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Cromer to Cambridge.
Michael Portillo fast tracks to the early 20th century to embark on a new series of railway journeys through Edwardian Britain. His "new" guide book, published over a hundred years ago, unlocks Britain's railways at their zenith, when some 20,000 miles of track reached into every corner of the country. His first journey follows in the footsteps of the new monarch for the new century, King Edward VII, from the grand estates of Norfolk to a bivouac on Brownsea Island. Michael takes a pot shot at the sport of kings at a country estate, where the king dallied with his mistress. He learns the ropes aboard an Edwardian wherry on the Norfolk Broads and joins variety performers to tap dance on Cromer Pier. In Cambridge, he investigates the student days of the young Prince of Wales and the novelist EM Forster.