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
Wansford Tunnel Heritage Railway. Just to the west of the tunnel the NVR has opened a new station, Yarwell Junction railway station, which opened to the public in 2007. The hamlet of Sibson is on top of the tunnel. Wansford Tunnel Wansford Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the preserved Nene Valley Railway in Cambridgeshire. The tunnel is situated to the south of the village of Wansford, but just to the west of Wansford railway station. It was on the Blisworth to Peterborough line opened in 1845 by the London and Birmingham Railway. The line originally was double track. Today, however only