Comedy icon Alexei Sayle continues his series of rail journeys across the country with a trip from Birmingham to Stansted Airport

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 with strangers that will reveal their lives, hopes, dreams and destinations.

Along the way, Alexei holds a finger into the wind of the thoughts and moods of the great British travelling public. There’s humour, sadness and surprise as people reveal what is going on in their lives and, as Alexei passes through familiar towns and cities, he also delves into his own personal stories of a childhood in Liverpool and a long career as a comedian, actor and author.

Alexei has a life-long ticket to ride in his DNA, as his father was a railway guard. As a child, Alexei travelled on trains with his mum and dad, not only in the UK but also abroad. While other children in Liverpool at the time thought a trip to Blackpool was a big adventure, Alexei travelled to Paris, experienced the Orient Express, had summer holidays in Czechoslovakia and visited mysterious cities with unpronounceable names in the farthest corners of Europe.

In this programme, Alexei meets Adam, a student at Cambridge on his way back to college with his mum Helen. Adam introduces Alexei to the mysterious world of competitive Pokemon. Among his many fellow travellers, Alexei also meets Holly who lives in Bali and is dedicated to studying and saving sharks; Megan, who was born in Arizona and is on her way to her first ever key note speech at the prestigious Sainsbury Laboratory in Cambridge and Katrin and Klara who have been on holiday in the UK, are flying home to Germany from Stansted, and are great fans of English humour. Show less