Comedy icon Alexei Sayle continues his series of rail journeys with a trip through Devon and Cornwall from Exeter to Newquay.

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 Finn who has swapped his job at Nandos for a life in the Royal Navy looking after helicopters; Andrew who is about to run up the Cornish coastal path to meet his girlfriend who is running down it the other way; Paula and James who share a love of music, especially in Paula’s case, the harpsichord; Julian who has just returned from being a volunteer crew member on an historic Brixham trawler; and Eta and Rowan who are both determined travellers and tell Alexei of a visit to Chernobyl - while Alexei surprises them with his own very unusual insight into the historic city of Petra in Jordan.

A Ride production for BBC Radio 4 Show less