ADVENTURER Ben Fogle described Dorset as his ‘secret little getaway’ while filming near Weymouth.

Ben was in the area yesterday filming the second series of ITV’s Har-bour Lives.

And in between shoots he caught up with all the local news with a copy of the Dorset Echo.

The show looks at people who live and work around the coastline of Dorset, focusing mainly on Poole, but stretching out to Weymouth, Lul-worth Cove, and the Jurassic Coast.

Ben said: “I’ve always loved Dorset. This is where I went to school. I’ve got lots of friends who live across the county. I bring my wife and kids.

“We’ve been on a few visits down here. It’s our secret little getaway.”

Ben acknowledged the ‘beautiful weather’ he had experienced on his first day of filming.

He said: “It’s a bit earlier than we were here last time.

“I think Dorset’s always changing but I think the beauty of the county is that it has that antiquity, that beautiful rustic edge with the beautiful old thatched houses and I think that’s what gives it its real charm.”

Ben spent the majority of the day foraging along the beach, cooking some seaweed in the afternoon with a local resident.

He said: “That’s the very essence of the TV series – just to give people an insight into those who use and live and work along the coastline.”

Ben headed to Sandbanks and Poole yesterday evening.

He said: “Over the next few days we’ll be in and around Poole Harbour itself – out on dredgers, out with the harbour master, out with the fishermen.

“We’ll be moving up and down. But we’re here for the next few months. “I’ll be in and out of the county a number of times between now and July.”