Celebrity Britain by Barge: Then & Now

Bill Oddie, Jennie Bond, Anne Diamond and Pete Waterman travel along three of Britain's most famous waterways. They begin on the Leeds and Liverpool canal, for a journey along the longest single canal in the UK. After getting to grips with their barges, they visit the model village at Saltaire and discover how a mill that was one the largest textile factory in the world has been reinvented as an art gallery and hi-tech production line.

Travelling along the Leeds and Liverpool canal, Bill Oddie, Jennie Bond, Anne Diamond and Pete Waterman eventually leave Yorkshire behind them and head into Lancashire. Pete and Anne discover a Polish war memorial and learn about the role canals played in the Second World War. Bill goes in search of an elusive kingfisher, while Jennie walks in Charlotte Brontë's footsteps. Later, Anne samples a Fat Rascal, Pete tries to turn Bill into a steam engine nut and the entire quartet disappear into the dripping darkness of Foulridge Tunnel, where they find out about a famous cow who once swam it.

Bill Oddie, Jennie Bond, Anne Diamond and Pete Waterman cross Scotland from the west coast to the east on its oldest canal, the Forth and Clyde. On their way, they learn about the role Clydesdale horses played on the waterway and find out how pleasure boats began to use the canal in the late-1800s, transporting people out of the city to the countryside on day trips.

On the second part of the Scottish leg, Bill Oddie, Jennie Bond, Anne Diamond and Pete Waterman join the Glasgow and Edinburgh Union Canal, rising lock, stock and barge up the Falkirk wheel before heading east. Anne and Jennie encounter the ghost of William Burke - of Burke and Hare fame - as they travel through the Falkirk tunnel, which he helped build as an Irish navvy. Pete goes digging for industrial treasure at an old railway terminus and Bill gets to look down on the birds for once as the barges take to the air on the longest aqueduct in Scotland.

Bill Oddie, Jennie Bond, Anne Diamond and Pete Waterman head to Northamptonshire to navigate the mighty Grand Union Canal, at one time the busiest waterway on the network and the vital transport link between Birmingham and London. Travelling from north of Milton Keynes to the old canal port of Braunston, they celebrate the `boat people", who once lived and worked on Britain's canals, keen to uncover the secrets of this lost community. Travelling through a notoriously dark and deadly tunnel at Weedon Bec, they also visit a once secret arms store.

Bill Oddie, Jennie Bond, Anne Diamond and Pete Waterman learn how canals evolved into places of leisure. Pete revisit one of his childhood haunts, Braunston Marina, to meet the owner who turned around its fortunes, while Jennie discovers canal camping, an activity holiday popular with children since the 1960s. The foursome head off from Braunston taking the Oxford canal towards Banbury, discovering that the Oxford is a very different canal to those experienced earlier. Built by James Brindley to be as cheap as possible, it slowly carries them south through farmland and past sleepy villages.