Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
24 January 2011
17:0990103Might be worth a watch - Thursday features Samphire Hoe, but all this week he is travelling around the Kent coast
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
24 January 2011
17:2990107I love this programme Scotchie, its probably the best thing on. Im now watching repeats although I must admit I nearly always miss it, but when I catch it I love the thing. Guess Im a sucker for trains. Would love to do a train journey like that.
Thanks for the tip re thursday..should be good.
Michael Portillo, former Tory Government Minister as we know, is an excellent television performer offering a degree of sophistication about his travels. Always good.
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
24 January 2011
18:0890108I love it too,not as a railwayman but as a visitor to different places,we were intrested in the recent show in Whitby because we are going there in the summer,plus the place we stayed in last year near Matlock he actually filmed from outside our apartment.
His dad was a railwayman I believe as well,will be watching it all week have 2 Counil meetings this week so will have to record it
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
24 January 2011
18:1790109Quite a shame it isn't more prime-time as I rarely get home to see it - isn't really much about the trains just some great places to visit !
Been nice knowing you :)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
24 January 2011
18:2390112i tend to miss it more than i see it, michael portillo comes across well in it.
much better than that awful double act he used to do with diane abbott.
Guest 641- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,335
25 January 2011
13:0890196All railway buffs please take note, the new 4 disc dvd collection of this great series is due for release Feb 7
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
28 January 2011
08:4190509Have been watching the programme most of the week. I enjoyed the one on wednesday which visited Canterbury and Whitstable. Ive never been to Whitstable and having seen it on this programme I am now keen to pay it a visit..not sure I'll be trying them whelks though!
Last night Michael Portillo came down this part of Kent. Hugely enjoyable. He alighted at all the local towns Sandwich, Deal, Walmer and Folkestone, but notably never alighted at Dover Priory. It showed him at the station but he opted not to get off the train saying it had been over visited by too many. But he went on then to Folkestone taking in Samphire Hoe and the Channel Tunnel. A great programme even though Dover was almost airbrushed out.
Here he is at Walmer Castle reading from his Bradshaw Guide...which has been his scripted guide throughout all programmes...
Michael Portillo himself is a total revelation, being one of the best new TV performers in this sort of programme for many a year.
Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,316
28 January 2011
10:1890513This is an excellent series, I can't wait for the DVD to come out. Michael Portillo (who this week has thankfully changed his trousers) is the ideal presenter for it. It has been slighted somewhat in the railway press about bad continuity with longshots of totally different trains to the one he was travelling on but what the hell, to some people a train is a train.
Digressing a little bit, you'll see why, another damn good programme last night was about Nicholas Winton who rescued children from the Nazis. Several shots were shown of children leaving Czechoslovakia by train, you then saw a shot of the tracks. It was a stockshot (from Metroland I believe) of London Underground 4 rail tracks!
Terry
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
28 January 2011
13:2490523i switched on when mr portillo was visiting a victorian grotto made up of shells, where was it?
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
28 January 2011
13:2790524Margate Howard near my Mother-in-laws,I don't go there either!
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
28 January 2011
17:0190539I think Margate was the night before, although I might be getting muddled. Last night a chunk of the programme featured a harbour Ive never seen, which was built for warships in WW1...did he say Richborough?? It seems to be hidden from view now. Dont think Ive ever heard that mentioned before.
But yes indeed an excellent programme and the DVD collection should be cracking. The whole programme urges me to get out and about and see more. I spend tooo much time in front of a computer aaargh!!
isnt train travel so civilised.
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
28 January 2011
17:3090543Yes Paul it was known as Richborough Port,Howard will know it is not far from the Nudist camp at Sandwich Bay,Vic did the welding there
,watch out for quicksand.
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
28 January 2011
17:3290544paulb,i think you will find that it was used in both world wars,the first world war it was used to ship artillary and rifle ammonition etc.the second world war parts of the mulberry harbour where construted there then transported to southamton by sea.it was all so a roman port.
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
28 January 2011
17:3790546Hi Brian that is right but of course this part of Richborough was a little way from the Roman port although it is all part of the River Stour/Wantsume, the joke about the Wantsume River as it divided Richborough from the main land is as it is no longer there it Wants some water!
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
28 January 2011
17:5190551Can't post any images here at the momen, but this is a link to some of my photos from a wander a few weeks ago
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doverpast/sets/72157625551474969/Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
28 January 2011
17:5290552Apparently the WW1 Linkspan found it's way to Harwich and was still in use up until a few years ago
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 697- Registered: 13 Apr 2010
- Posts: 622
28 January 2011
19:3290563Just about to watch tonight's edition! I agree, an excellent programme and a fascinating insight into how the development of the railways provide a social history of east Kent. Of course, we're now at the forefront of a new generation of rail travel with the UK's only high speed rail link. I hope that the politicians of the future will be making a similar programme in the decades to come to tell the story of how the high speed railway revived east Kent! We need to promote the high speed link as a key part of our regeneration.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
28 January 2011
20:2290578wasn't richborough where the romans went through customs when they first toured here?
known more for it's power station now, home to paintball.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
28 January 2011
20:2590582howard,what customs where they,nothing to horrible like todays bunch of w...........s i hope.
Guest 703- Registered: 30 Jul 2010
- Posts: 2,096
29 January 2011
01:0390613PaulB, be careful with your trip to Whitstable, when you see what they've got to offer you might not want to come back
.
If you want a pub lunch avoid the expensive places near the beach and try the Ship Centurion on the High Street, great real ale pub with a German twist and the landlord's a real character. And take a cool bag to bring back some fresh fish.
I agree with what Kevin says above, we've found the HS train is great for days out in London and onward travel north but it needs to be seen to be working the other way as well. It's weird to see a repeat of the arguments against that we had 20 years or so ago being repeated for the proposed link to Birmingham, at this rate we should have a decent rail system by about 2500.
