Portillo travels from Ipswich to Chelmsford, starting at an agricultural implements works with its own railway sidings.

Each series features Portillo travelling on a different route each week, with each daily episode being one short leg of the journey. Morecambe station has a regular rail service from Lancaster, with some trains running direct from Preston and Leeds. Portillo tries his hand at cutting marble Victorian style, uncovers 19th-century Ireland's surprising industrial heritage and learns how the railways helped bring motorsport to the masses.Portillo visits the historic Durham Cathedral, sees one of the first locomotives in Darlington and takes a Dracula tour in Whitby, before ending his journey on a North Yorkshire Moors Railway steam train across the North York Moors.

Mill workers from Bradford and further afield in West Yorkshire would holiday at Morecambe, with some retiring there. The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his History of Manchester (1771), when he refers to the "æstury of Moricambe". In Taunton, Somerset, Portillo stands trial at the Bloody Assizes and feels the full force of the law. The BTA works closely with Lancaster Chamber and organises joint promotional ventures with other tourism associations in the region.A hand coloured postcard from the mid-20th century showing the Grosvenor Hotel, recently demolished, and the promenade to Sandylands, refurbished in 2007. Now in Yorkshire, Portillo's first stop is Chapeltown for Wharncliffe Crags, where he learns about rock climbing and then climbs a crag himself. Portillo gets close to some precious Victorian botany at Kew Gardens, tries his hand at croquet, and discovers a very surprising 19th-century place of worship. In the same collection, Bennett pays tribute to the Morecambe-born actress Thora Hird in the essays Last of the Sun, about the final play he wrote for her, and "Thora Hird 1911–2003", a memoir of the work they had done together since the 1960s. High on the South Downs, he learns how trains used to carry day-trippers up the climb to the Devil's Dyke, where flying kites was a popular past-time.

In December 2017 a local general practitioner and community health activist [12] [13] claimed that children in Morecambe were suffering from malnourishment and implied that cases of rickets had been observed as a consequence. By 1850, the railway linked to Skipton, Keighley and Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and a settlement began to grow around the harbour and railway to service the port and as a seaside resort. Sunset across the Bay is a play by Alan Bennett written in 1975 for the BBC Play for Today strand, set and filmed in Morecambe.On this journey, Portillo enjoys the stunning scenery of rural and coastal Scotland, travelling from Stirling, through the industrial east coast and dramatic Highland landscapes, to the beauty of the western lochs, finally ending his journey in John o' Groats. In Olney, he learns about a poet whose words are still sung today, and explores the first purpose-built railway town at Wolverton. Portillo discovers how the new middle-class homes of Victorian Ashley had many chimneys which needed to be kept clean and were swept by young children, as depicted in Charles Kingsley's The Water-Babies. Portillo gets a rare chance to drive a heritage diesel train, finds out why Norfolk black turkeys appeared on the Christmas menu in Bradshaw's day, and samples some classic Cromer crab. Finally, in Gloucester, he finds out why the station became infamous for lost luggage, and meets a stonemason who invites him to have a go at Gloucester Cathedral.