Great British Railway Journeys is a 2010–present BBC documentary series presented by Michael Portillo, a former Conservative MP and Cabinet Minister who was instrumental in saving the Settle to Carlisle line from closure in 1989.

Victorian guidebooks written by George Bradshaw under the title Bradshaw's Guide were the first comprehensive timetable and travel guides to the railway system in Great Britain, which at the time, although it had grown to be extensive, still consisted of several fragmented and competing railway companies and lines, each publishing their own timetables.

Filmed entirely on location, the series features a mix of Portillo speaking directly to camera and interviewing members of the public, local historians and celebrities and fellow travellers.

In these episodes, Portillo travels along the route of the Great Eastern Line, which goes from the east coast of England to the centre of the country's financial capital, London.

Following in the footsteps of Queen Victoria, Portillo uses the railways she often rode from Windsor Castle to her country getaway on the Isle of Wight.

The fourth part of the series sees Portillo follow in the footsteps of the master engineer of the Great Western Railway, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, beginning at the line's London gateway, Paddington station, and ending in Newton Abbot, Devon – the scene of one of Brunel's heroic failures.

All this week, Portillo visits the Republic of Ireland, travelling from the rugged beauty of County Kerry, across the rural Irish Midlands, to end in the city of Galway on the Atlantic coast.

Great British Railway Journeys, written by Charlie Bunce with a foreword by Michael Portillo, was published by Collins in January 2011.

[13] Great Victorian Railway Journeys, written by Karen Farrington with a foreword by Michael Portillo, was published by Collins in January 2012.