Michael Portillo's 200 Years of the Railways

Michael Portillo's 200 Years of the Railways (2025- )

To Be DeterminedDocumentary showTravel, History

September 2025 marks 200 years since the first steam-hauled passenger train ran on a public railway, from Stockton to Darlington, in 1825. To celebrate this incredible anniversary, Michael Portillo is set to take audiences on a journey through time with: 200 Years of The Railways.

The series will see Michael Portillo travel by train to the Northeast and Northwest of England and investigate what the railways have done for us over the past 200 years and explore what the railways' role could be in the future.

Network

Last Episode

How the Railways Changed Britain
Season 1Episode 258 min

How the Railways Changed Britain

Railway enthusiast and former politician Michael Portillo continues his celebration of the birth of the modern railway. He looks at the transformative effect of railways on Britain by travelling on the world's first intercity line between Liverpool and Manchester, which opened in 1830.

Michael begins in Derby at ‘The Greatest Gathering', the largest ever collection of locomotives in one place, drawing crowds of 40,000 people.

In Manchester, he steps back in time to the world's first intercity line. Walking the Bridgewater Canal, he hears how the cotton trade drove its creation. At Quarry Bank Mill, he learns how the railway boosted production and changed lives.

At the National Football Museum, he discovers how trains helped turn football into a national game. He visits Chat Moss, where George Stephenson built a floating railway over a bog, and stops at Rainhill to see where Rocket famously proved that steam locomotives would shape the future of rail.

In Liverpool, he hears how novelist Elizabeth Gaskell captured the spirit of the railway age. And in Yorkshire, he traces the rise and fall of George Hudson, the ‘Railway King'. Michael ends his journey back in Derby, at the spectacular gathering of locomotives from the last 200 years.

Sep 16, 2025

Recent Episodes

EpisodeNameAirdate
S01E02How the Railways Changed BritainSep 16, 2025
S01E01The Day That Changed the WorldSep 16, 2025
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Cast

Michael Portillo

Michael Portillo

plays himself
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Characters

Presenter

Presenter

played by Michael Portillo
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Also known as

  • 200 Years of the Railways

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