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
Indigo Tunnel of the parallel Baltimore and Ohio railroad line on the opposite side of the Potomac River. The tunnel was acquired by the National Park Service in 1980 and became part of Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. The Park Service has identified bat colonies living in the tunnel and has closed the tunnel to the public in order to protect the colonies. Indigo Tunnel Indigo Tunnel is an abandoned railroad tunnel in Allegany County, Maryland, located about east of Little Orleans. Built by the Western Maryland Railway (WM) in 1904, Indigo was the company's longest tunnel. It was part