I started recceing for my new series today. A recce is when you either go out and check someplace before you film it to see if there are any problems that you might encounter, or to get some ideas about how you might shoot it. Our recces that we’re doing over the next couple of weeks are a bit different, in that we’re recceing places to decide whether or not to feature them in the TV show – we’re checking on the quality of the places suggested if you like.

So we’ve gone through all the suggestions that people have given us for great days / great places that they love in Northern Ireland, and shortlisted a whole load, and now we’re visiting them. So today we visited: a science exhibit place for kids, a decorate your own chocolates place, a cafe, a fish and chip shop, a pottery, a park, an aquarium (where we saw the octopus above) and somewhere else, which I don’t remember at the time of writing.

Weirdly, I did get to see two places that I hadn’t really seen much of before that seem really nice. The first was Bangor – it looks quite good for shopping and wee cafes etc. and seems like it would be a nice place to live. The other place was Donaghadee. It seemed nice too but maybe that was just because it was sunny while we were driving through it.

I also learnt that the most deadly fish in the world are called stonefish, and that piranhas when they are feeding are pretty dull, much to everyone (including those working at the aquarium)’s disappointment.

I’m not going to be blogging loads about our recces and stuff here because starting from next week we’ll be posting to a production diary over on the site for the TV series.