Great Continental Railway Journeys

Series 8

2025 · 20 episodes · 9h 30m in all

Bradshaw's 1913 Guide in hand, Michael Portillo embarks on another rail journey.

Episodes

1. 

   1. Pula to Pazin

   10 Mar 2025 · 29 min

   Michael Portillo mounts a valiant defence against fierce latter-day Roman gladiators in Pula's amphitheatre as he begins a journey across the Balkan countries of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2. 

   2. Buzet to Pag

   11 Mar 2025 · 28 min

   Ably assisted by Lila, an expert labrador, Michael Portillo hunts for truffles in the Istrian countryside near the hilltop town of Buzet.

3. 

   3. Knin to Split

   12 Mar 2025 · 28 min

   Michael Portillo’s railway adventure reaches the Dalmatian coastal city of Zadar, once an important Venetian trading hub and still a centre for the production of Maraschino cherry liqueur.

4. 

   4. Sarajevo

   13 Mar 2025 · 29 min

   In Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia, Michael Portillo traces the fateful last journey in 1914 of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie.

5. 

   5. Mostar to Dubrovnik

   14 Mar 2025 · 29 min

   Michael Portillo enjoys a journey on the historic line from Sarajevo to Mostar, descending 600 metres through the Dinaric Alps, reflecting on the divisions which tour apart the old Yugoslavia.

6. 

   6. Bergen to Flåm

   17 Mar 2025 · 28 min

   Michael Portillo embarks on a Scandinavian railway adventure from the Norwegian port of Bergen to the Danish capital, Copenhagen.

7. 

   7. Myrdal to Heddal

   18 Mar 2025 · 28 min

   Michael Portillo’s rail journey continues on the Bergen Line, heading towards the Norwegian capital of Oslo, with its fine modernist architecture and 19th-century parliament building.

8. 

   8. Larvik to Holstebro

   19 Mar 2025 · 28 min

   Michael’s saga resumes in Larvik on Norway’s southern coast, where he investigates the city’s prized natural resource, a distinctive blue rock named larvikite.

9. 

   9. Aarhus to Odense

   20 Mar 2025 · 29 min

   Michael Portillo’s Scandinavian rail adventure reaches Denmark’s second city, Aarhus, an architectural playground with dazzling contemporary buildings set alongside historic half-timbered houses.

10. 10

    10. Roskilde to Copenhagen

    21 Mar 2025 · 29 min

    Michael Portillo concludes his epic rail journey across Norway and Denmark, crossing an 18-kilometre box girder bridge between the islands of Funen and Zealand, known as the Great Belt Bridge.

11. 

    11. Maienfeld to the Rhine Gorge

    24 Mar 2025 · 28 min

    Michael Portillo is transported 150 years back in time to the tiny Alpine village home of Switzerland’s most famous child, Heidi, and heads to the Rhine Gorge, also known as the Swiss Grand Canyon.

12. 

    12. Sedrun to Schwyz

    25 Mar 2025 · 29 min

    Michael Portillo ventures into the bowels of an immense hydroelectric dam to learn how the Swiss use their mountainous environment to power the country.

13. 

    13. Zurich

    26 Mar 2025 · 28 min

    In Zurich, Michael has a brush with the absurd in the anarchic paintings of the Dadaists and visits the Grossmunster Church to learn about the rebellious pastor at the centre of the Swiss Reformation.

14. 

    14. Rotkreuz to Brienz

    27 Mar 2025 · 29 min

    Michael Portillo scales the Swiss Alps on one of the the steepest cog railways in the world and visits the 19th-century fairy-tale Grand Hotel Giessbach.

15. 

    15. Zweisimmen to Lausanne

    28 Mar 2025 · 29 min

    Aboard the Golden Pass Express, Michael Portillo wends his way in style down steep mountainsides from Interlaken to the Swiss Riviera. In Lausanne, he contends with a knife-wielding robotic arm.

16. 

    16. Nantes to Lorient

    31 Mar 2025 · 28 min

    Michael Portillo’s rail travels take him to the north west corner of France, where he explores the beautiful regions of Brittany and Normandy and learns of their connections with Great Britain.

17. 

    17. Brest to St Brieuc

    1 Apr 2025 · 28 min

    Michael Portillo’s railway journey reaches the naval port of Brest, home to France’s oceanographic fleet. He also learns how to make a sweet, buttery Breton cake called kouign-amann.

18. 

    18. Rennes to Mont Saint-Michel

    2 Apr 2025 · 29 min

    Michael Portillo’s railway adventure reaches Rennes, capital of Brittany. At the Lycee Emile Zola, he hears how the school was used as a military court for the second trial of Alfred Dreyfus.

19. 

    19. Bayeux to Argentan

    3 Apr 2025 · 28 min

    In Bayeux, Michael Portillo admires the Bayeux Tapestry, the 70-metre-long work of art commissioned to record William the Conqueror's conquest of England and the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

20. 

    20. Lisieux to Giverny

    4 Apr 2025 · 29 min

    In the apple orchards of the Calvados region, Michael Portillo discovers how the classic digestif has been distilled since 1865 at the Pierre Huet estate.