Great Railway Journeys

All Episodes 1980 - 1999

  • Ended
  • #<Network:0x00007f55c72fb7e0>
  • 1980-10-22T23:00:00Z
  • 1h
  • 22h 43m (23 episodes)
  • United Kingdom
  • English
  • Documentary
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.

29 episodes

Series Premiere

1980-10-22T23:00:00Z

1x01 Introduction

Series Premiere

1x01 Introduction

  • 1980-10-22T23:00:00Z1h

Travel From New York to Los Angeles With Ludovic Kennedy.

1980-10-30T00:00:00Z

1x02 Coast to Coast

1x02 Coast to Coast

  • 1980-10-30T00:00:00Z1h

Travel From Sydney to Perth With Michael Frayn.

1980-11-13T00:00:00Z

1x03 The Long Straight

1x03 The Long Straight

  • 1980-11-13T00:00:00Z1h

Michael Frayn traces the route of Australia's trans-continental railway, the Indian Pacific, with a detour along the way.

1980-11-13T00:00:00Z

1x04 Deccan

1x04 Deccan

  • 1980-11-13T00:00:00Z1h

Brian Thompson travels through the south of India from Bombay to Cochin.

Michael Palin travels from London to Kyle of Lochalsh in the north of Scotland.

1980-12-04T00:00:00Z

1x06 Zambezi Express

1x06 Zambezi Express

  • 1980-12-04T00:00:00Z1h

Michael Wood travels from Cape Town to the Victoria Falls.

1980-12-11T00:00:00Z

1x07 Three Miles High

1x07 Three Miles High

  • 1980-12-11T00:00:00Z1h

Miles Kington travels from Lima in Peru through the Andes and Lake Titicaca to Bolivia.

Season Finale

1980-12-18T00:00:00Z

1x08 Changing Trains

Season Finale

1x08 Changing Trains

  • 1980-12-18T00:00:00Z1h

Eric Robson travels from Paris to Budapest via Zurich and Vienna.

Season Premiere

1994-01-13T00:00:00Z

2x01 From Hong Kong to Ulaanbaatar

Season Premiere

2x01 From Hong Kong to Ulaanbaatar

  • 1994-01-13T00:00:00Z1h

Clive Anderson takes a humorous look at the contradictions and confusions of present-day China as he makes his way from Hong Kong, via Shanghai, Beijing and the Great Wall, to end up in Ulaan Baatar in Mongolia.

2x02 Cape Town to the Lost City

  • 1994-01-20T00:00:00Z1h

Finally, in South Africa, Rian Malan escapes riot-torn Cape Town and makes his way across the country to Johannesburg, talking to people of all races and wrestling with South Africa's violent past and increasingly ominous future. He ends his journey amid the bizarre splendour of the Palace of the Lost City hotel in Bophuthatswana.

1994-01-27T00:00:00Z

2x03 St Petersburg to Tashkent

2x03 St Petersburg to Tashkent

  • 1994-01-27T00:00:00Z1h

Former Kirov prima ballerina Natalia Makarova explores the railways of Russia, taking in Volgograd, Samarkand and the river Volga, and dancing on the railway itself

1994-02-03T00:00:00Z

2x04 Derry to Kerry

2x04 Derry to Kerry

  • 1994-02-03T00:00:00Z1h

Palin's second Great Rail Journey (1994) takes him from the ancient walled city of Londonderry to the most western tip of Ireland. He travels his 'family line' as he attempts to trace his great grandmother who left Ireland for the USA over 150 years ago. His trip through still a war-torn Northern Ireland takes him on to Belfast before headng south to Dublin, the capital of the Irish Republic, and on to Wexford, Waterford, the little village of Buttevant and finally Kerry's Dingle Bay, the most western point of Ireland.

1994-02-10T00:00:00Z

2x05 Santos to Santa Cruz

2x05 Santos to Santa Cruz

  • 1994-02-10T00:00:00Z1h

In South America Lisa St Aubin de Terán travels from Santos on the coast of Brazil, near Sáo Paulo, over the mountains and plains of Brazil to the Pantanal Swamp, a wilderness of lush vegetation, and on to the city of Santa Cruz, home of the cocaine barons in Bolivia. She vividly describes the contrasts of beauty and poverty which she finds in the two countries.

Season Finale

1994-02-17T00:00:00Z

2x06 Karachi to the Khyber

Season Finale

2x06 Karachi to the Khyber

  • 1994-02-17T00:00:00Z1h

In Pakistan, Mark Tully journeys from Karachi in the south to the Khyber Pass on the Afghan border in the north, making a diversion to travel to Quetta via the spectacular Bolan Pass on one of the most challenging lines built by British engineers anywhere in the world.

Season Premiere

1996-09-03T23:00:00Z

3x01 Crewe to Crewe with Victoria Wood

Season Premiere

3x01 Crewe to Crewe with Victoria Wood

  • 1996-09-03T23:00:00Z54m

Victoria Wood makes a round trip to the north of Britain from Crewe, taking in both the east and west coasts, and Thurso, the most northerly point possible by train.

1996-09-10T23:00:00Z

3x02 Aleppo to Aqaba

3x02 Aleppo to Aqaba

  • 1996-09-10T23:00:00Z1h

1996-10-08T23:00:00Z

3x06 London to Arcadia

3x06 London to Arcadia

  • 1996-10-08T23:00:00Z1h

Season Finale

1996-10-15T23:00:00Z

3x07 Halifax to Porteau Cove

Season Finale

3x07 Halifax to Porteau Cove

  • 1996-10-15T23:00:00Z1h

Season Premiere

1999-01-05T00:00:00Z

4x01 India: East to West

Season Premiere

4x01 India: East to West

  • 1999-01-05T00:00:00Z49m

Ian Hislop travels from Kolkata, the former capital of the British Raj and present seat of the Marxist government of West Bengal, to Rajasthan.

1999-01-12T00:00:00Z

4x02 Granada to Salamanca

4x02 Granada to Salamanca

  • 1999-01-12T00:00:00Z1h

1999-01-26T00:00:00Z

4x04 Los Mochis to Veracruz

4x04 Los Mochis to Veracruz

  • 1999-01-26T00:00:00Z1h

4x05 Guantanamo to Pinar Del Rio

  • 1999-02-02T00:00:00Z1h

1999-04-05T23:00:00Z

4x07 Singapore to Bangkok

4x07 Singapore to Bangkok

  • 1999-04-05T23:00:00Z1h

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