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
Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal Tividale Aqueduct. The northern mouth of the tunnel is near Dudley Road West, close to Tipton's border with Oldbury. An air-vent stands in the middle of Aston Road; another stands between two houses in Regent Road, both in the Tividale Hall estate near Dudley. The southern mouth of the tunnel is in Warrens Hall Park on the border of Dudley and Rowley Regis - the Bumble Hole and Cobb's Engine House are nearby. The Bumble Hole is a landscaped man made lake on the site of a former clay pit. The Dudley No. 2 Canal and the Boshboil Canal Arm