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Comedy icon Alexei Sayle continues his rail journeys across the country with a trip from London to the ancient cathedral city of Hereford.

Alexei’s mission is to break the golden rule of travelling by train and actually talk to his fellow passengers, in a quest for conversations with strangers that will reveal their lives, thoughts, dreams and destinations.

Along the way, Alexei holds a finger into the wind of the interests of the great British travelling public. There’s hilarity, humour, sadness and surprise as people reveal what is going on in their lives and, as Alexei passes through familiar towns and cities, he also delves into his own personal stories of a childhood in Liverpool and a long career as a comedian, actor and author.

Alexei has a life-long ticket to ride in his DNA, as his father was a railway guard. As a child, Alexei travelled on trains with his mum and dad, not only in the UK but also abroad. While other children in Liverpool at the time thought a trip to Blackpool was a big adventure, Alexei travelled to Paris, experienced the Orient Express, had summer holidays in Czechoslovakia and visited mysterious cities with unpronounceable names in the farthest corners of Europe.

In this programme, Alexei by chance bumps into his old friend, comedian and author David Baddiel who is off to the Hay Festival. He also meets: Deborah and David who are psychologists from San Antonio in Texas on a walking holiday; Stewart, who teaches computer science in a London school and is on his way to a tech festival; Kashmini and Lara, who met on the internet and decided to meet up in real life; ‘Collie’ from Australia who travels the world under the alias Collie – short for ‘Cauliflower’ – the name he is known by on Twitter; author James who has become something of an expert on fermented food and is travelling with a very large and slightly smelly container of Kimchi; and Angela and her mother Kathleen who surprises Alexei with her stories of life on the road with her Harley Davidson motorcycle.

A Ride production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4