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 - Newry to Portadown
Season 10 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/11/2019
Beginning in Newry, Michael Portillo finds a specially chartered train that would deliver demonstrators campaigning for Irish Home Rule to a rally in the town.
#2 - East Malling to Rye
Season 10 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/22/2019
In Folkestone, Michael Portillo hears how the town coped with an influx of more than 100,000 refugees from Belgium fleeing the German invasion in 1914.
#3 - Piccadilly Circus to Gravesend
Season 10 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/21/2019
At Covent Garden’s Royal Ballet School, Michael Portillo hears how in 1909 a Russian ballet company took London by storm.
#4 - Ealing Broadway to South Kensington
Season 10 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/20/2019
In the Queen of the Suburbs, Ealing, Michael Portillo finds comedy at the home of British cinema and is transformed for the silver screen by expert hair and make-up.
#5 - Reading to Cookham
Season 10 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/19/2019
Messing about in boats is the name of the game in Henley on Thames, where Michael Portillo slips into a launch to hear about the world-famous regatta.
#6 - Warwick to Radley
Season 10 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/18/2019
In Warwick’s medieval castle, Michael Portillo uncovers the scene of an extravagant and scandalous ball, which changed the life of its hostess, Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick.
#7 - Glasgow to Connel Ferry
Season 10 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/15/2019
Michael Portillo falls into line with the University of Glasgow’s Officer Training Corps. Founded in the early 20th century, the Corps flourishes today and Michaels joins students for drill. From Glasgow, Michael heads west along the Firth of Clyde to Helensburgh, where he discovers a pioneering group of artists known as the Glasgow Boys. The idyllic West Highland Line takes Michael deep into the Highlands to Inveraray and the ancestral home of the Clan Campbell and the Dukes of Argyll. Here, he discovers an unconventional royal marriage between Queen Victoria’s spirited daughter, Princess Louise, and a commoner, the Marquess of Lorne, later the 9th Duke of Argyll. Michael’s final stop is Connel Ferry, near Oban, where, on the Achnacloich Estate, he discovers Lily, a pedigree Highland calf. Michael learns how Lily’s herd has been owned continuously by the Nelson family since 1901 and hears how the breed has become an icon of the Highlands.
#8 - Glasgow to Cumbrae
Season 10 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/14/2019
Michael Portillo explores the industrial heartland of Glasgow and its mighty River Clyde before taking the ferry to the island of Cumbrae. With his early 20th-century Bradshaw's guide in hand, he is put to work behind the scenes at Glasgow's circular subway, explores the future of shipbuilding on the Clyde and hears how one woman led a successful mass protest against high rents in the city's notorious tenements. On the island of Cumbrae, Michael investigates a forgotten Scottish expedition to the Antarctic and discovers the beauties of intertidal marine life
#9 - Larne to Dumfries
Season 10 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/13/2019
Leaving from the seaport of Larne, Michael Portillo reaches Stranraer and the Mull of Galloway, where in a lighthouse built by Robert Stevenson, he discovers a magnificent machine.
#10 - Belfast to Portrush
Season 10 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/12/2019
Michael Portillo continues his rail journey through Northern Ireland. In Belfast’s grand Edwardian City Hall, Michael investigates the scene of a watershed moment in Irish history.
#11 - Newcastle to County Durham
Season 11 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/6/2020
Beginning just outside Newcastle in Jarrow, Michael uncovers the desperation which led 200 men to march 300 miles to Westminster in order to petition the Government for work. In Newcastle, Michael admires the city's iconic railway bridge.
#12 - Birmingham to the Potteries
Season 10 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/8/2019
Armed with his Bradshaw’s guide, Michael Portillo visits Birmingham, then travels on to Cradley Heath and Landywood, before reaching the Potteries at Stoke-on-Trent.
#13 - Maltby to Hinckley
Season 10 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/7/2019
Armed with his Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo continues his tour of Britain’s industrial heartlands, heading for Maltby, Derby and on to Hinckley.
#14 - Manchester to Elsecar
Season 10 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/6/2019
Armed with Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo continues his journey through Britain's industrial heartlands, leaving Manchester for Oldham, Edale and a private family railway line.
#15 - Blackburn to Manchester
Season 10 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/5/2019
Michael Portillo continues his journey through Britain’s industrial northwest, visiting Blackburn, Nelson and the renovated 19th-century Manchester Victoria station.
#16 - Warrington to Preston
Season 10 - Episode 1 - Aired 2/4/2019
Armed with his Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo embarks on a new journey through Britain’s industrial heartland. Starting at Warrington, Michael then heads to Huyton and Preston.
#17 - Ballina to Westport
Season 8 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/20/2017
On the last leg of Michael Portillo's long journey from Wexford to Westport, a fashionable Victorian seaweed bath is followed by a steamy scene in Ballina. On tenterhooks in Foxford, Michael discovers the visionary charity of an entrepreneurial nun. He learns of a double tragedy at Clew Bay and begins a pilgrimage to the summit of Ireland's holy mountain, Croagh Patrick.
#18 - Dromod to Sligo
Season 8 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/19/2017
With his Victorian Bradshaw's guidebook in hand, Michael Portillo crosses the Emerald Isle uncovering Irish identity, forged at a time of political strife. Travelling through the beautiful landscape, Michael learns how it inspired one of the 20th century's greatest poets, WB Yeats.
#19 - Navan to Mullingar
Season 8 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/18/2017
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.
#20 - Taunton to Salisbury Plain
Season 11 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/17/2020
Michael Portillo crosses the county line from Devon into Somerset. He sees first-hand how willow farmers sought to overcome the challenge from the production of synthetic plastics during the 1930s.
#21 - West Ruislip to Windsor
Season 12 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/28/2021
Michael Portillo heads for leafy Hatch End, where he investigates an illustrator whose work was so popular in the 1920s and 30s that his name entered the English dictionary.
#22 - Stoke Mandeville to Beaconsfield
Season 12 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/27/2021
Michael Portillo continues his travels through England's Home Counties at Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire, where he discovers the legacy of a German Jewish doctor who fled the Nazis.
#23 - Oxford to Abingdon
Season 12 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/26/2021
Michael Portillo strikes out on another series of railway journeys, starting with a tour of the Home Counties and beyond in the city of dreaming spires, Oxford.
#24 - 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.
#25 - 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.