Episode 1
Michael Portillo mounts a valiant defence against fierce latter-day Roman gladiators in Pula's amphitheatre as he begins a journey across the Balkan countries of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Episode 2
Ably assisted by Lila, an expert labrador, Michael Portillo hunts for truffles in the Istrian countryside near the hilltop town of Buzet.
Episode 3
Michael Portillo’s railway adventure reaches the Dalmatian coastal city of Zadar, once an important Venetian trading hub and still a centre for the production of Maraschino cherry liqueur.
Episode 4
In Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia, Michael Portillo traces the fateful last journey in 1914 of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie.
Episode 5
Michael Portillo enjoys a journey on the historic line from Sarajevo to Mostar, descending 600 metres through the Dinaric Alps, reflecting on the divisions which tour apart the old Yugoslavia.
Episode 6
Michael Portillo embarks on a Scandinavian railway adventure from the Norwegian port of Bergen to the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
Episode 7
Michael Portillo’s rail journey continues on the Bergen Line, heading towards the Norwegian capital of Oslo, with its fine modernist architecture and 19th-century parliament building.
Episode 8
Michael’s saga resumes in Larvik on Norway’s southern coast, where he investigates the city’s prized natural resource, a distinctive blue rock named larvikite.
Episode 9
Michael Portillo’s Scandinavian rail adventure reaches Denmark’s second city, Aarhus, an architectural playground with dazzling contemporary buildings set alongside historic half-timbered houses.
Episode 10
Michael Portillo concludes his epic rail journey across Norway and Denmark, crossing an 18-kilometre box girder bridge between the islands of Funen and Zealand, known as the Great Belt Bridge.
