Great British Railway Journeys – Complete Series 1-5 (23 disc box set) DVD – Michael Portillo 

The first five series of the TV show presented by Michael Portillo that traces historic railway journeys across Britain. In the first series Portillo sets out to chart how the nation’s love affair with the railways began, travelling from Liverpool to Scarborough, Preston to Kirkcaldy, Swindon to Penzance and Buxton to London, amongst other journeys. The second series sees the former politician take as his guide ‘Bradshaw’s Handbook’, a pamphlet on the burgeoning British railway system written by 19th-century cartographer and publisher George Bradshaw. Portillo travels to destinations including Holyhead, Newcastle, York and Sheffield, stopping to visit historic landmarks and to talk to those whose lives have been changed by the railway system. In the third, fourth and fifth series Portillo traces more historic rail journeys across Britain including ‘Great Yarmouth to Beccles’, ‘Darsham to Felixstowe’, ‘Sudbury to Southend’, ‘Ballymoney to Derry’, ‘High Wycombe to Stratford-Upon-Avon’, ‘Woking to Clapham Junction’, ‘London Victoria to Abbey Wood’, ‘Stirling to Invergowrie’, ‘Manchester to Birkenhead’, ‘Southport to Leyland’, ‘Preston to Rochdale’, ‘Haworth to Huddersfield’, ‘Honley to Chesterfield’, ‘London Euston to Cheddington’, ‘Bletchley to Newport Pagnell’, ‘Northampton to Nuneaton’, ‘Leicester to Loughborough’, ‘Nottingham to Leeds’, ‘Southampton to Basingstoke’, ‘Winchfield to Crowthorne’, ‘Wokingham to Bradford on Avon’, ‘Chippenham to Gloucester’, ‘Cheltenham to Wolverhampton’, ‘Norwich to Brandon’, ‘Ipswich to Chelmsford’, ‘Ilford to Rochester’, ‘Faversham to Dorking’ and ‘Brighton to Chichester’.