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
Greywell Tunnel and so avoid the possibility of closure under the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1888. Harmsworth, the last trader working on the canal, bought the canal in 1923, but only the lower section up to Woking was used. The tunnel was finally closed when part of the roof collapsed in 1932, after which the canal to the west, including Basingstoke Wharf, was sold. It was still possible for canoeists to get through the tunnel until the late 1950s, but the blockage is now total. The tunnel is of interest for its bat populations: it has more roosting bats than any