Michael Portillo explores the postwar Britain of his youth on a railway journey from the Midlands to the West Country, beginning in the city of Derby.

In Coventry, Michael recalls the destruction by the Luftwaffe of the city’s Gothic cathedral in November 1940, before heading to Leamington Spa to visit the Guide Dogs for the Blind National Centre.

Michael Portillo’s railway journey reaches the heart of the Warwickshire countryside, where work is underway the biggest project of new railway infrastructure in Britain for a hundred years: HS2.

At the African and Caribbean Heritage Centre in Wolverhampton, Michael finds out about the impact of Enoch Powell's 1968 speech on immigration in Wolverhampton and across the nation.

Michael visits the fairy-tale castle of Eastnor at the foot of the Malvern Hills, before heading to the Severn Estuary and Filton, the centre of Britain's postwar aviation industry.