Newtongrange, Michael meets the son of a miner whose name loomed large in the disputes of the 1970s and 1980s, 'Red' Mick McGahey.
S15E10Dundee to Loch of the Lowes
Mar 29, 202429mMichael’s rail journey through post-war Scotland takes him over the River Tay to Dundee on the trail of Joseph McKenzie, the father of modern Scottish photography.
S15E11Liverpool to Uttoxeter
Apr 1, 202429mMichael Portillo twists and shouts through postwar Liverpool, visiting the strikingly contemporary Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and visits the former home of artist and poet Adrian Henri.
S15E12Derby to Nottingham
Apr 2, 202429mMichael Portillo reaches the jet age in the Derby suburb of Peartree, where he tours the engineering colossus Rolls-Royce.
S15E13Lincoln to York
Apr 3, 202429mMichael Portillo’s postwar journey from Merseyside to Teesside resumes at Brayford Pool in Lincoln, where England’s oldest canal, the Fossdyke, meets the city of Lincoln.
S15E14York to Skipton
Apr 4, 202428mMichael Portillo’s journey finds him in York, a paradise for rail enthusiasts. He discovers the gardens at Harlow Carr in Harrogate and checks into the headquarters of Yorkshire Tea.
S15E15Northallerton to Chester-Le-Street
Apr 5, 202428mMichael Portillo confronts a detachment of Gurkhas, produces a fine heritage cheese and discovers a monster cracker, which is key to making plastic.