The houseboat seems like an artefact that’s as British as tea and crumpets – a colourful, quaint behemoth ploughing through the sludgy waters of the country’s canals and waterways. In a turbulent housing market, more people are now turning to “continuous cruising” as a viable way of living – especially in the capital. According to the Canal & River Trust, there are more than 34,000 licensed boats in the UK today, with more than a third of owners saying their boat’s primary purpose was as a full-time residence or second home.
British cinema has embraced the houseboat and its symbolic value, in conjunction with its surge in real-world popularity. This year, a handful of movies have used this unconventional way of life as part of a character’s story – and to make a point about contemporary society.
The drama Anchor and Hope, from Spanish director Carlos Marques-Marcet, sees Game of Thrones alumni Natalia Tena and Oona Chaplin as lesbian couple Kat and Eva, grappling with the notion of whether to have a child, while living on a boat that travels along the canals of London. Eva is determined to become a parent, and suggests Kat’s friend as a potential sperm donor, while Kat sees the prospect of bringing a child into their cramped environment as a “selfish” indulgence. It becomes clear through the course of the narrative that Eva adopted the houseboat way of living as a result of her relationship with Kat – a boat enthusiast who repairs them as a part-time job. For Kat, the boat is a symbol of a freewheeling, shackle-free lifestyle whereas, for Eva, it’s the titular anchor holding her and their relationship down, preventing any progress from taking place. These characters are in the same boat, as it were, but it means very different things to each of them.
The houseboat movie trend continues in November with the release of the intriguing drama Tides, which follows four friends who meet for a reunion on a narrowboat. Written and improvised in a collaborative effort by the cast over the course of a few days, it uses the confined, isolated environment as a crucible to amplify the emotions of the characters.
This duality of the houseboat as a symbol also plays into some of its other appearances this year. Comedy Swimming With Men portrays the houseboat occupied by Rupert Graves’s middle-aged professional as a sad symbol of his isolated, bachelor lifestyle. When he invites Rob Brydon’s character to stay, he looks mournfully at a photo of his kids and admits that he left their mother for a doomed relationship with a younger woman, suggesting that the boat is a miserable compromise for him as a result of bad life choices.
On the opposite – and more pleasant – side of the equation, grey pound romcom Finding Your Feet concludes with a standard last-minute dash, as Imelda Staunton’s protagonist leaves her life of home counties comfort to live with Timothy Spall on his houseboat. For her, the boat and its untethered existence provide the perfect opportunity for her to escape her love-rat husband and her bland, middle-class life.
Escape is also represented by a houseboat in the British romcom Patrick. The course of this particular story sees Beattie Edmondson’s permanently exhausted protagonist handed the opportunity to ditch her demanding landlord and pokey flat in order to embrace the freedom of life aboard her own houseboat. In a story that delights in piling as much suffering on Edmondson as possible, the prospect of a life on the water offers a rare oasis of escapism for her. It’s a scenario familiar to many of the new millennial cruisers.
The prominence of the houseboat in so many British movies also underlines its changing role in society. Once, it was a symbol of quaint holidaying for the elderly. In a 2007 episode of the sitcom Peep Show, a canal boat provided a venue for the squarest stag do in history and proved to be an emblem for the affluent, middle-class lifestyle craved by David Mitchell’s character.
A decade later, however, the narrowboat has become a viable housing choice for cash-strapped millennials spooked by gargantuan house prices. For couples like Kat and Eva in Anchor and Hope, the houseboat might be the only way they can secure a home in the capital, and a symbol of an attractive, bohemian lifestyle. For film-makers, the boat has become a malleable symbol capable of saying all manner of different things about the troubled waters of life.
