Great British Railway Journeys S15 E06-E10 (1080p, soft English subtitles)
E06 Loch Lomond to Kelvinbridge
Michael Portillo boards the West Highland Line to begin a railway journey across Scotland’s central belt, from the Arrochar Alps to the Loch of the Lowes.
At the head of Loch Long, Michael meets a legendary octogenarian munro-bagger. In Balloch, on the shores of Loch Lomond, he joins passionate volunteers working to restore an iconic 1950s paddle steamer. In Glasgow, Michael rides the 'Clockwork Orange', the third oldest underground rail system in the world, to Govan and the shipyards of the River Clyde. And at Kelvinbridge, Michael hears how the chicken tikka masala was created for the Glaswegian palate by an immigrant chef from Lahore.
E07 Glasgow to Cumbernauld
At the home of Scottish football, Glasgow’s Hampden Park stadium, Michael admires the oldest football trophy in the world and hears how the 'passing game' was born there. From Scotland’s busiest railway station, the splendid Glasgow Central, Michael heads to the M8 motorway to see 16 lanes of traffic slicing through the city centre. At the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Michael hears how, after the Second World War, artist Joan Eardley set up a studio amid the tenements of Townhead and painted children from Glasgow’s slums. Michael finishes this leg of the journey in the planned, modernist new town of Cumbernauld, where he hears about the utopian ideals that shaped its design and architecture.
E08 Shawlands to Livingston
Michael Portillo continues his postwar Scottish railway adventure, this time from Glasgow to the capital, Edinburgh. At Pollok Country Park in Glasgow, Michael joins a women’s running club, the Bellahouston Harriers, for a warm-up session. In parkland above the pits en route to Cuningar Loop, he finds Glasgow’s geoenergy observatory, where the British Geological Society is researching how mine water heated naturally underground can be harnessed to save energy.
At Livingston North, Michael investigates a puzzling incident in 1979 in Dechmont Woods. And at Edinburgh’s famous 12th-century castle, he discovers the origins of a spectacle that has attracted tourists from far and wide since 1950, the Edinburgh Tattoo.
E09 Edinburgh to Queensferry
At the former Midlothian mining village of Newtongrange, Michael meets the son of a miner whose name loomed large in the disputes of the 1970s and 1980s, 'Red' Mick McGahey. On the outskirts of Edinburgh, at a recording studio in South Gyle, Michael is transported back to the wild world of 1970s pop with Bay City Rollers guitarist Stuart 'Woody' Wood. Michael leaves Edinburgh and takes the train north to Dalmeny for Queensferry, on the banks of the Firth of Forth. At the Progress Rail foundry, he marvels at the traditional skills still required to produce complex sets of rails for modern tracks in Britain and across the world. On the south bank of the Firth of Forth, Michael recalls the construction during the 1950s and 1960s of the Forth Road Bridge, which he saw as a child from the train window while crossing the rail bridge.
E10 Dundee to Loch of the Lowes
Michael’s rail journey through postwar Scotland takes him over the River Tay to Dundee on the trail of Joseph McKenzie, the father of modern Scottish photography. In Perth, Michael meets a singer-songwriter and veteran of the early Scottish folk scene. At Perth's Wellshill Cemetery, Michael discovers the graves of 355 of the thousands of Polish soldiers, sailors, and airmen who fought for the Allies from British bases. Alighting at Dunkeld, Michael makes for the Loch of the Lowes to spot a magnificent pair of breeding ospreys who nest in the 320-acre nature reserve.
First broadcast: March 2024
Duration: 30 minutes per episode
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