High above Biggin Hill, the most celebrated airfield of the Battle of Britain, Michael Portillo endured a heart-stopping “victory roll” in a World War II Spitfire. The aircraft, eighty years old and meticulously maintained by a devoted team…

Beginning in Hassocks, Michael journeys to the picturesque Sussex village of Ditchling, once home to a Roman Catholic community of artists between the wars. He explores how they shaped the character of the village itself, influenced design …

Following his 1930s Bradshaw’s guide, Michael Portillo journeys to Rye, an East Sussex port town remarkably untouched by time. There, he uncovers the poignant story of a generation of lifeboatmen lost at sea in 1928 and investigates a stark…

From the Kentish port of Deal, Michael journeys onward to the impressive Walmer Castle, once home in the 1920s to Lord Beauchamp, then Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. Michael's guide—the founder of an LGBTQ working group for English Herita…

Clutching a well-worn copy of Bradshaw’s Guide to the Railways, a relic from the years between the wars, Michael arrives at the Kentish seaside resort of Herne Bay. There, he discovers the story of a remarkable aviatrix who began her career…

Michael’s explorations continue through greater London. He begins on the city's southeastern edge, in the leafy and historic village of Chislehurst, where unexpected imperial connections intertwine with a shadowy network beneath the surface…

Michael’s journey continues through the heart of London's East End. He finds Hackney Wick vastly changed from the days recorded in his 1930s Bradshaw’s guide, where factories once spewed smoke and the Communist Party of Great Britain first …

Michael’s rail tour, echoing Bradshaw’s own journeys, now leads him to Hampstead, where, just before the Second World War began, a pioneering Jewish doctor sought sanctuary. Sigmund Freud escaped Vienna and the encroaching Nazis—who condemn…

Following a vintage Bradshaw’s guide, Michael explores London, tracing the course of the River Thames from east to west. He is drawn to an industrial district on the river's eastern edge by the unusual sound of pipes, which leads him to a s…

Michael Portillo traces the genesis of Harry Beck’s iconic map of the London Underground, delves into the story of a startlingly surrealist exhibition from the nineteen thirties on Piccadilly, and examines the wartime headquarters where Chu…