Great British Railway Journeys

[introduction to each episode]

Michael Portillo:
In 1840, one man transformed travel in Britain. His name was George Bradshaw, and his railway guides inspired the Victorians to take to the tracks. Stop by stop, he told them where to travel, what to see and where to stay. Now, a hundred and seventy years later, I'm making four long journeys across the length and breadth of the country to see what remains of Bradshaw's Britain.

[talking about Hadrian's Wall]

Michael Portillo:
The Emperor Hadrian built it to keep out the Caledonians. It runs from coast to coast. It was eleven feet high, it had ditches, it had a castle every mile, it had fortresses big enough to hold 17,000 troops. Four legions built it in eight years. It was the most fantastic engineering project. You have to be impressed. And you have to be DEpressed - that so much effort was put into keeping two peoples separate.

[Michael climbs out of a sewer that he has just been shown around]

Michael Portillo:
Brighton needs its sewers like society needs politicians!

[Stuart Slark is showing Michael the sewers that run underneath Brighton]

Stuart Slark:
You've got the Victorian sewer running down the side. Also we've got two big sewers coming down into this. Then when they have heavy rain it will overflow into where we're standing and then go down these two barrels behind us towards the sea.

Michael Portillo:
Wait a minute. So we're standing here... What happens if that overflows while we're standing here?

Stuart Slark:
[gleefully] We're going to have the ride of our life down those tunnels - it'll be better than your train journeys!