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 with wing walls. Upon completion, the tunnel was long, and there was between the ceiling and the underwater bottom of the canal. Unusually, the tunnel included room for a towpath instead of requiring the use of leggers, but the typical canal boat nevertheless relied on manpower while allowing the beasts of burden to climb the hill. As the state's first tunnel of its type, the Cincinnati and Whitewater Canal Tunnel has suffered two separate collapse incidents. The first occurred during the construction process, and six workmen died, while another segment caved in during the 1950s during a project to improve