The WORST episodes of Great British Railway Journeys
Every episode of Great British Railway Journeys ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Great British Railway Journeys!
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Railway Guidebook. Portillo travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways have changed it, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
#1 - Bangor to Betws y Coed
Season 12 - Episode 13 - Aired 5/12/2021
Michael Portillo continues his 1936 Bradshaw's-inspired railway tour of North Wales in the coastal city of Bangor before turning south from Llandudno Junction to travel the Conwy Valley Line to Betws y Coed, the gateway to Snowdonia.
#2 - Blackpool to Manchester Victoria
Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/9/2017
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.
#3 - Liverpool to Uttoxeter
Season 15 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/1/2024
Michael Portillo twists and shouts through postwar Liverpool, visiting the strikingly contemporary Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral and visits the former home of artist and poet Adrian Henri.
#4 - Northallerton to Chester-Le-Street
Season 15 - Episode 15 - Aired 4/5/2024
Michael Portillo confronts a detachment of Gurkhas, produces a fine heritage cheese and discovers a monster cracker, which is key to making plastic.
#5 - Blaenau Ffestiniog to Barmouth
Season 12 - Episode 14 - Aired 5/13/2021
In the Welsh mountains of Snowdonia, Michael Portillo reaches an abandoned mine, where in 1940 the wartime government sought sanctuary for the National Gallery's priceless art collection.
#6 - Rhyl to Anglesey
Season 12 - Episode 12 - Aired 5/11/2021
Michael Portillo's 1930s Bradshaw's-inspired railway tour of North Wales takes him to a coast lined by magnificent castles and sweeping bays.
#7 - Aberystwyth to Newtown
Season 12 - Episode 15 - Aired 5/14/2021
Armed with his 1930s Bradshaw's Guide, Michael Portillo travels from Aberystwyth into the Cambrian Mountains at Devil's Bridge and finishes in Newtown, Powys. Michael's 250-mile tour of North Wales draws to a close in style at the birthplace of the nation's first classical music festival, Gregynog Hall, near Newtown. Michael is intrigued to discover that its founders, sisters Gwendoline and Margaret Davies, used the fortune they inherited from their grandfather, a noted Welsh railway builder, to establish the country estate as a centre for art and music from 1933. In the glorious music room, a Welsh harpist helps to evoke the spirit of festivals past and present.
#8 - Crewe to Shotton
Season 12 - Episode 11 - Aired 5/10/2021
Oh, Mr Porter, what could he do? Michael Portillo is in Crewe, a town steeped in railway history and immortalised in Victorian music hall, to investigate the making of the iconic cinema classic, The Night Mail during the 1930s.
#9 - Greystones to Dublin
Season 8 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/17/2017
At Trinity College, Dublin, Michael Portillo discovers one of Ireland's greatest treasures and learns how it became the symbol of the nation. There is a chance to sample the black stuff in a Dublin pub before Michael learns how Victorian royals were deployed to calm rocky relations between Britain and Ireland. He explores the magnificent house and gardens of Powerscourt in County Wicklow. Finding an angle on triangulation helps Michael to understand how Ireland was put on the map - and why.
#10 - Chippenham to Yeovil
Season 15 - Episode 2 - Aired 3/19/2024
Michael Portillo joins Navy Wings pilots for a spectacular close formation flight in the skies over Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton and visits the magnificent Elizabethan mansion of Longleat.
#11 - Swanage to Portchester
Season 15 - Episode 3 - Aired 3/20/2024
Michael Portillo reaches England’s south coast to continue his exploration of postwar Britain, beginning on the steam-powered Swanage Railway in Dorset.
#12 - Saxmundham to Norwich
Season 11 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/23/2020
Michael Portillo heads for Snape Maltings, a concert and arts venue, and learns how the music and life of one of Britain’s greatest composers was shaped by the sea and his Suffolk surroundings.
#13 - Attleborough to Skegness
Season 11 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/24/2020
Michael Portillo is in Attleborough, at the headquarters of an international horse welfare organization which was established in the late 1920s, where he learns about the charity's pioneering founder.
#14 - Edinburgh to Queensferry
Season 15 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/28/2024
At the former Midlothian mining village of Newtongrange, Michael meets the son of a miner whose name loomed large in the disputes of the 1970s and 1980s, 'Red' Mick McGahey.
#15 - Bradford to Hebden Bridge
Season 14 - Episode 5 - Aired 6/23/2023
Michael Portillo continues his post-war exploration of northwest England in Bradford, Shipley and Hebden Bridge. In Bradford's Centenary Square, he encounters local literary giant, JB Priestley. At Shipley station, Michael discovers a nature reserve in the middle of the car park. Finally the Calder Valley Line delivers the presenter to the photogenic station at Hebden Bridge.
#16 - Stirling to Invergowrie
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/21/2013
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with his copy of Bradshaw's Victorian railway guidebook, he travels the length and breadth of the British Isles to see what of Bradshaw's World remains. Michael is exploring the stunning scenery of rural and coastal Scotland, travelling from Stirling, through the industrial east coast and dramatic Highland landscapes, to the beauty of the western lochs, finally ending his journey in John O'Groats. Michael learns about a Scottish hero, visits a Highland Games and discovers how an impressive piece of Victorian engineering ended in tragedy.
#17 - Loch Lomond to Kelvinbridge
Season 15 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/25/2024
Michael Portillo boards the West Highland Line to begin a railway journey across Scotland’s central belt, from the Arrochar Alps to the Loch of the Lowes.
#18 - Windermere to Carnforth
Season 7 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/5/2016
Michael continues his journey through the Lake District where he discovers a magical world of talking rabbits, ducks, hedgehogs and mice, who have entertained children for more than 100 years. At the village home of author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, Michael learns about her legacy and her fears about the railways. Fuelled by a Victorian energy bar, Michael presses on to Brantwood, home of the Victorian art critic John Ruskin. He finishes with a brief encounter at Carnforth.
#19 - Dundee to Loch of the Lowes
Season 15 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/29/2024
Michael’s rail journey through post-war Scotland takes him over the River Tay to Dundee on the trail of Joseph McKenzie, the father of modern Scottish photography.
#20 - Havant to Guildford
Season 15 - Episode 4 - Aired 3/21/2024
Michael Portillo reaches Havant, where the Scalextric factory was located, and Haslemere, the surprise birthplace of a musical phenomenon – the plastic recorder.
#21 - Denham to Swindon
Season 15 - Episode 1 - Aired 3/18/2024
Beginning at London Marylebone, the last great Victorian railway terminus to be built in the capital, Michael Portillo embarks on a postwar exploration of Britain’s southern counties.
#22 - High Wycombe to Stratford-upon-Avon
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/7/2013
Michael Portillo embarks on another journey around the nation with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook to discover how the railways have affected people and what remains of Bradshaw's Britain. He begins by travelling from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, to Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, finding out about the remarkable craftsmen behind the Victorian furniture trade, discovering how George Bradshaw helped save Britain's canal heritage and seeing Shakespeare through the eyes of a 19th-century rail tourist.
#23 - Winchester to Isle of Wight
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/11/2012
Michael Portillo experiences the magnificent Victorian organ at Winchester Cathedral and visits a 19th-century rail works still running in Eastleigh.
#24 - Epping to Hackney
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/5/2012
Michael Portillo sees how gunpowder made in Waltham Cross fuelled an empire, and heads to Hackney to uncover the gruesome details of the first murder on a train.
#25 - Littlehampton to Beaulieu
Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/13/2016
Michael arrives in Littlehampton, where he discovers how Victorian engineers dug deep to defend the town's residents from cholera and learns how their drills still access clean water around the world. At Gosport, he experiences first-hand the lethal firepower unleashed on the French and learns how the Victorians were engaged in a furious arms race against them. At the family home of Florence Nightingale in the New Forest, Michael finds out what motivated the Lady of the Lamp, before seizing the chance to drive the first motor car at Beaulieu.