Great British Railway Journeys

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.

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.

Michael Portillo reaches England's south coast to continue his exploration of postwar Britain, beginning on the steam-powered Swanage Railway in Dorset.

Michael Portillo reaches Havant, where the Scalextric factory was located, and Haslemere, the surprise birthplace of a musical phenomenon – the plastic recorder.

Michael goes on a tour around Heathrow Airport, taking an eerie walk around the mothballed Terminal 1 building and ending up atop the iconic 87.5 metre control tower.

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.

At the home of Scottish football, Glasgow's Hampden Park stadium, Michael admires the oldest football trophy in the world and hears how the 'passing game' was born there.

Michael Portillo continues his postwar Scottish railway adventure, this time from Glasgow to the capital, Edinburgh.

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.

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.

Michael Portillo twists and shouts through postwar Liverpool, arriving in the city where the 60s burst into life to find the strikingly contemporary concrete and glass Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, inaugurated in 1967. In the Georgian Hope Street Quarter, Michael visits the former home of Adrian Henri, a prolific artist and poet who was at the heart of the Mersey scene.

At Jodrell Bank, Michael recalls the excitement of postwar space exploration and hears how physicist Sir Bernard Lovell's revolutionary research into meteors led to the construction of one of the biggest radio telescopes in the world. At Uttoxeter, Michael discovers how, in 1945, a young engineer made a trailer out of wartime surplus material, including wheels and tyres from American army jeeps and scrap steel from old air-raid shelters.

Michael Portillo reaches the jet age in the Derby suburb of Peartree, where he tours the engineering colossus Rolls-Royce. In Derby city centre, Michael is on the trail of little-known modernist sculptor Ronald Pope, admiring two of his works and discovering how Pope began his working life as an engineer at Rolls-Royce.

The chance to catapult a model train along a 150-metre-long track into a purpose-built wind tunnel takes Michael to Derby's Railway Technical Centre, founded in 1967 and once the largest railway research complex in the world. Michael's last stop is Nottingham, where he finds one of the oldest bicycle companies in the world, Raleigh, and discovers how a bold, new idea became a craze.

Michael Portillo's postwar journey from Merseyside to Teesside resumes at Brayford Pool in Lincoln, where England's oldest canal, the Fossdyke, meets the city of Lincoln.

The larger-than-life figure of one of Britain's most celebrated poets, Philip Larkin, rushing towards the platform at Hull Paragon Station leads Michael to investigate his life and work. And alongside the Humber estuary, Michael recalls the politics behind the construction of the suspension bridge before making his way to York, one of the host cities for the Festival of Britain in 1951.

Michael Portillo's postwar exploration of Merseyside to Teesside finds him in York, a paradise for rail enthusiasts. In the company of some of the most famous locomotives ever built, he recalls the controversy surrounding their relocation from London to a freight depot in York.

Michael crosses the magnificent Knaresborough viaduct, with its castellated walls and four beautiful arches over the River Nidd, to reach the spa town of Harrogate. On the edge of the elegant town, Michael discovers the gardens at Harlow Carr and learns how they opened in 1950 to test growing conditions for plants in northern climes.

Across town, Michael checks into the headquarters of Yorkshire Tea. And his last destination on this leg of his journey is a bog near Skipton. In the 'gateway to the Dales', he joins members of Yorkshire Peat Partnership to find out what makes a bog.

Michael Portillo confronts a detachment of Gurkhas, produces a fine heritage cheese and discovers a monster cracker that is key to making plastic, before ending his postwar journey from Merseyside to Teesside in a recreated 1950s street, where childhood memories are rekindled in the Beamish Museum hairdresser.