Greetings from the Casa Velha do Palheiro ... a luxury country house hotel on the island of Madeira in Portugal.

My stay at The Ritz in London was all-too brief! I left there at 0430 and met with the boys and the PR of "quintas da madeira" - my old friend Laura - (please note - who was early) at Heathrow ...

The flight to Funchal was just over three hours and it was another twenty minutes drive to this lovely property. The weather is rather changeable ... let’s hope it’s good when we start filming here properly tomorrow.