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Michael Portillo’s rail exploration of the spectacular countryside of the Weald in Surrey, Sussex and Kent continues - this time, aboard the Gatwick Express train, which connects the busy airport in the south east of England with the capital, London. Michael is amused to learn the name of the airport derives from the Old English for ‘goat farm’, and that the first railway station to serve the area was built in 1891 to transport people to a racecourse. A £250m overhaul of the airport railway station was completed in 2023 and has doubled space for its 21 million passengers annually.

The next stop is one of Britain’s most popular heritage railways - the Bluebell Line, which runs through the Sussex Weald for 11 miles between East Grinstead and Sheffield Park. Michael rides on the footplate of a 1957 locomotive and meets the dedicated team of staff and volunteers, who keep the beautiful carriages in tip-top condition. From the spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells in the High Weald, Michael heads for Buckhurst Park, seat of the Sackville family, to meet the Earl and Countess De La Warr and their impressive herd of pedigree Sussex cattle.