Michael Portillo continues his Bradshaw’s-inspired journey through East Anglia, where he discovers the Essex origins of the BBC, joins the Women’s Land Army to pick damsons at Tiptree, and visits homes fit for heroes in Becontree.

He begins close to Colchester at Abberton Reservoir, a man-made thousand-acre body of freshwater, begun in the year of his guidebook, 1936. He discovers how it was protected during the Second World War by hundreds of mines. It’s now an important wetland habitat for ducks, swans and water birds, and Michael spots a marsh harrier.

In the village of Tiptree, Michael finds out how, as war loomed once again and men were called up to fight, women stepped up to take their places on the farm as part of a revived Women’s Land Army.

From Chelmsford, Michael heads for the chocolate box village of Writtle, where he is surprised to discover Britain’s first regular scheduled radio broadcasting station in a tiny hut. Michael is intrigued by the technology of 1919.

Next stop is Chadwell Heath in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham. A massive building programme after the First World War resulted in what was, at the time, the largest municipal housing estate in the world. Michael learns about the estate from residents past and present. Show less