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
Cincinnati and Whitewater Canal Tunnel the portion of U.S. Route 50 that travels over the tunnel. Despite the efforts spent on building the Whitewater Canal, it was abandoned in 1856 after numerous floods had destroyed much of its length. This resulted in the abandonment of the canal tunnel, a period of stagnation that ended in 1863 when a railroad company began a twenty-five-year period of using it as an ordinary rail tunnel. Since the rail line ceased operation in 1888, the canal has become completely unusable, having silted up almost all the way to the ceiling. However, the tunnel has not been completely forgotten; the