Top 5 canals on screen
Britain’s 3,000-mile network of navigable canals and rivers has featured in many movies and television shows over the years.
Channel 4’s long running ‘Great Canal Journeys’ with Timothy West and Prunella Scales is still enjoyed across the globe.
Other more recent television series that have put canals at the centre of the action, include: Robbie Cumming’s ‘Canal Boat Dairies’; and Channel 4’s ‘Narrow Escapes’.
To celebrate filming on the waterways, we’ve put together our top 5 canals on screen destinations:
1. Slow Horses
Based in London and starring Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden, this massive Apple TV drama series features a number of scenes filmed on the Regent’s Canal, at locations including Primrose Hill, Kings Cross and Haggerston. You can reach the Regent’s Canal at Little Venice on a two-week holiday from Aldermaston on the Kennet & Avon Canal in Berkshire.
2. Archie
Depicting the life of Hollywood’s legend Cary Grant, this ITV four-part drama features scenes filmed at the National Waterways Museum Ellesmere Port. The BBC’s Dodger series and the Tolkein movie also filmed there. You can reach Ellesmere Port on a four night break from Bunbury on the Shropshire Union Canal in Cheshire.
3. Peaky Blinders
The Birmingham Black Country Museum is the official home of the BBC’s epic gangster drama, the Peaky Blinders. Over the years, many scenes have been filmed at the 26-acre Museum, including new scenes that will appear in the Peaky Blinders movie, expected to be released in the autumn. You can reach the Birmingham Black Country Museum on a short break from Alvechurch on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal, near Bromsgrove.
4. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, which carries the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee in North Wales, features in Wallace & Gromit’s recent BAFTA award-winning Vengeance Most Fowl movie. You can reach this UNESCO World Heritage site on a short break from our bases on the Llangollen Canal at Trevor, Chirk and Blackwater Meadow.
5. The Day of the Jackal
This HBO blockbuster starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch, filmed some of its London scenes on the Regent’s Canal at Camden. The Regent’s Canal in Camden also features in Back to Black, the Amy Winehouse biopic and Apple TV’s series Trying, starring Rafe Spall and Sian Brooke. You can reach the Regent’s Canal at Little Venice on a two-week holiday from Aldermaston on the Kennet & Avon Canal in Berkshire.
