Great British Railway Journeys: Series 12
Season 12 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of Great British Railway Journeys Season 11.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 12 Progress Shield
Oxford to Abingdon
Apr 26, 2021 · 30 min
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.
Stoke Mandeville to Beaconsfield
Apr 27, 2021 · 30 min
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
West Ruislip to Windsor
Apr 28, 2021 · 30 min
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.
Guildford to Aldershot
Apr 29, 2021 · 30 min
Michael Portillo resumes his tour of the Home Counties in the picturesque and historic county town of Guildford. English
Farnborough to Winchester
Apr 30, 2021 · 30 min
Michael is heading for Farnborough, Hampshire, famous today for its airshow and home to what was then the Royal Aircraft Establishment.
Saxmundham to Dedham
May 3, 2021 · 30 min
Armed with his 1930s Bradshaw's, Michael Portillo explores interwar East Anglia. Starting at Sutton Hoo, he visits the experimental Summerhill School and learns about the Kindertra
Colchester to Chadwell Heath
May 4, 2021 · 30 min
Michael Portillo continues his Bradshaw's-inspired journey through East Anglia, where he discovers the Essex origins of the BBC and joins the Women's Land Army to pick damsons at T
Potters Bar to Cardington
May 5, 2021 · 30 min
Michael's Bradshaw travels resume in leafy Hertfordshire, where he attempts a canoe slalom course, visits the estate of Dame Barbara Cartland and hears the shocking story of the R1
Sawbridgeworth to Cambridge
May 6, 2021 · 30 min
Steered by his Bradshaw's guide, Michael Portillo heads for the Hertfordshire village of Perry Green to learn about Henry Moore became one of the defining artists of British modern
Newmarket to Walsingham
May 7, 2021 · 30 min
Michael Portillo is in Suffolk on the last leg of his 1930s Bradshaw's inspired tour of East Anglia, visiting the racecourse at Newmarket and the Roman Catholic shrine at Walsingha
Crewe to Shotton
May 10, 2021 · 30 min
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 c
Rhyl to Anglesey
May 11, 2021 · 30 min
Michael Portillo's 1930s Bradshaw's-inspired railway tour of North Wales takes him to a coast lined by magnificent castles and sweeping bays.
Bangor to Betws y Coed
May 12, 2021 · 30 min
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 V
Blaenau Ffestiniog to Barmouth
May 13, 2021 · 30 min
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 coll
Aberystwyth to Newtown
May 14, 2021 · 30 min
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 to