Paul Merton's Secret Stations

Paul Merton’s Secret Stations is a British travel documentary television series, first broadcast on 1 May 2016 on Channel 4. Presented by Paul Merton, the series focuses on some of the little used stations in Great Britain which operate as request stops. Reviews were largely positive but not overly so, focussing on both the subject matter and Merton's contribution to argue how the series elevated itself above other series in the genre.

The series was one of a number of new commissions by More4 which focused on "traditional Britain" with series fronted by celebrities.

The series was inspired by travel writer Dixe Wills' 2014 book Tiny Stations, and Wills is interviewed in the first episode. The introduction to the series explains that the railway network of Great Britain has a total of 152 request stops, "tiny, out of the way stations", a relatively small total (around 6%) of the total number found on the network's 21,000 miles (34,000 km) of track. It argues that these are often the most overlooked stations in terms of travelogues, and so deserve to be visited to explore their secrets, many of which will be unknown as they are by definition, not on the tourist trail. Merton visits 17 stations (listed below), some of which are on the same line - and while most are in remote rural areas (by virtue of the fact that request stops are for little used stations), the series also includes some urban locations. During a visit, Merton covers both the history of the station, and of associated people or places.

As the first series ended, Dixe Wills writing in a piece for The Guardian said there were still more than enough interesting request stops to justify a second series, pointing to the examples of Bootle, Buckenham, Conwy, Dolgarrog, Dunrobin Castle, Llanfairpwll, Lympstone Commando, The Lakes and Penychain.

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