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
Grand Junction Canal at the rate of two guineas (£2/2s or two pounds and ten pence in decimalised currency) per day plus half a guinea (10s/6d or decimal £0.525) expenses. At the north end, there were problems with the construction of Blisworth Tunnel: quicksand was encountered, and errors made in alignment which meant that the tunnel had a pronounced wiggle. With the opening of Braunston Tunnel, the line was open from the Oxford Canal through to Weedon Bec in June 1796. However, Blisworth Tunnel continued to cause problems, collapsing in January 1796. The canal was opened from Braunston to Blisworth in 1797. The