Great British Railway Journeys

[EIM]

It would always have to take something special for me to like Michael Portillo, the luminous Tory wanker, but the BBC have managed it with what is, I think, the best thing on TV.

[Kevin S]

Great British Railway Journeys

Bloody hell, I'm glad you've said that. I saw the thread title and thought "What might EIM make of a programme featuring Portillo and trains?" But you're right, it's a very good watch. Genuinely interesting local info and Portillo seems very good at the small talk with the people he meets. Always pleasing when you get one of those "I've been there" or "I live there" moments too.

[EIM]

Great British Railway Journeys

The Lancashire journeys at the moment are full of places I know. It's fantastic. But not as fantastic as Portillo's garb. Today he was in lime green jacket and pink shirt. What a terrible bastard.

The small talk is clearly from his political career. He's ace at looking like he gives a fuck when he clearly doesn't. A mad skill.

[EIM]

Great British Railway Journeys

I bloody love trains, by the way. At least the travelling on them part.

[Kevin S]

Great British Railway Journeys

Oh right, just not the people talking about particular trains on the internet bit, presumably.

Here's Portillo rocking the pink look.



And displaying his perfection of that thing you just said.




I knew a guy at uni who clearly modelled himself on Portillo - the hair, the clothes. Sickeningly smooth, now a Tory councillor.

[EIM]

Great British Railway Journeys

Course he is. I detest him. Until he makes a charming and simple programme about trains, in which case I'll ignore his vile politics and watch him with child-like glee.

[Kevin S]

Great British Railway Journeys

He was more of a car man, I think. Used to call them "motor cars".

He also put an apostrophe in 'plane and 'phone. In texts.

[EIM]

Great British Railway Journeys

That I'm down with. I do it with 'keeper.

[Kevin S]

Great British Railway Journeys

Cor, the memories are flooding back now. I remember he introduced me to whisky & lime at the freshers' ball, which turned out to be pretty tasty to the 19 year old me. And whenever we were up past midnight he'd always say 'good morning'.

[Bored Of Education]

Great British Railway Journeys

I loved his train journeys through Spain. Portillo not kevchenko's mate.

Mind you, the original series had Michael Palin. That puts Portillo in perspective.

[longeared]

Great British Railway Journeys

Oh yes, this is a fucking ace programme. The jaunty music at the start, the reverence of the Bradshaws, the enthusiastic local historians, the slightly awkward vox pops when he talks to people on trains and some actually generally interesting stuff. Tuesday's programme was great (apart from the misleading editing that made it look as if he had gone down to the end of Southport pier when he clearly hadn't). Last night a bit less so, not least because the Hebden Bridge segment appeared to have been filmed at a different time of year.

I bought the guidebook for a fiver a couple of years back and enjoy reading along with whatever Portillo reports on the places. He misses out some amusing stuff at times.

Not sure we needed to see Portillo in a Manchester United shirt mind you.

[RobW]

Great British Railway Journeys

Massive fan of this show, and Portillo's fashion sense. So pleased it's back, I was under the impression that they'd given up when they commissioned the Continental Railway Journeys.
I am now a proud owner of Bradshaw's guide and a couple of pink shirts. Just need to get the lime blazer.

[EIM]

Great British Railway Journeys

Portillo's jacket/shirt colourway today would nicely compliment my Adidas Malmo.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Great British Railway Journeys

Any self-respecting train 'n' trainers nerd would have put an umlaut over the 'O'.

[EIM]

Great British Railway Journeys

I didn't enjoy that one so much. Right up until the point hw did the show-boating shout-out for corduroy. Honestly. I reckon this show was made solely for me.

[Sean of the Shed]

Great British Railway Journeys

longeared wrote:
Not sure we needed to see Portillo in a Manchester United shirt mind you.

Got to be better than Mellor in a Chelsea one.

[Commodore]

Great British Railway Journeys

I saw my arse when Portillo filmed his closing shot on the first episode from Waterloo station (not THAT Waterloo station) which is on the other side of the Mersey from his Soapy/Tram Wirral adventure. Could he not have found a photogenic station on the Wirral line? It turned out he was on his way to Southport, where he started the next leg of his tour. I let him off.

And yes, such is the appeal of the programme that so many who watch say they do so 'in spite of Portillo' who was the devil spawn of Thatcher. When he lost his seat that night in 97 I cried with joy at what turned out to be the falsest dawn ever.

I still have his Western Highland odyssey on my digi-recorder (2nd series) and his latest Continental series was an absolute joy.

[longeared]

Great British Railway Journeys

This is back on Monday, and the first programme sounds awesome.

Joining the cracker packers of Carlisle on the factory floor, Michael Portillo really takes the biscuit as he investigates the Victorian appetite for the custard cream on his new journey through north west Britain.

[Guy Profumo]

Great British Railway Journeys

kevchenko wrote: He was more of a car man, I think. Used to call them "motor cars".

He also put an apostrophe in 'plane and 'phone. In texts.

Don't we all?

[Capybara]

Great British Railway Journeys

Guy Potger wrote:

He was more of a car man, I think. Used to call them "motor cars".

He also put an apostrophe in 'plane and 'phone. In texts.

Don't we all?

Of course.

[Sundeporino]

Great British Railway Journeys

I've 11hrs by train (Sydney-Melbourne) in a couple of days time. There's some very Portillo coloured clothing for sale around these parts but it'd never get worn at home so I'll pass.
Can't wait.

[Sundeporino]

Great British Railway Journeys

Saw my first Kangaroo two hours outside of Sydney and what looked like an African wild dog/hyena about 20 mins later. I didn't know they had them over here. It certainly wasn't like any of the dingos I've seen pics of.

[Sean of the Shed]

Great British Railway Journeys

Is anyone watching the new American series? Portillo is a complete pillock and looks really awkward doing some of the stuff on this (pretending to be Rocky, skipping down the Yellowbrick Road), but it's still entertaining. Some real interesting stuff.

[Capybara]

Great British Railway Journeys

Yep. Always interesting. But he seems to travel without any bags.

Anyway, in a previous series I actually felt quite sorry for him. I visited Hamburg last year so went to Miniatur Wunderland. Shortly after I arrived back they repeated the one where he made the same visit and allowed him to paint a figure of himself and fix it on the platform. By coincidence I'd taken a photo' of the same spot and on closer examination it was clear they had removed it. Which was a bit poor, I thought. Hard to feel sorry for the bloke but I did.

[elguapo4]

Great British Railway Journeys

Very entertaining show, portillo presented a programme on Rte about the British reaction to the 1916 rising, he's turned into a decent presenter and more importantly he's no longer screwing up people's lives in parliament