Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railways

Chris heads to the Arctic to explore a railway which probably should never have been built, the Alaska Railroad. Constructed when the USA's largest state was barely populated, Chris wants to find out how and why it has become such a success.

From Buenos Aires, Chris heads to the Pampas lowlands, where he talks to local gauchos. In Bahia Blanca, four Falklands veterans share their opinion of Britain, before Chris takes in South America's beautiful Patagonia region.

Chris travels 1500 miles from Cape Town in South Africa across Botswana to the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, following the route of a mind-bogglingly ambitious railway pioneered by controversial 19th century British Colonialist, Cecil Rhodes.

Chris travels on the historically Soviet Trans-Caucasus Railway, beginning in the Azerbaijani city of Baku before exploring the Geogian capital Tbilisi's vintage metro system, then a mountain rail bridge designed by Eiffel, and finally a tunnel reputed to be held together with egg yolk.

In this special Christmas edition of his train-based travelogue series, Chris Tarrant heads across Scandinavia on an epic journey from the beautiful southern fjords to Europe's most northerly passenger station at Narvik, where British warships won a famous victory during the Second World War, whi...