Great Canal Journeys

Episode 1

Sheila Hancock and Gyles Brandreth are back on the barge to explore the Cambridgeshire Fens. They visit the vicarage where a children's classic was written, make a pilgrimage to Ely Cathedral to hear some medieval plainsong and try their hand at a spot of landscape painting, before ending their journey in Cambridge to pay homage to early 20th-century poetry great Rupert Brooke.

Episode 2

Sheila Hancock and Gyles Brandreth travel along the Leeds-Liverpool canal across the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, from Wigan to Liverpool. They explore the two things that Wigan is most famous for - its pier and its pies - with Gyles going head head with the world pie-eating champion. They also visit Scarisbrick Hall to tell the story of Houses of Parliament designer Augustus Pugin.

Grand Union and Stratford Canal