Great Coastal Railway Journeys: Newcastle to Lynemouth (BBC Four Tuesday 29 August 2023)

Great Coastal Railway Journeys: Newcastle to Lynemouth airs Tuesday 29 August 2023 on BBC Four.

What is this episode about

Michael Portillo’s rail trip through England’s northeast continues. Michael, on his way north from Newcastle, stops by Ouseburn, one of the city’s hippest neighbourhoods, and is fascinated to learn about its role in the city’s early industrialization.

Michael must pass through the massive Northumberland coalfield on his way to his destination. The vast Northumberlandia, also known as the Lady of the North, is an extraordinary work of landform art he visits when he alights at Cramlington.

The next stop is at Blyth, which was once a coal port. Michael listens to a lively sea shanty on the old quayside and learns that a local hero, Captain William Smith, discovered Antarctica in 1819. Michael encounters a group of young people who have been motivated by the captain’s story to work with the Blyth Tall Ships Charity to restore a Scottish Herring drifter called a Zulu.

Michael is on the trail of a defunct railway in Bedlington; passenger service on this line ended in 1964 after the Beeching Report forced its closure. But the coastal 18-mile Blyth and Tyne Railway is on the rise again, with test trains already running.

Once using coal, Lynemouth Power Station has since shifted to using biomass in its electricity generation. Michael climbs aboard a wood pellet-laden, half-kilometer-long freight train en route to the power plant. In Lynemouth, he meets the train driver and the fuel manager, who tell him how the coal industry’s decline has affected their daily lives and the region they live in, and how the rail industry is helping to reduce carbon emissions.

Series 1 Episode 12 of 25

When can we see the episode

Great Coastal Railway Journeys: Newcastle to Lynemouth airs Tuesday 29 August 2023 at 10.00pm on BBC Four

Featured Image Credit: BBC Four