About this season
Short travelogues in which Michael Palin experiences a bygone age of rail travel in the UK.
Episodes (4)
1. LNER
Aired 7 November 1989 • 10 min
Michael Palin takes his golf clubs to St Andrews on a journey up the 'drier side of Britain', where the London North Eastern Railway's publicity department of the 1920s and 1930s promoted an industrial service alongside more familiar holiday resorts and the glamour of fast trains.
2. GWR
Aired 8 November 1989 • 10 min
Michael Palin discovers that the Great Western Railway had the most sophisticated public relations machine of all the railway companies between the two world wars, producing high-quality publications and promotional gimmicks.
3. Southern Railway
Aired 9 November 1989 • 10 min
Michael Palin embarks on an imaginary romantic assignation to Paris aboard the Golden Arrow. Promoting its new-fangled electrification through a series of colourful posters, the Southern Railway provides him with a gateway to sunshine.
4. LMS
Aired 17 November 1989 • 10 min
Michael Palin takes an imaginary journey to Blackpool via the LMS posters of the 1920s and 1930s.