Great Coastal Railway Journeys

I was born in England, although I have lived in South Africa since I was a kid. However, I have always felt that my umbilical cord was never cut when I was born, and no matter how long I have lived in South Africa, so much of me remains in the UK.

Michael Portillo does an absolutely wonderful job of drawing me into his journeys, sharing information and imparting knowledge, and the scenery of the old country leaves me enthralled and, if truth be told, rather emotional.

I have watched most of Michael Portillo's railway documentaries, and the quality never drops. He is so enthusiastic, which ups the level of enjoyment a good few notches. A travel documentary out of the very top drawer.

From the title I thought this show would cover railways all over the British Isles coast. Sadly seems the host Michael Portillo greatest interest mostly in Scotland. OK Michael you are proud of your Scottish heritage, but that is no excuse to short change the rest of the UK. After all it is not a given this show will be renewed for a season 2 so one would have thought that he would have given a balanced coverage all over even it meant leaving some lines uncovered for a second season if there is one !

So, having already read the reviews on here and being familiar with other similiar shows from the UK - all of which are of poor quality, I decided to give this a watch out of boredom.

Wow. How low standards have slipped. This is absolutely atrocious codswallop.

Let's start with the title, "Great Coastal Rail Journeys". It gives the impression we are seeing some stunning rail routes from around the world, right? Wrong. This is strictly focused on Britain. So, perhaps a name change would be first in order.

Secondly, the content. The episode I watched was Liverpool to Blackpool - hardly a great distance by any stretch of the imagination. So, what did we get? A history of the rail line perhaps? Some views of the journey? Even a map? Oh no. Why bother with anything like that.

It started in Liverpool, where we got very brief shots of the Albert Dock followed by a talk on the slave trade. This takes up the first nine minutes of a 28-minute show before we are shown a very brief glimpse of a metro line. A metro line which looks completely unremarkable compared to hundreds of others around the world.

The metro takes a brief journey to Birkenhead and we are given about 5 seconds worth of footage from the metro before we are treated to a German U-boat from World War 2 and some incoherent ramblings about WWII which dragged on for 6 minutes. Then, we are mysteriously teleported back into Liverpool city centre where we get another couple of minutes on Liverpool's Chinatown district.

Eventually, we see another train, this time going to Crosby, to the north of the city. Again, footage of the train is limited to around 10 seconds and no details are given. What we do get is some sculptures in the sand, a guesthouse and a skype interview with the sculptor, which drag on for another 6 minutes.

Finally, it's off to Blackpool. Slightly more footage of the train for this one, perhaps around 15 seconds. Again, no details or history is given. We are now 23 minutes in and it's back to banging on about the second World War, cleverly disguised with some vintage photography and the interior of the Winter Gardens. Perhaps for me the most outrageous part of the show followed, with Michael Portillo claiming England "stood alone" in WWII. Seriously??!! I guess the French, Dutch, Russians, Americans and everyone else would be absolutely thrilled to hear this piece of BBC historical revisionism.

So, if you want to watch this because you may be interested in railways or would like to see some stunning shots along a particular rail route, then don't bother because you will not find them.

I feel sorry for the British tax payers who are forced to fund the creation of such jingoistic nonsensical productions.

Portillo has been making these programmes for years but the quality shows no sign of dipping. It remains much the same but now the Bradshaw has gone to give a fresh dimension. He has a genuine passion for gaining knowledge, understanding history and meeting people, having a natural interaction even with people from a different background or political opinion. He is intelligent, respectful, well mannered and conducts himself with dignity and integrity.

The researchers are the real unsung heroes, they do a great job, the show is always interesting and entertaining, maintaining an element of surprise. I continue to learn so much more about my own country from a programme which is supposedly just early evening light entertainment.

With hardly any railway journeys, the title seems tenuous to say the least. In content, seemingly more concerned with wind farms, whales, CND, climate change and LGBT+ and other metropolitan concerns, it seems to have morphed patronisingly into another Countryfile.