Steered by his Bradshaw’s 1913 Handbook of Indian, Foreign and Colonial Travel, Michael Portillo embarks on an epic railway journey from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh to Kolkata in West Bengal, charting a course through India’s history from the days of The East India Company to the dawn of Indian independence.

In Lucknow, famously besieged in 1857, Michael investigates a key moment in the Indian rebellion which sparked the end of the grip of the East India Company on the nation and the beginning of direct British rule.

A crash course in classical kathak dancing follows before Michael boards the sleeper train and, with his Bradshaw’s tucked under his pillow, he is borne 200 miles east to Ghazipur on the banks of the Ganges.

Continuing east on the river by boat, he hears the shady story of The East India Company’s opium monopoly and visits a modern-day factory where opium is used for pharmaceuticals. Show less