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Michael Portillo鈥檚 railway journey through north west England from Preston to Hebden Bridge reaches Greater Manchester, where Michael celebrates new beginnings for the nation in the years after the Second World War.

At Trafford General Hospital, he investigates the birth of the National Health Service. William Roache, star of the nation鈥檚 longest-running soap, Coronation Street, meets Michael to tell him about the first episode, broadcast in 1960.

At the city鈥檚 Science and Industry Museum, Michael encounters a fellow post-war 'Baby', a replica of the first computer in the world to run a stored programme and the forerunner of all modern computers. Close by at Manchester University, Michael is introduced to the latest supercomputer, a million times more powerful than Baby, the SpiNNaker machine.

The tram takes Michael east to New Islington, where he admires a fresh new look for an old textile mill.