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
Wansford Tunnel Wansford Tunnel Wansford Tunnel is a railway tunnel on the preserved Nene Valley Railway in Cambridgeshire. The tunnel is situated to the south of the village of Wansford, but just to the west of Wansford railway station. It was on the Blisworth to Peterborough line opened in 1845 by the London and Birmingham Railway. The line originally was double track. Today, however only a single track runs for its full length, the other track being used only as a siding. The tunnel is 616 yards long (but has no ventilation shafts) making this the fourth longest tunnel on a UK