Great British Railway Journeys

Michael Portillo explores the east of England in the inter-war period, starting in Canterbury, Kent, where he treads the boards as he uncovers the political message behind a 1936 play, inspired by the 12th-century murder of Archbishop Thomas a Becket. In Maidstone, he learns of the international origins of the most British symbol of remembrance. Outside Sevenoaks, Michael visits the country home of Winston Churchill, and discovers how the 1930s were wilderness years at Chartwell, as Churchill warned against Nazi appeasement. Once in the capital, he heads to Alexandra Palace, the birthplace of television