Great Canal Journeys - Llangollen Canal

Good morning, well I am done with Tony Robinson for right now.  He has a History of Britain Series, but I only have six more blogs to do for July before I do my annual suggested documentaries list for the upcoming school year.  There are way more episodes to that series than there are blog slots so I will save the History of Britain Series for some other time.  I am going to do a few episodes from the series Great Canal Journeys.  This is a series with Prunella Scales and Timothy West, both actors in Britain.  They love canals and take canal trips when they can.  The run time for this episode is 46:18.

Timothy West and Prunella Scales, husband and wife actors and canal lovers take tours around Britain on the variety of canals in the United Kingdom.  They have been married for over 50 years and Prunella is suffering from dementia.  Together, they travel the canals while Pru is able to.  They travel the Kennet & Avon, Rochdale, Llangollen, Oxford Canal, and others.  They highlight the splendid scenery of Britain and the history of each canal.

Timothy and Prunella visit the Llangollen Canal in North Wales.  Llangollen was where they spent their honeymoon, only this time they were traveling by canal boat to this destination.  They start in the town of Ellesmere and eventually cross into Wales.  They will travel the longest aqueduct in Britain and travel the Montgomery Canal.  They will also indulge one of Timothy’s other passions: steam trains.  They are hiring a canal boat for this journey.  They immediately start touring the boat to get familiar with it.  There are lots of canal boats in the area as it is a tourist destination.

Once they get settled in, Timothy and Pru are off on their canal journey.  Timothy narrates the start of the route and talks about the history of the canal.  Then Pru takes up the narration and talks about their courtship.  Eventually, the pair got married and had “two smashing boys.”  The pair come up onto the first set of locks for the Montgomery Canal.  This is their slight detour before heading up to Llangollen.  Timothy talks about how accidents have happened in the locks, so he has to keep a steady hand on the rudder while Pru works the locks.  Pru does a lot of hard work in this series!  She is such a spry woman.

After this trip down the Montgomery, they return to the Llangollen Canal.  However, they are detoured by Pru wishing to pick blackberries along the canal from the boat.  Pru remembers her childhood by picking blackberries.  She gets enough for a pudding.  The next day they wake up to poor weather which will make conditions a challenge for travel.  They head north, however, the weather is proving to be a challenge.  It is hard to keep a boat straight in high winds.  Captain Timothy has his first collision!  Eventually, the weather clears and the sun comes out at least for a short time.  The cows come out to greet Timothy and Pru.  They arrive at their last set of locks.  The wind is still proving to be a challenge and Timothy will have to call on all his experience to keep the boat under control.

The pair meet up with a canal historian and he joins them on their journey.  They talk about how the Canal became a World Heritage site and the history of the canal.  Eventually, the historian departs the boat, and Pru and Timothy continue along their way.  Where else do Pru and Timothy go?  Does Timothy manage to hit another boat?  Does the weather change?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

I am trying a different channel today for this documentary and this series is from the Absolute Documentary Series.   Both Timothy and Prunella are a rather cute little old couple, enjoying their golden years together doing what they love the most.  I feel like I need a Tony Robinson on a narrowboat and touring the Canals of Britain series now.  This was a delightful episode and it was rather lovely to see their reflections on their lives.  I would show this to a geography class, rather than a history class.