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
English Canal Year's Eve 1867 which marked the end of the project. In 1884-1888 a railway was built all the way between Gällivare and Luleå, the Iron Ore Line. Remains of the canal project can still be seen on several places in Norrbotten and Swedish Lapland, for example in Boden. These remains are sometimes called "Engelska graven", which is a play on the Swedish word "grav" which can mean both "ditch"/"trench" and "grave/"tomb". English Canal The English Canal () was a planned and partially completed canal project that would connect the Swedish iron ore fields around Kiruna and Gällivare with Luleå and