7.5/106 votes#1 - Preston to Rawtenstall
Season 14 Episode 1 - Aired 6/19/2023
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.
Director: Anthony Holland
Writer: N/A
7.4/105 votes#2 - Urmston to New Islington
Season 14 Episode 2 - Aired 6/20/2023
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.
Director: Anthony Holland
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#3 - Oldham to Wakefield
Season 14 Episode 3 - Aired 6/21/2023
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.
Director: Anthony Holland
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#4 - Wakefield to Leeds
Season 14 Episode 4 - Aired 6/22/2023
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.
Director: Anthony Holland
Writer: N/A
7.6/105 votes#5 - Bradford to Hebden Bridge
Season 14 Episode 5 - Aired 6/24/2023
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.
Director: Anthony Holland
Writer: N/A
8.2/106 votes#6 - Tilbury to Barbican
Season 14 Episode 6 - Aired 6/26/2023
Michael Portillo travels through the Britain of his youth from London’s Docklands and East End to the ‘city within a city’, the Barbican.
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
7.8/106 votes#7 - Waterloo to Regent's Park
Season 14 Episode 7 - Aired 6/27/2023
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.
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
8.2/105 votes#8 - Paddington to Ongar
Season 14 Episode 8 - Aired 6/28/2023
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.
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#9 - Felixstowe to Norwich
Season 14 Episode 9 - Aired 6/29/2023
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.
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#10 - Brandon to Cambridge
Season 14 Episode 10 - Aired 6/30/2023
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.
Director: Cassie Farrell
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#11 - Derby to Hinckley
Season 14 Episode 11 - Aired 7/17/2023
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.
Director: Beatrice Ni Bhroin
Writer: N/A
NaN/100 votes#12 - Coventry to Leamington Spa
Season 14 Episode 12 - Aired 7/18/2023
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.
Director: Beatrice Ni Bhroin
Writer: N/A
7.6/105 votes#13 - Long Itchington to Moseley
Season 14 Episode 13 - Aired 7/19/2023
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.
Director: Beatrice Ni Bhroin
Writer: N/A
8.0/106 votes#14 - Wolverhampton to Cheltenham
Season 14 Episode 14 - Aired 7/20/2023
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.
Director: Beatrice Ni Bhroin
Writer: N/A
7.8/105 votes#15 - Tewkesbury to Filton
Season 14 Episode 15 - Aired 7/21/2023
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.
Director: Beatrice Ni Bhroin
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Great British Railway Journeys Season 14
Every episode of Great British Railway Journeys Season 14 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Great British Railway Journeys Season 14!
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
Season 14 Ratings Summary
"Preston to Rawtenstall" is the best rated episode of "Great British Railway Journeys" season 14. It scored 7.5/10 based on 6 votes. Directed by Anthony Holland and written by N/A, it aired on 6/19/2023. This episode is rated 0.1 points higher than the second-best, "Urmston to New Islington".