Great Canal Journeys
Great Canal Journeys is a TV show on SBS ONE. The program has been available since 2024. A total of 28 episodes have been broadcast, most recently in January 2025.
Last episode
47:01
47:01Great Canal Journeys
Over the past few years, national treasures Tim and Pru have been exploring waterways all over the world. This time, our pair of intrepid and self-confessed 'ancient mariners', head for South East Asia for an epic two-part voyage, on the canals and waterways of Vietnam and Cambo...
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46:47Tim and Pru embark on an epic adventure along one of the greatest achievements of British canal engineering. It's a world heritage site, and historically highly significant, yet very few people in this country have ever heard of the Rideau Canal.
46:51Tim and Pru return to the English canals to navigate the Lancaster Canal. An early masterpiece of the canal age, 'The Lanky', as it's affectionately known, wends its way north past through the City of Lancaster, hugging the coast at Morecambe Bay. It once went as far as Kendal on the edge of the Lake District.
46:58Tim and Pru embark on their first Latin American adventure and head for Argentina. The country's traditional image may be gauchos and the open plains of the pampas but a few miles from Buenos Aires lies a vast labyrinth of canals and rivers, that meander ever deeper into the jungle.
46:57Beginning on Britain's first purpose-built canal, the Bridgewater, Tim and Pru embark on a voyage through canal history, as they explore the waterways of North East England. Heading from the suburbs of Manchester to the great canal port at Ellesmere, along the way they'll discover how canals became the veins and arteries o...
46:13Tim and Pru embark on a voyage across Italy's largest lake and along Europe's oldest working canal, to the historic heart of Milan. Travelling from Lake Maggiore to the Navgili Grande Canal, they navigate a route taken by marble-carrying barges for over five centuries.
47:08Tim and Pru decide that they've had enough of kicking their heals at home in Wandsworth and head off to explore one of the world's great waterways, The River Nile.
Season 1
46:37
In their final voyage of the series, our two thespian boat lovers return to Wales to explore a canal that has eluded them for over half a century. Famously beautiful, the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal is cut off from the rest of Britain's waterway network by the Black Mountains. For Tim and Pru it's an undiscovered gem th...
46:37 46:53Tim and Pru head for the dramatic landscape of north-west Portugal to embark on a voyage down the Rio Douro. Following the old Port trade route from hilltop vineyards to seaport, this is a journey that combines two of their favourite things - waterways and wine.
46:45Tim and Pru say au revoir to Wandsworth and set off on their third adventure along the French canals - but this one looks rather different.
47:30After their adventures in India, Tim and Pru return to Britain to explore one of our most ancient waterways, the Norfolk Broads. Despite boating for over fifty years, this will be their first visit to the man-made wonder. Beginning in the picturesque village of Horning, Tim and Pru embark on a voyage through a picturesque ...
46:54This could be the most challenging voyage of Tim and Pru's lives. Leaving behind the safe confines of the canals, they head out into the unknown waters of the Brahmaputra river in the far north east of India. Unpredictable and wild, it's now rarely navigated, but in colonial times the river boasted a regular steam service ...
47:35National treasures Timothy West and Prunella Scales have been exploring canals for half a century - but now they embark on their most ambitious voyage ever - the waterways of India. Tim takes the helm to explore the extraordinary Kerala backwaters: a 1600 kilometre network of palm-fringed lakes, rivers banked by rice paddi...
Season 8 47:02
47:02 Expired
Sheila and Gyles explore the Cambridgeshire Fens. A flat land with big skies as far as the eye can see, it's a part of the country unlike any other. They'll visit the vicarage where a children's classic was written, make a pilgrimage to Ely Cathedral, before ending their journey in Cambridge to pay homage to early 20th cen... 46:52 Expired
Sheila and Gyles boat the beautiful Peak Forest Canal into Manchester. They will have a go at dry stone walling in the Peaks, discover the hatting history of Denton at a hand-made hat manufacturer, have a kick-about with a star of Manchester City Women's Team, ending their journey in Burnage, where Sheila will visit her la... 47:01 Expired
Sheila and Gyles journey the Grand Union and Stratford Canal, to Stratford upon Avon - where Sheila has performed at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and where Gyles used to live with his family. They will learn about brewing ale, traditionally the big industry in the area, and later brave the 150-metre-long Edstone Aqueduct,... 46:59 Expired
This episode sees Sheila and Gyles boating the Leeds-Liverpool canal across the beautiful West Lancashire Coastal Plain, from Wigan to Liverpool. They'll explore the two things that Wigan is most famous for - its pier and its pies, with Gyles going head-to-head with the World Pie-Eating Champion. They end their journey at ...Season 7 47:02
47:02 Expired
In their final trip of the series, Sheila and Gyles are boating the beautiful Staffordshire Worcestershire Canal. They begin by uncovering the history of Stourport, which only came into being after the canal was built there, which is unique for a British town. They will also explore the history of carpet manufacturing in K... 46:54 Expired
Sheila and Gyles journey along the tricky-to-navigate Caldon Canal, and Trent and Mersey Canal, as they go on a pilgrimage in the Potteries and the city of Stoke on Trent. They begin their journey at Cheddleton Flint Mill, built in 1253, to hear why flint was such an essential pottery ingredient. Gyles pays tribute to one ... 46:58 Expired
New presenters and best of friends, Sheila Hancock and Gyles Brandreth have lived in London all their lives - but they've never explored it by water. In this episode, they're journeying the Lee Navigation. It's an unsung hero of the canal world, for centuries bringing goods down through the East End to the London docks.