Catch up TV

Series 1: Episode 2

Gareth Edwards, once voted the greatest rugby player of all time, is not quite so coordinated when put in charge of a seventy-foot narrowboat. Stress levels are running high from the off when Gareth and his wife, childhood sweetheart Maureen, face their first lock on the Montgomery Canal. Gareth assumes the role of captain, while Maureen takes charge of the heavy lifting.\nThe intrepid canal explorers discover the incredible story of the narrowboat Cressy as they pass the place it was built. Use of the canals for the transporting of goods was dying out in the latter half of the 20th century. But the writer LTC Rolt took Cressy along the overgrown canal system and wrote the bestselling book Narrow Boat. It's credited with inspiring interest in canals for pleasure not industry, kick-starting the canal leisure industry and saving many old waterways from being lost forever.\nGareth and Maureen get a lift on a horse-drawn narrowboat, finally experiencing the tranquillity of near silence drifting through a pristine landscape without a roaring engine. At a section of canal that is still impassable, they learn of plans underway to restore the canal back to its former glory.\nGareth also manages to hitch a lift on a barge taking schoolchildren deep into the countryside to experience life on the canal. Finally, Gareth is asked to fire the starting gun at a triathlon in which people cycle, run and row the entire length of the canal to raise money to help fund the restoration. The journey along the Montgomery canal with two of Wales' most loved figures delivers plenty of humour and a heart-warming celebration of some of the best landscape the country has to offer.\n

Source: BBC 4