Author, actor and comedy icon, Alexei Sayle continues his travels across the country by rail.

Alexei’s mission is to break the golden rule of travelling by train and actually talk to his fellow passengers in a quest for conversations that reveal their lives, hopes, dreams and destinations. There’s humour, sadness and surprise as people talk about what is going on in their lives and, as Alexei passes through familiar towns and cities, he also tells stories and memories from his career and childhood.

Alexei has a lifelong "ticket to ride" in his DNA. His father was a railway guard and the Sayle family benefitted from free travel in the UK and across Europe. As a boy, Alexei and his family roamed far and wide from the family home in Anfield, Liverpool. At a time when most people thought an exciting trip by train was to Brighton or Blackpool, Alexei travelled thousands of miles to mysterious towns with unpronounceable names in far flung corners of the continent.

In each programme in the series, Alexei embarks on a rail journey, taking a chance on who he might meet and inviting them to have a conversation with him. In this episode, he travels from London to Holyhead and meets Alex who is an actor and musician on his way to perform in a musical in Llandudno, Elaine who has been to London to visit her two very eccentric aunts, Jessica, an organisational psychologist whose work involves helping people discover what they really want to do in life, and Stephany who has just celebrated her 20 year service award as a customer service assistant on the railway and tells Alexei of her meeting with two of her most famous customers - Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Producers Peter Lowe and Nick Symons
A Ride production for Radio 4 Show less