Great Canal Journeys

I am watching it, but I'm wondering why Timothy is leaving Prunella to do the locks.
I know she has some health problems, and did they always do it this way.
The amount of years they have been on the canals she should be able to take the boat into the lock.

I get the feeling that she wants to prove that she can carry on as normal, trying to ignore the fact that she is not as she was. They have also bashed the boat into the side a couple of times. Despite this, I am finding it rather lovely and soothing

I've been watching this too. The last episode left me thinking perhaps they should swap posts. Tim had a patch of problems with steering. Enjoyable and relaxing to watch.

I am really enjoying it too.

It is informative, good camera work and a joy to see the English countryside at it,s best.

They do seem to be a lovely, well suited couple don't they. They genuinely appear to relish meeting people and no doubt enjoying finding out the history of the canal and locks this series is affording them.

It is the warmth Tim shows to her and the acceptance by them both of her dementia that is so wonderful. I must admit she is ruddy fit isn't she. I would be on the boat with a cup of tea telling somebody else, left a bit, right a bit.

A good series all round.

Just a quickie.

Wasn't the Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow a bit scarey. . 3.5 miles long. A 3 hour journey in the dark. I wouldn't have enjoyed that.

POGS Yes it looked scarey to me too. I worried about those two trying to
navigate along it! And yes, I said to DH 'blimey she's got a nice figure'.

She doesn't like steering so it's her choice to do the locks although they seem to be getting the better of her these days. I wish TW wouldn't keep going on about dear Pru's dementia - it sounds rather condescending to me.

The tunnel was frightening! I would have been scared of getting half way and having a panic attack.

POGS, Katy and Penguin We went through the Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow in 2011.
You have to have an escort - a group of volunteers take it in turns.
Somebody comes on your boat but they don't actually steer - they just stand there, saying things like 'Right-hand bend coming up' and 'Left hand down a bit'
It took us well over two hours, during which time I sat in the cabin doing my knitting, while MrA was on the stern, getting dripped on by all the condensation.
You have to book in advance and although there is no charge, most people give the volunteer a generous donation to their beer money.
You get a certificate as well

You are braver than me jane I could not do it. Good to hear you have a certificate.

Sorry, nothing to do with canals About 15 years ago, I was returning to the UK from visiting my parents, and at our local station in France- which is definitely NOT a touristy area (well, it is becoming one NOW, but certainly NOT then)- waiting for the TGV fast train to Paris at 7am - it was just me and a family with 2 older teenagers. And then I heard her voice- it was Sybil! I turned round and there she was, Prunella Scales, with Timothy West and their kids. I was dying to syy something- but they seemed so happy and natural, and so pleased to be somewhere nobody had a clue who they were- that I buttoned it and just smiled.

I bumped into him twice in Leicester centre, as he often played at the Haymarket theatre in its hayday.

And of course- if you are going to do a great canal journey, you'll have have to do the Foxton Locks one day. I would have loved to see the steam inclined plane in action.

mollie - I kept wishing Tim wouldn't keep on about her dementia as well. Granjura - DH and I saw them in the cafe at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford a few years ago. They were sitting reading the papers over a coffee. I was dying to say something too but it would have been rude.

Yes granjura re Foxton Locks.
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt

Jane.

I would have been all right then, giving out my orders.

Blimey, rather you than me. What an experience.

I think when Tim said his mind couldn't help thinking of all the men who had died building the tunnel and Pru said it felt like she was journeying into the Underworld and then further along said she thought she had died and it was the After Life summed it up.

Imagine having a panic attack in there.

Yes POGS. The Industrial Revolution - who knows how many lives it has claimed, not only in the construction of the canals and railways, and mining disasters, but also the side effects of working in the factories and mills.