Great American Railroad Journeys

Great American Railroad Journeys

Chicago, The Windy City (2x16)


: 13, 2017

Michael Portillo is blown away by the skyscrapers in Illinois's Windy City, where he discovers how modern Chicago's skyline replaced a largely wooden city, destroyed in a great fire shortly before his Appleton's Guide was published. Training with the city's firefighters, Michael learns today's fire department respond to half a million emergency calls a year. Michael steps up to the plate with the Joliet Slammers, stars of the US national game of baseball, then sings for his supper at a quintessentially American restaurant bearing his name! Downtown at the Moody Church, Michael tracks down a pair of evangelists who toured Britain and the United States by rail at the time of his Guide.

  • : 2016
  • : 75
  • : 6
  • BBC Two
  • 20