Great Coastal Railway Journeys
Great Coastal Railway Journeys is a TV show on BBC2. Michael Portillo travels around the British Isles by train. The program has been available since 2025. A total of 47 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in December 2025.
Last episode
25:00
25:00Great Coastal Railway Journeys
Michael Portillo's Scottish coastal railway journey reaches Invergordon on the Cromarty Firth, the third great inlet on the northeast coast of the Highlands.
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25:00Michael Portillo travels by train north from Inverness to the Orkney Islands. Beginning on the Moray Firth, Michael admires the Cullen Viaduct.
35:00Michael Portillo crosses the Culloden Viaduct aboard the Caledonian Sleeper to arrive bright and early in Inverness.
25:00Michael Portillo's Scottish railway journey reaches Aberdeen, from where he heads out to Forvie National Nature Reserve.
25:00Michael Portillo visits Leuchars, known nowadays on the railways as Leuchars for St Andrews, which is Scotland's oldest university.
25:00Michael Portillo begins this leg of his Scottish railway journey from Dunbar to Peterhead in the beautiful medieval city of Stirling.
35:00Michael Portillo continues his Scottish coastal journey along the Firth of Forth at the railway engineering icon for which it's famous, the Forth Bridge.
25:00Michael Portillo travels around the British Isles by train and learns about the challenges the coastal regions face, starting at Siccar Point in Berwickshire.
Series 3
Michael Portillo’s rail exploration of the eastern reaches of England is drawing to a close at the Wash. He travels on the smallest public railway in the world and visits the magnificent Holkham Hall.
Michael examines a replica of the smallest bone in the oldest and largest mammoth ever found in Britain, before sampling Sheringham's local crab and enjoying the North Norfolk Railway heritage line.
Michael Portillo’s East Anglian coastal railway journey takes him to the treacherous waters off the Norfolk coast, which have sunk many ships and cost many lives.
Michael Portillo reaches the Deben estuary on his coastal railway journey around eastern England. At Woodbridge, he is plunged in at the deep end on a rafting challenge with the sea scouts.
Michael Portillo embarks on a new railway journey around the coast of the east of England. He begins in the Thames estuary, travelling across tidal mud flats and salt marshes to end up in Wrabness.
Michael's adventure nears its end on the north Kent coast. In Faversham, he gets out onto the water in the last sailing barge to work on the Thames.
Michael Portillo’s railway adventure along the north and south coasts of the English Channel resumes in Dover, where he recalls the biggest evacuation in military history.
Michael Portillo travels through the longest undersea tunnel in the world on the Eurotunnel shuttle rail service from Folkestone to Calais.
Michael Portillo sets off on a new railway adventure to explore the twin shores of the English Channel and the estuaries of the Thames and Medway.
Michael Portillo takes the train to the medieval walled town of Conwy on the last leg of his exploration of the shores of north Wales.
Michael is on the Isle of Anglesey, where the briny waters of the Menai Strait are being used to create a Welsh gastronomic delight.