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
Sapperton Canal Tunnel workmanship, as it had to be closed for ten weeks after only a year, while repairs were carried out. It was superseded as the longest canal tunnel in England in 1811 by the Huddersfield Narrow Canal's Standedge Tunnel, which was long when built, later extended to to accommodate the adjacent railway tunnel, and remains the highest, longest and deepest canal tunnel in Britain - though, unlike Sapperton, Standedge can only accommodate . Strood Tunnel on the Thames and Medway Canal was also longer at when it opened in 1824, but was cut in two in 1830 by opening out a