Australian Politics Forum - Michael Portillo's rail journeys

bogarde73

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Michael Portillo's rail journeys
Mar 22^nd, 2017 at 5:15pm

I have become an addict of these, which SBS has carried for quite a while.
Clutching his Bradshaw's Guides, he has covered Europe & the UK extensively as well as some of the US.
It's strange to see someone who could easily have been a UK PM doing a show like this but he does it well.

Before this, I was only aware of Bradshaw's through the books of EM Forster

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Yadda Gold Member Offline Posts: 20979 A cat with a view	Re: Michael Portillo's rail journeys Reply #1 - Mar 22^nd, 2017 at 5:41pm Michael Portillo's rail journeys......on SBS Yes, i don't catch every program, but they are compelling to watch, if you begin to watch one.
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Frank Gold Member Online Australian Politics Posts: 40670 Gender:	Re: Michael Portillo's rail journeys Reply #2 - Mar 22^nd, 2017 at 5:42pm Love it.
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Wolseley

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Re: Michael Portillo's rail journeys
Reply #3 - Mar 25^th, 2017 at 9:28pm

I missed the early episodes but I have, with one exception, seen all that have been aired since I noticed it was on SBS.

I did see some (but regrettably not all) of his Continental series and I must say that I find the British ones much more interesting - I would watch one of the Continental ones if I wasn't doing anything much and there was nothing else either of us wanted to watch, however I arrange my Thursday and Friday evenings so that I can watch Great British Railway Journeys.

I had heard, and even read Bradshaw well before this series aired. I had copies I bought about 40 years ago (they were reprints published in the 1970s) of both Bradshaw's Guide and of Bradshaw's 1938 Timetables of British Railways. Unfortunately I gave them away a few years ago with a lot of other books when I was decluttering my portion of the house contents. They would have been interesting to keep by me when watching the series.

As I have an interest in railways (I was a member of the Australian Railway Historical Society from 1970 until the mid 1990s), in British history and geography, and have been known to wear rather bright colours at times, what is there not to like about Great British Railway Journeys?

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bogarde73

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Re: Michael Portillo's rail journeys
Reply #4 - Mar 26^th, 2017 at 10:39am

A trainspotter eh?

I might be reading something more in it than is factual, but I get the impression that Portillo is pretty well known & popular wherever he goes, in the UK and in Europe. Probably not so much in the US, where they like an expletive every three seconds.
So I'm deducing that these programs have been widely shown through Europe. After all they are a dead easy subject for subtitles.

I do hope he gets to do more of the US, with their vast rail distances, and also maybe Vladimir would let him do Russia.

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issuevoter Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 9200 The Great State of Mind Gender:	Re: Michael Portillo's rail journeys Reply #5 - Mar 26^th, 2017 at 1:02pm When I was a kid, the adults would say don't lean out the carriage window, you'll get cinders in your eyes. Of course we didn't listen, we leaned out the windows and . . . got cinders in our eyes.
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bogarde73 Gold Member Offline Anti-Global & Contra Mundum Posts: 18443 Gender:	Re: Michael Portillo's rail journeys Reply #6 - Mar 26^th, 2017 at 5:41pm Smuts...not the general.
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Wolseley Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 1453 Sydney Gender:	Re: Michael Portillo's rail journeys Reply #7 - Mar 26^th, 2017 at 8:33pm bogarde73 wrote on Mar 26^th, 2017 at 10:39am: I get the impression that Portillo is pretty well known & popular wherever he goes, in the UK and in Europe. Probably not so much in the US, where they like an expletive every three seconds. Maybe they should have got Gordon Ramsay to do the US series then.
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bogarde73 Gold Member Offline Anti-Global & Contra Mundum Posts: 18443 Gender:	Re: Michael Portillo's rail journeys Reply #8 - Apr 5^th, 2017 at 5:30pm Did you notice the automated port of Rotterdam? Not a human in sight. The future is here already.
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bogarde73 Gold Member Offline Anti-Global & Contra Mundum Posts: 18443 Gender:	Re: Michael Portillo's rail journeys Reply #9 - May 17^th, 2017 at 10:15am I suspect they are starting to repeat these.
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