From Ayr, Portillo admires the granite island of Ailsa Craig before getting to grips with the ancient sport of curling, with help from a Scottish world champion. Portillo discovers how derelict Victorian London is being rejuvenated, puts in a shift at a Cambridgeshire brick factory, and meets the immigrant community built from its bricks. The Yorkshire playwright and author Alan Bennett has enjoyed a long association with Morecambe and has often referred to the town in his work and writing. Griffon 470SAR) H-002 "The Hurley Flyer", which became operational on 23 December 2002, was housed in a temporary garage next to the Yacht Club until a permanent building could be designed and built. Morecambe's current library opened in 1967; it was designed by the office of the architect Roger Booth.

Next he travels to a smokehouse in Craster and learns how herrings are kippered; followed by a train journey to Dunbar to visit the birthplace of naturalist John Muir. He then detours inland to see the Ouse Valley Viaduct and the Clayton Tunnel on the London-to-Brighton line. This 1920 photograph of a party of four at Heysham Harbour about to travel (or may have just arrived) on the Duke of Rothesay has just come to our notice not having seen it before. A miniature steam train, one third the size of a conventional locomotive, conveys him from Romney Marsh to Dungeness. Portillo begins in the industrial town of Greenock from where he sets sail on the PS Waverley, the last seagoing paddle steamer in the world.The third journey takes Portillo along the Great Western Railway from Swindon to Penzance, nicknamed 'the holiday line'. Portillo takes the train to the top of Wales's highest peak, Mount Snowdon, witnesses the revival of Anglesey's sea salt industry, and discovers how the railways transformed the tiny port of Holyhead. Portillo discovers Britain's hidden micro-mines within the Forest of Dean, sees why the Victorians fell for the romantic ruins of Tintern Abbey and uncovers the railway engineering behind the industrial icon that is Newport Transporter Bridge.

Finally, he travels to Silkstone Common Station near Barnsley to visit Wortley Top Forge and learn about Thomas Andrews (metallurgist).Portillo starts off by taking a tram to Manchester Town Hall where Dr James Sumner tells him about John Dalton, the scientist who developed the Periodic Table and is shown a statue of Dalton, which is just inside the entrance. Portillo visits a station fit for royalty in Windsor, views the Maidenhead Railway Bridge an engineering triumph built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to span the River Thames at Maidenhead, and tries his hand at collecting the mail 'Victorian style' on a steam-powered travelling post office.