Painted Boats appreciates the gentle rhythm of traditional canal life, whereas Ted's ambition is to get off the canals and into mainstream life at the earliest opportunity. World War II intrudes when Ted is called up for military service, leaving the future for the pair uncertain. Location filming took place on the 20-mile stretch of the Grand Union Canal between Stoke Bruerne and Braunston in Northamptonshire, including the Blisworth Tunnel – at 1.75 miles (2.82 km) in length, the third-longest canal tunnel in Britain. Insert shots feature the industrial landscape of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, the famous Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire and
Blisworth Tunnel backs pushing the boats with their feet (legging). From 1871 steam tugs were used to pull boats through, and extra ventilation shafts were installed. Boaters wishing to avoid the extra cost involved in using the tugs could still leg their boats through, but by the 1930s motor boats (towing a butty boat) were common so the practice would have been unusual especially by the time the film Painted Boats was filmed there in 1944. Due to changes in the shape of the tunnel over time, the tunnel became unnavigable. There was major rebuilding of the tunnel in the 1980s, with