Great Continental Railway Journeys

Great Continental Railway Journeys is a British television documentary series presented by Michael Portillo. In the early series, Portillo explores the railway networks of continental Europe, but in later series he also ventured further afield. He refers to a 1913 copy of Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide, as he describes how the places he visits have changed since Edwardian times. The first series was originally broadcast on BBC Two in 2012, and the seventh series was first aired in 2020. Series 8 was filmed in Spring and Summer 2022 The first series was originally broadcast on BBC Two in 2012. Portillo made five separate journeys across France, Germany, the Low Countries, Switzerland, and the countries whose land made up the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Production of a second series included filming in Spain and Gibraltar in May and June 2013, following the Ronda–Algeciras railway line, built in the 1890s by British interests under the Algeciras Gibraltar Railway Company, for the benefit of British officers stationed in Gibraltar wanting to travel to Spain and the rest of Europe. To avoid offending Spanish sensitivities, the line was built concluding in Algeciras, a town in Spain on the opposite side of the Bay of Gibraltar, rather than at the Gibraltar border. Despite it having no direct connection to the European railway network, a chapter was devoted to Gibraltar in the 1913 guidebook. The third series had six journeys, in one of which Portillo went further afield to travel on the railways in modern-day Israel. The fourth series aired in 2015. It took Portillo to Bulgaria, Turkey, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Greece, Germany, and Spain. As of 2021, series 1-6 of Great Continental Railway Journeys have been released on DVD by FremantleMedia under licence from Boundless and the BBC. Great Continental Railway Journeys, written by Michael Portillo, was published by Simon & Schuster UK in October 2015.