Great Canal Journeys


Great Canal Journeys is a British television series in which a pair of presenters take canal barge and narrowboat trips in the United Kingdom, Europe, India and Egypt. The series was originally aired on More4 before transferring to Channel 4 with Series 2.
The original presenters were husband and wife Timothy West and Prunella Scales. Both were keen narrowboaters and were involved in campaigning to revive the Kennet and Avon Canal. West and Scales both talk frankly about Scales' dementia during the series, which was praised by Alzheimer's Research UK.
In 2020, West and Scales were replaced by TV personality Gyles Brandreth and actor Sheila Hancock for series 11. In the first episode Timothy West gave the two novice canal boaters a crash course in narrowboating.

Episodes

Series 1

Series 9

  • If viewing figure is blank then the programme was not in the weekly top 10 on BARB.

Series 10

The series has been subtitled Asian Odyssey and is billed as Prunella Scales and Timothy West's last canal journey.
Episode nameOriginal date airedStation airedEpisode informationViewing figure*
Vietnam9 June 2019Channel 4Tim and Pru start their trip in Halong Bay, before travelling along the Red River to visit both Hanoi and Hoa Lu. They also visit the ancient port town of Hoi An and take part in its famous lantern festival.1.63m
Cambodia16 June 2019Channel 4Tim and Pru start their trip in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, exploring its local customs before crossing into Cambodia. There they visit the capital city Phenom Penh before travelling onto the ancient abandoned city of Angkor Wat, where they discover how the city and the surviving temple were built with the aid of canals.1.53m

Home media

With the exception of the London Ring episode in series 2, all of first eight series have been issued on DVD; the series numbering, however, is different.
  • Series 3 and 4 are combined and called series 3
  • Series 5 and 6 are combined and called series 4
  • Series 7 and 8 are combined and called series 5