Description

Armed with an early 20th century edition of Bradshaw’s Railway Handbook, Michael Portillo is your guide on train journeys through the heart of Bygone Britain. Five different journeys across 25 episodes: High Wycombe to Aberystwyth, Portsmouth to Grimsby, Stirling to John O’Groats, Paddington to Newton Abbot, Killarney to Galway.

Full description from the producer:

Armed with his copy of Bradshaw’s Victorian Railway Guidebook, Michael Portillo takes to the tracks and over a series of five journeys, he travels from coast to coast to see what of Bradshaw’s Britain and Ireland remains.

This 5 DVD set features 25 episodes covering 5 different journeys

High Wycombe to Aberystwyth
Portsmouth to Grimsby
Stirling to John O’Groats
Paddington to Newton Abbot
Goes To Ireland: Killarney to Galway

Michael’s first journey follows the track that helped fuel the Industrial Revolution. Beginning in the rolling Chiltern Hills, he makes his way through to the stunning Severn Valley and finishes at the Victorian seaside resort of Aberystwyth. He then travels from the centuries old naval hub of Portsmouth to the historic Grimsby docks. On Michael’s third journey, he explores the awe-inspiring scenery of rural and coastal Scotland, from Stirling through the industrial east and ending at “”the start of Great Britain””, John O’Groats. The fourth journey of the series, he retraces the footsteps of the master engineer of the Great Western Railway, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, beginning at London Paddington Station through to Newton Abbot in Devon, the scene of one of Brunel’s heroic failures. In the final journey, Great British Railway Journeys goes to Ireland where Michael uses Bradshaw’s Descriptive Railway Handbook of Great Britain and Ireland to explore the Republic of Ireland from Killarney to Galway on the Atlantic Coast.

Additional information