9.3/1011 votesLoading...#1 - The Flying Scotsman
Season 8 Episode 1 - Aired 1/2/2017
he Flying Scotsman A once-in-a-lifetime journey aboard the most famous train in history, the Flying Scotsman, begins for Michael before dawn at London's King's Cross. Excitement builds on the platform as the world's media, fans and 300 passengers await the arrival of railway royalty.
Director: Tom Richardson
Writer: N/A
9.0/107 votesLoading...#2 - Windsor to Didcot
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 1/9/2012
Michael Portillo visits a station fit for royalty in Windsor and views an engineering triumph built by Brunel to span the Thames at Maidenhead.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.8/108 votesLoading...#3 - Pontefract to Bridlington
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 1/7/2010
Michael searches for the last liquorice grower in Pontefract, discovers how the railways turned Hull into one of the largest white fish ports in the world and goes fishing for sea bass in Bridlington.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.8/108 votesLoading...#4 - Torquay to Totnes
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 1/20/2010
Michael finds out about Torquay's micro climate, goes salmon fishing on the Dart estuary and spends some of Totnes' new local currency.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.8/108 votesLoading...#5 - Llanberis to Holyhead
Season 2 Episode 10 - Aired 1/14/2011
Ledbury to Holyhead - Ep 10. Llanberis to Holyhead. Michael takes the train to the top of Wales's highest peak, Mount Snowdon; witnesses the revival of Anglesey's sea salt industry; and discovers how the railways transformed the tiny port of Holyhead.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.8/107 votesLoading...#6 - Cardiff to Brecon
Season 3 Episode 14 - Aired 1/19/2012
Michael discovers the Victorian coal heritage that turned Cardiff into the city it is today, explores the 19th-century reason why Barry Island isn't an island, and takes a steam ride through the beautiful Brecon Beacons National Park.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.6/106 votesLoading...#7 - Heysham to Snaefell
Season 3 Episode 20 - Aired 1/27/2012
Michael sets sail from Heysham to the Isle of Man, where he discovers the horse trams of Douglas, the 19th century secrets of the giant Laxy Waterwheel, and the Victorian history of the delightful Snaefell mountain railway.
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
8.6/106 votesLoading...#8 - Manchester to Birkenhead
Season 5 Episode 1 - Aired 1/6/2014
Michael Portillo embarks on a new journey from Manchester, birthplace of George Bradshaw, the publisher of his trusted guide, to Chesterfield, burial place of George Stephenson, the father of the railway. In the first leg of the journey, Michael finds out how the world's first industrialised city also gave birth to a revolutionary political movement and hears how railway workers founded one of the most successful football clubs in the world. Along the way, Michael does the washing in Port Sunlight and discovers the legacy of an American named George Francis Train in Birkenhead.
Director: Hayden King
Writer: N/A
8.6/106 votesLoading...#9 - Faversham to Dorking
Season 5 Episode 19 - Aired 1/30/2014
Michael Portillo continues his journey from Norwich to Chichester beginning in Faversham in Kent, at one of the country's oldest surviving breweries, Shepherd Neame. Michael discovers how the brewery invested heavily in the railways and even ran rolling stock with its own smart livery taking beer to London. After making his own delivery to the Railway Tavern in one of the brewery's oldest vehicles, Michael heads for the south coast to the defensive town of Dover, little more than 25 miles from the historic enemy, the French. Here he uncovers one of Dover's best kept secrets, the sunken fortress known as the Western Heights. In the Weald of Kent, Michael finds out how the railways helped to put Tonbridge School on track for cricketing glory before heading into Surrey where he blow-dries a hen in Dorking!
Director: Dave Minchin
Writer: N/A
8.6/109 votesLoading...#10 - Navan to Mullingar
Season 8 Episode 13 - Aired 1/18/2017
Navan to Mullingar Michael gets up to speed with modern archaeology in County Meath and uncovers a controversial Victorian dig at the sacred Hill of Tara. He investigates leaping salmon in Leixslip and discovers an electrifying breakthrough at an historic seminary. At Mullingar, Michael bangs the drum for the town's marching band.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.5/107 votesLoading...#11 - Newcastle to Lindisfarne
Season 6 Episode 15 - Aired 1/23/2015
Michael Portillo journeys from Newcastle up the north east coast to Lindisfarne. He finds out about the world's earliest swing bridge and its inventor, Newcastle engineer Sir William Armstrong, and discovers how the city's Victorian industrial heritage has found a new cultural purpose. From Seahouses by boat, amid puffins and cormorants, Michael goes in search of a darling of the Victorian press who, with her father, rescued nine people from tumultuous seas. On the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, Michael explores the lime kilns and finds out how, in the 7th century, Christianity spread from here across northern England.
Director: Dave Minchin
Writer: N/A
8.4/106 votesLoading...#12 - Haworth to Huddersfield
Season 5 Episode 4 - Aired 1/9/2014
Michael Portillo begins this leg of his journey from Manchester to Chesterfield at the home of the three Bronte sisters in Worth Valley, Yorkshire. He then moves on to Oakworth where he learns how the station and its heritage railway line secured a starring role in one of the most popular films ever made. In Bradford, Michael finds out how nineteenth-century workers could save to buy a home of their own, and in Halifax discovers how the railway contributed to the town's sweet success.
Director: Hayden King
Writer: N/A
8.4/106 votesLoading...#13 - High Street Kensington to London Bridge
Season 6 Episode 10 - Aired 1/16/2015
On the last of his journeys in the capital, Michael Portillo explores Albertopolis and reaches dizzying heights inside a Victorian landmark. He meets some of Battersea's most famous residents and gives one of them a bath! At Vauxhall, Michael learns about the darker side of London's flower market in Bradshaw's day. He ends this journey at London Bridge, where two stations are becoming one, and a new concourse is being built.
Director: Tom Richardson
Writer: N/A
8.4/1010 votesLoading...#14 - Carlisle to Penrith
Season 7 Episode 1 - Aired 1/4/2016
Carlisle to Penrith Joining the cracker packers of Carlisle on the factory floor, Michael really takes the biscuit as he investigates the Victorian appetite for the custard cream on his new journey through north-west Britain. Braving a perilous descent into the only operational slate mine in England, Michael discovers a miniature railway which once hauled slate to the surface. Following in the footsteps of Victorian miners on their way to work, he steps out gingerly on to what is now Britain's only Via Ferrata - a terrifying tightrope challenge 300 feet above the Borrowdale Valley.
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
8.4/109 votesLoading...#15 - Letchworth Garden City to Herne Hill
Season 9 Episode 2 - Aired 1/2/2018
Letchworth Garden City to Herne Hill Michael joins a garden party where a fourth-generation citizen of Letchworth introduces him to the city's community spirit. Heading into the capital, Michael discovers a favoured haunt of King Edward VII and samples the monarch's favourite tipple, the King's Ginger, invented to keep him warm in his horseless carriage. Improvements to the London Underground in the early 20th century gave us a network of electric railways, which shaped our modern capital. Inside London's newest rail tunnel, Michael meets engineer Jonathan Cooper to discover more about current improvements to London's oldest deep-level tube line, the Northern line, which is being extended.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.3/108 votesLoading...#16 - Filey to Scarborough
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 1/8/2010
Michael goes bird-watching on the wild cliffs of Flamborough Head, learns to decipher traditional knitting patterns in Filey and meets one of the oldest residents of the Victorian seaside resort of Scarborough - a 4000-year-old skeleton called Gristhorpe Man.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.3/108 votesLoading...#17 - Swanwick to Brownsea Island
Season 9 Episode 5 - Aired 1/5/2018
Swanwick to Brownsea Island Steered by his Edwardian Bradshaw's guide, Michael Portillo promises to do his best on the island where Robert Baden Powell began the Scout movement in the early 20th century. Joining a group of modern Scouts he learns to build a bivouac and finds out what it is about Scouting that still appeals to boys - and girls - today. In the New Forest, Michael searches out some unsung heroes of the First World War, the ponies who became war horses, and hears their story from a commoner who runs a stable and riding school. Plus in Bournemouth, he investigates a very British institution: the beach hut.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.3/108 votesLoading...#18 - Dundee to Aberdeen
Season 11 Episode 4 - Aired 1/9/2020
Stopping at Dundee, Michael Portillo heads for Glamis Castle, where Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother, grew up.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/107 votesLoading...#19 - Walsall to Bournville
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 1/27/2010
Michael meets the queen's saddler in Walsall, learns how to cook an authentic Indian curry in Birmingham and visits Bournville, rumoured to be the best place to live in Britain.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/107 votesLoading...#20 - Great Yarmouth to Beccles
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 1/2/2012
Michael Portillo discovers the grave robbing history of Great Yarmouth and tries his hand at working a Victorian swing bridge in Reedham.
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
8.2/106 votesLoading...#21 - Southport to Leyland
Season 5 Episode 2 - Aired 1/7/2014
Michael Portillo continues his journey through the North West of England. He begins in the elegant Lancashire resort of Southport, where the railways brought thousands of visitors to enjoy the pier and all the fun of the fair. Michael discovers Victorian entrepreneurship in Wigan, traces the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in Bolton and drives a hundred-year-old commercial vehicle in Leyland.
Director: Hayden King
Writer: N/A
8.2/106 votesLoading...#22 - Preston to Swinton
Season 7 Episode 3 - Aired 1/6/2016
Preston to Swinton Michael reads the riot act in Preston, where he discovers four mill workers were shot dead by soldiers at a protest in 1842. In Darwen, he makes a splash in pink as he traces developments in 19th-century interior design from wallpaper to paint. Michael explores the Victorian industrial landscape of Salford, populated by little matchstick figures, as revealed in the paintings of LS Lowry. Michael finishes this leg of his journey on Kersal Moor, where he twists his tongue around the Lancashire dialect and discovers the poetry of Edwin Waugh.
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
8.2/107 votesLoading...#23 - Newark-on-Trent to Stockton-on-Tees
Season 8 Episode 3 - Aired 1/4/2017
Newark on Trent to Stockton-on-Tees Following his trip from London to York on board the Flying Scotsman, Michael uses his Bradshaw's to trace the path of the famous service, beginning in the 'Key of the North' Newark-on-Trent and finishing in the cradle of the railways, Stockton-on-Tees.
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
8.2/107 votesLoading...#24 - Blackpool to Manchester Victoria
Season 8 Episode 6 - Aired 1/9/2017
Blackpool to Manchester Victoria On a new journey across Bradshaw's Britain with his Victorian guidebook. He makes potent new friends in Fleetwood then heads to Manchester, where George Stephenson built the world's first modern railway line. This epoch-defining achievement is being incorporated into a new multi-million pound rail link between Manchester's Victoria and Piccadilly stations and Michael lends a hand with the welding. At a moving ceremony in Manchester Piccadilly station, Michael unveils a new monument to 87 railwaymen of the London and North Western Railway, who lost their lives in the Great War.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/105 votesLoading...#25 - Bodmin to Totnes
Season 11 Episode 8 - Aired 1/15/2020
Clutching his 1930s Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo reaches Bodmin en route to Totnes as he explores the West Country from St Ives to Salisbury Plain.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Great British Railway Journeys
Every episode of Great British Railway Journeys ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Great British Railway Journeys!
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...
Genre:Documentary
Network:BBC Two
Best Episodes Summary
"The Flying Scotsman" is the best rated episode of "Great British Railway Journeys". It scored 9.3/10 based on 11 votes. Directed by Tom Richardson and written by N/A, it aired on 1/2/2017. This episode scored 0.3 points higher than the second highest rated, "Windsor to Didcot".