Michael Portillo reaches England’s south coast to continue his exploration of postwar Britain. He begins in Dorset on the Swanage Railway, riding a glorious 1940s steam locomotive on the trail of one of Britain’s most popular children’s authors, Enid Blyton.

In Poole, Michael discovers an icon of the Swinging Sixties – the lava lamp, invented in the town by an eccentric accountant. At Romsey, Michael heads to the magnificent Broadlands Estate, once home of Louis Mountbatten, first Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

Michael’s last stop on this leg of the journey is Portchester, on the northern edge of Portsmouth Harbour, where he visits a factory manufacturing a marine craft pioneered in the 1950s – the hovercraft. Show less