Canal Boat Diaries

Robbie Cumming encounters a leaky lock pound on the Perry Barr Flight, which leaves him marooned in the mud. Later he navigates his way beneath the iconic Spaghetti Junction in Birmingham, before continuing his journey across the city of Birmingham.

Great Barr to Atherstone is a programme presented as a single episode. It falls within the broader category of television programmes and is classified under the episode genre. The title suggests a journey that links the areas of Great Barr and Atherstone, and the format is that of a self‑contained instalment rather than a series. The episode follows Robbie Cumming as he faces an unexpected problem on the Perry Barr Flight. While aboard, he discovers a leaky lock pound, a malfunction that leaves him stranded in a pool of mud. This mishap forces him to halt his progress and deal with the immediate difficulty of being marooned in the mire. After managing the situation in the mud, Robbie continues his travel, this time moving beneath Birmingham’s iconic Spaghetti Junction. The passage under the complex network of roads provides the next stage of his journey, linking the earlier incident with a new urban landscape. Overall, the episode strings together these two distinct episodes – the lock‑pound leak and the under‑junction transit – to chart Robbie Cumming’s movement from the Perry Barr area to the heart of Birmingham, before the story ultimately leads toward the destination implied by the programme’s title.