Coastal Devon & Cornwall with Michael Portillo

The presenter explores the rugged North Cornish coast, beginning in Widemouth Bay, a gigantic stretch of coastline with ancient links to the Celtic nations of Wales and Brittany. Battling a storm blowing in from the Atlantic, Michael heads south and takes shelter in a magical and ancient woodland, before spending the night at the vicarage where novelist Thomas Hardy stayed in 1870, and penned a poem named after a local landmark, Beeny Cliff.

Michael heads for his final stretch in Cornwall, and takes in a coastline of hidden coves, a stunning sub-tropical garden and smugglers creeks, immortalised by Daphne du Maurier in her novel Frenchmans Creek. Beginning at the working fishing village of Coverack, he detours inland to visit a family-run dairy farm that produces clotted cream and more than 40 flavours of ice cream from milk produced by their Jersey cows.

This final part of Michaels adventure begins on Hopes Nose, a unique headland outside Torquay on the English Rivera, where Michael embraces as many experiences as he can along a coastline formed 280 million years ago, where limestone cliffs give way to eroding sandstone slopes. From exploring prehistoric caves by paddle board to digging for red clay on the Teign estuary, and racing a historic Cornish rowing boat, Michael is determined to capture as many coastal memories as he can, before returning to his urban life in London.