S12 Episode 1

Oxford to Abingdon

Michael Portillo starts in the city of dreaming spires, Oxford, where in 1921, women were awarded degrees for the first time.

28 mins · Mon, 26 Apr 2021

S12 Episode 2

Stoke Mandeville to Beaconsfield

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 to settle in Britain.

29 mins · Tue, 27 Apr 2021

S12 Episode 3

West Ruislip to Windsor

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.

28 mins · Wed, 28 Apr 2021

S12 Episode 4

Guildford to Aldershot

Michael Portillo resumes his tour of the home counties in the picturesque and historic county town of Guildford. His 1936 Bradshaw's guide commends its "fine old castle keep" and guildhall, but makes no mention of its hilltop cathedral.

29 mins · Thu, 29 Apr 2021

S12 Episode 5

Farnborough to Winchester

Michael heads for Farnborough, Hampshire, famous for its airshow and home to what was once the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Richard Gardner of the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust tells Michael about the boffins who worked here.

29 mins · Fri, 30 Apr 2021

S12 Episode 6

Saxmundham to Dedham

Armed with his 1930s Bradshaw's guide, Michael Portillo explores East Anglia between the wars. His railway journey begins at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, where archaeologists made a staggering discovery.

29 mins · Mon, 3 May 2021

S12 Episode 7

Colchester to Chadwell Heath

Michael Portillo continues his Bradshaw's-inspired journey through East Anglia, where he discovers the Essex origins of the BBC, joins the Women's Land Army to pick damsons at Tiptree, and visits homes fit for heroes in Becontree.

29 mins · Tue, 4 May 2021

S12 Episode 8

Potters Bar to Cardington

Michael Portillo's Bradshaw travels resume in leafy Hertfordshire, where he attempts a canoe slalom course at the Lee Valley White Water Centre, built for the London Olympics in 2012.

29 mins · Wed, 5 May 2021

S12 Episode 9

Sawbridgeworth to Cambridge

Steered by his Bradshaw's guide, Michael Portillo heads for the Hertfordshire village of Perry Green, where, in 1940, a young couple fleeing the bombing of London chose to make their home.

29 mins · Thu, 6 May 2021

S12 Episode 10

Newmarket to Walsingham

Michael Portillo is in Suffolk on the last leg of his tour of East Anglia. He begins at the home of British horseracing, Newmarket, where he learns of the interwar success of a jockey turned trainer and helps to care for a famous ex-racehorse.

29 mins · Fri, 7 May 2021

S12 Episode 11

Crewe to Shotton

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.

29 mins · Mon, 10 May 2021

S12 Episode 12

Rhyl to Anglesey

Michael Portillo's 1930s Bradshaw's inspired railway tour of north Wales takes him to a coast lined by magnificent castles and sweeping bays. In Colwyn Bay, he hears how an army of civil servants invaded the quiet seaside town.

29 mins · Tue, 11 May 2021

S12 Episode 13

Bangor to Betws y Coed

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.

28 mins · Wed, 12 May 2021

S12 Episode 14

Blaenau Ffestiniog to Barmouth

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.

29 mins · Thu, 13 May 2021

S12 Episode 15

Aberystwyth to Newtown

Michael travels from Aberystwyth into the Cambrian Mountains at Devil's Bridge and finishes in Newtown, Powys.

29 mins · Fri, 14 May 2021

Season 12

Great British Railway Journeys

Where to Watch

Season 12 Episodes

More Seasons of Great British Railway Journeys