Great Canal Journeys

[repeated line:
as he collides with yet another bridge or canal bank]

Timothy West:
Buggeration!

[the Wests are in Birmingham's Gas Street Basin]

Sam West:
I can't believe this is the same place! I remember in about 1980 gunning the engine to try and turn the boat, and the foam came up grey - the water was like oil. And now all the foam's on the cappuccinos!

Timothy West:
Today Brummies are proud of their canals, claiming to have more than Venice. And they're right - over one hundred miles versus a meagre twenty-six. It's the Venice of the North, or the Venice of the Midlands.

Sam West:
Yes, it's remiss of Venice not to want to turn round their failing tourist fortunes by calling themselves the Birmingham of the South.

[Timothy is having difficulty steering an unfamiliar French boat which is much wider than the British narrowboats than he is used to]

Prunella Scales:
It's really not like you to veer from shore to shore.

Timothy West:
That's a favourite phrase of yours every time I do something wrong: "That's not like you". It becomes more and more like me as time goes on!

[talking about the changes that he has seen in Prunella as a result of the onset of her mild Alzheimers]

Timothy West:
There are moments when she can't really quite remember what we're all doing. I just find myself... because of her occasional "unsureness" about things, it gets slightly embarrassing, and that makes one impatient because there's a kind of selfishness, really. These moments are a bit worrying, sometimes. But the thing is, they soon pass. She's a wonderful person to be with. That's why I've been with her for all this time, and she's not changed essentially, it's just that there's a bit *less* of her, I suppose.

[talking about her husband, Timothy West]

Prunella Scales:
This journey to the town of Llangollen is very personal to us. Fifty years ago we spent our honeymoon there, and in the year of our golden wedding anniversary, I can't help thinking about those early days of our courtship when we were both young actors. I met Tim... We were in a terrible, terrible play called "She Died Young". We had a sort of mild, Times-crossword flirtation during the rehearsals, and he said "Would you like to come to the pictures?" I said "Yeah, love to." And we went to the pictures and went our separate ways home. And eventually he and I started going out together, as it were, and then we got married and we've had two smashing kids. He never bores me. When he talks about things, it's always interesting or entertaining. I don't know - we just fit somehow.