A North Bridge

Passionate about trains, Michael Portillo continues to chart the great British romance with the railways in this phenomenally successful series. Armed with his copy of George Bradshaw's famous railway handbook, he retraces four journeys that were first documented in the Victorian guide, witnessing what's changed and discovering how our love of the railways began. Throughout, he makes stops at some of Britain's most beautiful cities and secluded villages, meeting extraordinary people and hearing how their lives have been shaped by the railways.

Towering over cities and landscapes, six unofficial national symbols need to have some work done. Watch as Big Ben, Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, the Santiago de Compostela, the Bund and the Taj Mahal are restored to their full splendour in Monumental Challenge. Whether loved, loathed, admired or criticized, these structures play a role in the imaginations of its country’s citizens and motivates travellers.

Jonathan Meades' shows are unlike anyone else's. They belong to a genre of their own. They are heavy entertainment. They combine topographical analysis with performance art, high seriousness with low comedy, visual trickery with hymns to the overlooked, polemical argument with scathing wit. They take you to places you'll never have been before - most of them located in the byways of Meades' imagination. They show how the world seems to him and they may even persuade you to look again…