Paul’s journey around Britain begins in the Highlands, travelling on the stunning Kyle Line to the request stop of Attadale. Here he meets Joanna and Alec Macpherson, who’ve recently moved from Peckham to Attadale to take the reins of a vast 30,000-acre estate at the shore of Loch Carron. While he’s there he gets stuck in with the local salmon breeding programme. Paul’s next two request stops are on the Cumbrian Coast Line. At Drigg, he manages to get past the barbed wire to access to a low-level nuclear waste repository, discovering what happens to the UK’s radioactive waste. And at Silecroft, he dons his running gear, and impresses the local fell runners on an evening training session. At Ferryside in Pembrokeshire, Paul meets fellow request stop enthusiast Dixe Wills, before fulfilling a childhood dream when he’s allowed in to the station’s manual signal box to learn the skills of the signalman. At his final stop, the wonderfully-named St Keyne Wishing Well Halt in Cornwall, Paul finds magic and mystery at a wishing well that, according to legend, determines the power balance between a husband and wife.
Paul explores the new lives and rejuvenation around Britain’s request stops. His first journey is on the glorious West Highland Line, getting off at the request stop of Beasdale. It was here, during the Second World War, that ordinary people would come to be trained in espionage by the Special Operations Executive – ready to be dropped behind enemy lines. He visits Arisaig House, the secret headquarters of the SOE and discovers evidence of what went on there. At St Andrews Road, Paul discovers a request stop which is far from remote. It’s just outside the centre of Bristol and totally industrial. Where once it served the docks and a massive smelting works, it’s now home to a supermarket distribution centre. Paul clocks in for a shift, and is baffled by the computer which runs the place. At his final stop, Pontarddulais, Paul sees how a former mining town has reinvented itself – it’s now known as ‘the wedding village’ – with a high street full of bridal shops. He helps a young bride pick out her perfect dress, and has the chance to sing with the local male voice choir – the most successful choir in Wales.
The comedian searches for the hidden remains of china clay mines in Luxulyan, Cornwall, and visits a training site for trench warfare on the Pembrokeshire coast. He also discovers a Manchester station that only gets one train a week, and makes a final trip on the West Highland Line to a stop that is 10 miles from the nearest road. Last in the series.
