Michael Portillo
Director
Great Continental Railway Journeys (2012)
Series 8
Bradshaw's 1913 Guide in hand, Michael Portillo embarks on another rail journey.
Released Nov. 8, 2012
Episode 48 min
10+
Genres: Documentary
Keywords: tmdb.europe, tmdb.travel, tmdb.railroad, imdb.guide
Production Companies: BBC
Network: BBC Two
Country: United Kingdom
Languages:
English
S8E1 - Pula to Pazin
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.
March 10, 2025, midnight
S8E2 - Buzet to Pag
Ably assisted by Lila, an expert labrador, Michael Portillo hunts for truffles in the Istrian countryside near the hilltop town of Buzet.
March 11, 2025, midnight
S8E3 - Knin to Split
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.
March 12, 2025, midnight
S8E4 - Sarajevo
In Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia, Michael Portillo traces the fateful last journey in 1914 of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie.
March 13, 2025, midnight
S8E5 - Mostar to Dubrovnik
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.
March 14, 2025, midnight
S8E6 - Bergen to Flåm
Michael Portillo embarks on a Scandinavian railway adventure from the Norwegian port of Bergen to the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
March 17, 2025, midnight
S8E7 - Myrdal to Heddal
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.
March 18, 2025, midnight
S8E8 - Larvik to Holstebro
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.
March 19, 2025, midnight
S8E9 - Aarhus to Odense
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.
March 20, 2025, midnight
S8E10 - Roskilde to Copenhagen
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.
March 21, 2025, midnight
S8E11 - Maienfeld to the Rhine Gorge
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.
March 24, 2025, midnight
S8E12 - Sedrun to Schwyz
Michael Portillo ventures into the bowels of an immense hydroelectric dam to learn how the Swiss use their mountainous environment to power the country.
March 25, 2025, midnight
S8E13 - Zurich
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.
March 26, 2025, midnight
S8E14 - Rotkreuz to Brienz
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.
March 27, 2025, midnight
S8E15 - Zweisimmen to Lausanne
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.
March 28, 2025, midnight
S8E16 - Nantes to Lorient
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.
March 31, 2025, midnight
S8E17 - Brest to St Brieuc
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.
April 1, 2025, midnight
S8E18 - Rennes to Mont Saint-Michel
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.
April 2, 2025, midnight
S8E19 - Bayeux to Argentan
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.
April 3, 2025, midnight
S8E20 - Lisieux to Giverny
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.
April 4, 2025, midnight
BBC Two
48 min/ep
2790 min
Nov. 8, 2012
April 4, 2025, midnight
Returning Series
TV-PG / 10+
Action
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