I remember watching this on PBS as a kid. It was an inspiration to travel. I lived in the midwest, and never had been to Europe. When I turned 18, I went. I ended up working in Europe for a few years. I love being able to see this show again. Still inspiring.
Its quite strange watching this because my family has been in possession of the "Leontyn" which is now called spelt "Leontine". The boat is now a house boat back in London, very interesting stumbling upon this today!
I've watched the first 3 episodes and I'm enjoying it. Unfortunately the music drowns out most of the commentary which is a shame (and the music selection makes me want to climb up in a clock tower with my trusty snipers rifle!).
I also thoroughly enjoy these wonderful videos. But, my dear Richard, as good as the visual part and the storytelling is, as terrible is the sound: I do agree with Steve Sharratt, that the commentaries drown in irrelevant music and background noise. Very, very disturbing. Please revise the sound of these videos, because they truly deserve it! - Jens from Denmark, dreaming of barging through France and Europe.
At around the 20:52 mark a piece of classical music faintly begins and continues until the end of the episode. Does anyone know either the composer or the name of the piece? Thanks in advance.
Can you please take the music off as those that are hard of hearing can't hear your comments. I would have loved to watch this but had to turn it off sadly.
I agree. I just compared my VHS copy of the 1st episode with this version. The sound was not this poor when the show was originally aired on my local PBS station. Either the audio levels on the source tape (or VCR) were poor or the audio levels during the transfer were set to high causing the sound distortion. The distortion causes the music/voiceover to be much more grating than it normally is. Setting the audio fidelity issues aside, I enjoy this series as much as I did when it first aired. Thanks for the upload!
Could be very entertaining though the commentary sounds as if it was recorded in early 20th Century and is the bizarre clipped English of that period. The music is unfortunately excruciating and intrusive. Boating is otherwise a peaceful pursuit without a constant background din and incidental music. Better with captions and sound off
if you have been doing films for more years than you can remember then why have you included this dreadful music I thought I was at a 1950s 60s fairground music and the narrating sounded as though it was done in the 70s
I just found out that you are a film producer? What happened to this sound? This looks like it might've been a good video, but the music is terrible and overpowers the spoken voice after about two minutes .This is irritating.Two thumbs down. Sorry guys but something must be done about your music too loud.
I remember watching this on PBS as a kid. It was an inspiration to travel. I lived in the midwest, and never had been to Europe. When I turned 18, I went. I ended up working in Europe for a few years. I love being able to see this show again. Still inspiring.
Glad I found this. I just watched my dad’s old VHS tape of the first episode. This is a lovely series despite the naysayers.
Excellent. Watched every episode.
Its quite strange watching this because my family has been in possession of the "Leontyn" which is now called spelt "Leontine". The boat is now a house boat back in London, very interesting stumbling upon this today!
Any reason why the sound engineer thought it would be a good idea to play excessively loud fairground music on top of this films narration?
It ticks off just the right kind of people?
I've watched the first 3 episodes and I'm enjoying it. Unfortunately the music drowns out most of the commentary which is a shame (and the music selection makes me want to climb up in a clock tower with my trusty snipers rifle!).
I also thoroughly enjoy these wonderful videos. But, my dear Richard, as good as the visual part and the storytelling is, as terrible is the sound: I do agree with Steve Sharratt, that the commentaries drown in irrelevant music and background noise. Very, very disturbing. Please revise the sound of these videos, because they truly deserve it! - Jens from Denmark, dreaming of barging through France and Europe.
happy to have a sailing boat
At around the 20:52 mark a piece of classical music faintly begins and continues until the end of the episode. Does anyone know either the composer or the name of the piece? Thanks in advance.
woud this still be possible to tow a barge or even a canal boat across the channel?
Am I correct in thinking that the barge has no engine and no means of steering?
Can you please take the music off as those that are hard of hearing can't hear your comments. I would have loved to watch this but had to turn it off sadly.
I don't remember the sound being this bad when I saw this first on PBS.
I agree. I just compared my VHS copy of the 1st episode with this version. The sound was not this poor when the show was originally aired on my local PBS station. Either the audio levels on the source tape (or VCR) were poor or the audio levels during the transfer were set to high causing the sound distortion. The distortion causes the music/voiceover to be much more grating than it normally is. Setting the audio fidelity issues aside, I enjoy this series as much as I did when it first aired. Thanks for the upload!
shame about the audio
MP on water.
Could be very entertaining though the commentary sounds as if it was recorded in early 20th Century and is the bizarre clipped English of that period. The music is unfortunately excruciating and intrusive. Boating is otherwise a peaceful pursuit without a constant background din and incidental music. Better with captions and sound off
Probably a very interesting video, marred however, by awful recording, atrocious tinny music and I presume your attempt at "received pronunciation".
if you have been doing films for more years than you can remember then why have you included this dreadful music I thought I was at a 1950s 60s fairground music and the narrating sounded as though it was done in the 70s
I just found out that you are a film producer? What happened to this sound? This looks like it might've been a good video, but the music is terrible and overpowers the spoken voice after about two minutes .This is irritating.Two thumbs down. Sorry guys but something must be done about your music too loud.