Great British Railway Journeys – BBC2

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Michael Portillo in a new series of Great British Railway Journeys
(Image credit: BBC/Boundless, part of Fremantle)

Michael Portillo just can't stop riding the rails. He's back from his Canadian and Alaskan adventures to tour the tracks at home

Michael Portillo is back in Britain with his Bradshaw’s Guide to find out how the Edwardians would have experienced rail travel.

In 1913 King George V visited the industrial North West to boost morale and quell the revolutionary discontent spreading throughout Europe.

Michael begins in Warrington and gets a tour of the grand corridors of Knowsley Hall by the 19th Earl of Derby, whose family hosted the king and queen.

Next he’s in Leyland, where he visits Lancashire’s first Women’s Institute. He finds out about its founder, Suffragette Edith Rigby, before ending with a trip to Preston, home to a ladies’ football team with an extraordinary legacy.

TV Times rating: ***

Mandy Cooper
Mandy Cooper
TV Times Highlights Editor

As TV Times Highlights Editor I get to hear about all the latest TV shows coming soon. Here at TVT HQ we are in the privileged position of selecting the best programmes from across all the channels and streaming platforms. Our mission is to make it easier for our readers to decide what to watch - and give them lots of choice of genres - all the latest shows, plus some nostalgic choices we call hidden gems, too. My career began with a postgraduate degree in periodical journalism (ahem, yes old school!) in 1991 and I’ve worked in TV media since 2000.