Synopsis

With his Edwardian railway guidebook clasped beneath his arm, Michael Portillo finds himself in Sheffield, the steel city, where he encounters an enormous and remarkably preserved steam engine from the early twentieth century. Weighing 400 tonnes and generating 12,000 horsepower, this powerful machine once produced armour plate for the Royal Navy’s most formidable warship. Journeying south into Nottinghamshire, Michael arrives at what was formerly Europe's most prosperous coalfield. Following hi