Great Canal Journeys TV show really a 'love story'

Great Canal Journeys TV show really a 'love story' Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Season one began with Timothy West and Prunella Scales celebrating their golden wedding anniversary on the Kent and Avon CanalByMartin HeathReporting fromBraunstonPublished2 hours agoThe son of actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales, who have both died within the last two years, said their TV show Great Canal Journeys was really "a love story".Samuel West returned to the marina in Braunston, Northamptonshire, where they moored their boat, to unveil a plaque to their memory. He also opened this year's Historic Boat Rally.The All Creatures Great and Small actor said the support his family received when the show covered his mother's dementia was "enormously moving".Unveiling a plaque at the Grand Union Canal, he said: "Sooner or later, all canal roads lead here, and all canal journeys end here."Image source, Martin Heath/ BBCImage caption, West said it was "important to talk honestly about her dementia - lots of good things came out of it"Surrounded at the rally by about 90 of the last remaining working boats on England's canals, Samuel West recalled childhood holidays on the "cut".Aged 10, he was introduced to the idea of spending several days on a narrowboat meandering through the countryside at a top speed of 4mph.He realised that many children might have described that experience as rather slow and boring."They only say that for the first day", he said. "Everybody's a bit itchy on the first day, but, as my father pointed out, if anything goes wrong, you can always walk wherever you were going quicker!"Image source, Martin Heath/BBCImage caption, Prunella Scales and Timothy West opened the Braunston rally three times - this picture is from 2022When West and Scales presented their first Great Canal Journeys episode in 2014, it is unlikely anyone involved in the production knew...