Great British Railway Journeys Season 14 Episode 13

Long Itchington to Moseley

Michael Portillo’s railway journey reaches the heart of the Warwickshire countryside, where work is underway on a section of the biggest project of new railway infrastructure in Britain for a hundred years: HS2. In the Tudor town of Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare, Michael visits the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, home since 1961 to the Royal Shakespeare Company. In Birmingham, Michael recalls the redevelopment of the whole city centre during the 1960s and the arrival of black and Asian communities in areas where he once tried to enter parliament. In the Prince of Wales pub in Handsworth, he investigates the fusion of Asian and British cultural influences which produced modern Bhangra music. Michael finishes this leg of his railway journey in the leafy suburb of Moseley, where in order to combat the housing shortage after the Second World War, prefabricated houses were put up - and, in some cases, remain to this day.