Great British Railway Journeys S14 E11-E15 (1280x720p HD, 50fps, soft Eng subs)
All aboard! Armed with his trusty Bradshaw's guide, Michael Portillo explores the UK the railways made. Uncover hidden gems and fascinating communities from across the nation.
E11 Derby to Hinckley
Michael Portillo explores the postwar Britain of his youth on a railway journey from the Midlands to the West Country. Beginning in Derby's famous 19th-century railway works, Michael hears how the Victorian sheds now house some of the most up to date assembly lines in Britain for building electric trains. In Leicester, Michael looks back to the early 1970s, when around 10,000 Asians arrived in the city after being expelled from Uganda by the dictator Idi Amin. On the outskirts of the city, Michael discovers a factory where, shortly after the Second World War, an entrepreneurial butcher turned his hand to something completely different - with the company he founded, Walkers, now producing 11 million bags of crisps a day. And from Hinkley Station, Michael heads for Stoney Cove, where a submerged quarry proved an ideal place to train divers in the 60s and 70s.
E12 Coventry to Leamington Spa
In Coventry, Michael recalls the destruction by the German Luftwaffe of the city’s gothic cathedral in November 1940. He hears how architect Basil Spence won a competition to build it anew and tours the breathtakingly modernist concrete structure built alongside the medieval ruin. And from the city's recently redeveloped station, he heads to the factory of the London Electric Vehicle Company, manufacturers of the iconic London taxi. Heading south to Royal Leamington Spa, Michael visits the Guide Dogs for the Blind National Centre, established in the town in 1941. Michael learns how the organisation was founded and how dogs are bred today.
E13 Long Itchington to Moseley
Michael Portillo’s railway journey reaches the heart of the Warwickshire countryside, where work is underway on a section of the biggest project of new railway infrastructure in Britain for a hundred years: HS2. In the Tudor town of Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare, Michael visits the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, home since 1961 to the Royal Shakespeare Company.
In Birmingham, Michael recalls the redevelopment of the whole city centre during the 1960s and the arrival of black and Asian communities in areas where he once tried to enter parliament. In the Prince of Wales pub in Handsworth, he investigates the fusion of Asian and British cultural influences which produced modern Bhangra music. Michael finishes this leg of his railway journey in the leafy suburb of Moseley, where in order to combat the housing shortage after the Second World War, prefabricated houses were put up - and, in some cases, remain to this day.
E14 Wolverhampton to Cheltenham
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. In Kidderminster, he discovers the site of a secret wartime enterprise: a subterranean world of shafts, workshops and offices known as the Drakelow Tunnels. In the cathedral city of Worcester, Michael joins pupils of King’s Hawford School to hear about their chosen sport, pigeon racing. The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway transports Michael back to the 1950s and on to Cheltenham, on the edge of the Cotswolds, where the town’s splendid jazz festival is gearing up for its 25th anniversary.
E15 Tewkesbury to Filton
Michael Portillo is on the last leg of his railway journey from the train-building city of Derby to the aircraft manufacturing base of Filton. From Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, he heads to the fairy-tale castle of Eastnor at the foot of the Malvern Hills. At a factory in Coleford in the Forest of Dean, Michael recalls his childhood screen debut in an advertisement for a fruity cordial and discovers it remains popular today. At Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, Michael heads for the wetlands of the Severn Estuary, where the postwar conservation movement in Britain began with the opening of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. Michael’s last stop is Filton, where he investigates the centre of Britain’s postwar aviation industry and the manufacturing base for the fastest passenger plane on earth, Concorde.
First broadcast: July 2023 Duration: 30 minutes per episode
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