Great Railway Journeys

This article is about the BBC Two travel documentary broadcast in the 1980s and 90s. For the similar show broadcast in 2010, see Great British Railway Journeys. For the rail travel company, see Great Rail Journeys.

Great Railway Journeys
Title screen for most episodes from Series 2 onward.
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	27
Production
Running time	50 or 60 min
Release
Original network	BBC Two
Original release	1980 – 1999
Chronology
Followed by	Great British Railway Journeys

Great Railway Journeys, originally titled Great Railway Journeys of the World, is a recurring series of travel documentaries produced by BBC Television. The premise of each programme is that the presenter, typically a well-known figure from the arts or media, would make a journey by train, usually through a country or to a destination to which they had a personal connection. There were four series broadcast on BBC Two between 1980 and 1999, with the shorter series title being used for all but the first. In 2010 a similar series also aired on BBC Two, Great British Railway Journeys.

The first series is notable in that it featured the first television travelogue by comedian and comic actor Michael Palin, who would go on to become as well known for his travel series (such as Pole to Pole and Sahara) as for his comedy.

Series

Series 1: Great Railway Journeys of the World (1980)

Episode summary for Series 1:

Episode No.	Episode Title	UK Broadcast Date	Presenter	Details of Journey	Countries Visited
#1.0	Introduction (extracts from forthcoming episodes in the series)	1980-10-23	-	-	-
#1.1	"Coast to Coast"	1980-10-30	Ludovic Kennedy	New York to Los Angeles	USA
#1.2	"The Long Straight"	1980-11-06	Michael Frayn	Sydney to Perth	Australia
#1.3	"Deccan"	1980-11-13	Brian B. Thompson	Bombay to Cochin	India
#1.4	"Confessions of a Trainspotter"	1980-11-27	Michael Palin	London to the Kyle of Lochalsh	England, Scotland
#1.5	"Zambezi Express"	1980-12-04	Michael Wood	Cape Town to Victoria Falls	South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe-Rhodesia
#1.6	"Three Miles High"	1980-12-11	Miles Kington	Lima to La Paz	Peru, Bolivia
#1.7	"Changing Trains"	1980-12-18	Eric Robson	Paris to Budapest	France, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary

Series 2: Great Railway Journeys (1994)

Episode summary for Series 2:

Episode No.	Episode Title	UK Broadcast Date	Presenter	Countries Visited
#2.1	"From Hong Kong to Ulaanbaatar"	1994-01-13	Clive Anderson	Hong Kong, China, Mongolia
#2.2	"Cape Town to the Lost City"	1994-01-20	Rian Malan	South Africa
#2.3	"St. Petersburg to Tashkent"	1994-01-27	Natalia Makarova	Russia, Uzbekistan
#2.4	"Derry to Kerry"	1994-02-03	Michael Palin	Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland
#2.5	"Santos to Santa Cruz"	1994-02-10	Lisa St Aubin de Terán	Brazil, Bolivia
#2.6	"Karachi to The Khyber Pass"	1994-02-17	Mark Tully	Pakistan

Series 3: Great Railway Journeys (1996)

Episode summary for Series 3:

Episode No.	Episode Title	UK Broadcast Date	Presenter	Countries Visited
#3.1	"Crewe to Crewe"	1996-09-04	Victoria Wood	United Kingdom
#3.2	"Aleppo to Aqaba"	1996-09-11	Alexei Sayle	Syria, Jordan
#3.3	"Great Zimbabwe to Kilimatinde"	1996-09-18	Henry Louis Gates Jr.	Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania
#3.4	"The High Andes to Patagonia"	1996-09-25	Buck Henry	Argentina
#3.5	"Mombasa to the Mountains of the Moon"	1996-10-02	Benedict Allen	Kenya, Uganda
#3.6	"London to Arcadia"	1996-10-09	Ben Okri	England, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece
#3.7	"Halifax to Porteau Cove"	1996-10-16	Chris Bonington	Canada

Series 4: Great Railway Journeys (1999)

Episode summary for Series 4:

Episode No.	Episode Title	UK Broadcast Date	Presenter	Details of Journey	Countries Visited
#4.1	"India East to West"	1999-01-05	Ian Hislop	Calcutta to Rajasthan	India
#4.2	"Granada to Salamanca"	1999-01-12	Michael Portillo	See episode title	Spain
#4.3	"Tokyo to Kagoshima"	1999-01-19	Fergal Keane	See episode title	Japan
#4.4	"Los Mochis to Veracruz"	1999-01-26	Rick Stein	See episode title	Mexico
#4.5	"Guantanamo to Pinar del Rio"	1999-02-02	Nick Hancock	See episode title	Cuba
#4.6	"St Louis to Dogon Country"	1999-02-09	Danny Glover	See episode title	Senegal, Mali
#4.7	"Singapore to Bangkok"	1999-04-06	Stephen Tompkinson	See episode title	Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand

Great Little Railways

In 1983 the BBC made a further series on rail travel entitled Great Little Railways, this time exclusively featuring narrow gauge railways. This series relied on narrators rather than presenters who appeared on camera. In some cases, the narrator did not partake in the train journey, and simply recited the writing of that episode's producer.

Episode No.	Episode Title	UK Broadcast Date	Narrator	Writer	Details of Journey	Countries Visited
1	"The Gold Rush Line"	1983-02-15	Simon Hoggart	Simon Hoggart	White Pass and Yukon Route	Alaska, USA and Yukon, Canada
2	"The Other Poland"	1983-02-22	Brian Blessed	Lyn Webster	Nasielsk to Pułtusk & Komańcza to Cisna	Poland
3	"Slow Train to Olympia"	1983-03-01	Michael Wood	Michael Wood	Athens to Olympia	Greece
4	"The Dragons of Sugar Island"	1983-03-08	Colin Garratt	Colin Garratt	Negros Island	Philippines
5	"Line of Dreams"	1983-03-15	John Shrapnel	Gerry Troyna	Jodhpur and Jaipur	India
6	"Journey to the Land Beyond the Mountains"	1983-03-22	Ray Gosling	Ray Gosling	Douro Valley (including the Corgo line)	Portugal
7	"The Good and The Quick"	1983-03-29	Stanley Reynolds	Stanley Reynolds	Guayaquil to Quito	Ecuador

Great British Railway Journeys

In January 2010 BBC Two broadcast Great British Railway Journeys, a documentary with similar basic idea to Great Railway Journeys but with a different format.

Journeys are mainly focused on Great Britain, and is presented by the ex-politician and broadcaster Michael Portillo. The first series detailed four railway journeys following an 1840 Bradshaw's guide, split into a run of 20 separate episodes. The first series proved a success and a second series followed a year later in January 2011. A third series followed in January 2012, including five episodes on railways in Ireland.

A fourth series aired in January 2013, also with 25 episodes, with the last five episodes focused again on railways in Ireland. A fifth series following in January 2014 with 20 episodes, making a total airing of 115 episodes across the five series.

Great Continental Railway Journeys

From 2012 BBC Two has also broadcast series of Great Continental Railway Journeys, a documentary with the same idea as Great British Railway Journeys, also presented by Portillo. It detailed railway journeys in mainland Europe, following a 1913 Bradshaw's guide to European rail travel.

DVD and books

Although there have been no complete series of Great Railway Journeys released on DVD, Michael Palin's 1980 and 1994 programmes are available individually (BBCDVD1626) and as part of a box set of his collected travel documentaries, The Michael Palin Collection (BBCDVD2214).

Books have been published to accompany the first three series, with a chapter by each of the presenters on their particular journey:

• Frayn, M. et al. (1981), Great Railway Journeys of the World, BBC Books, hardcover, ISBN 0-563-17903-1
• Anderson, C. et al. (1994), Great Railway Journeys, BBC Books, hardcover, ISBN 0-563-36944-2
• Allen, B. et al. (1996), More Great Railway Journeys, BBC Books, hardcover, ISBN 0-563-38717-3

A similar book was also published on Great Little Railways:

• Chamberlin, E.R. et al. (1984) Great Little Railways, BBC Books, hardcover, ISBN 0-563-20211-4

External links

• Great Little Railways - "The Good and The Quick" 1983 Complete 40min episode
• Great Railway Journeys - "The High Andes to Patagonia" 1996 Complete 56min episode