Paradise abounds

Dear Friends,

As usual we were a little sad to leave our own little paradise at the cottage in Sweden at the end of August, but apparently we were returning to paradise in Australia!

Many scenes in “Return to Paradise”, a spin off of BBC's “Death in Paradise”, hubby’s favourite detective series, were filmed just a few kilometres north of our house. They conveniently omitted the many industrial sites along the Illawarra coast, aka the Coal Coast, but sharp-eyed anoraks will spot the electric suburban train snaking its way along the hillside above “Dolphin Cove”. Was it called “Dolphin Cove” because “Porpoise Spit” had already been used? 

The filmmakers had to turn to Sydney’s northern beaches for some filming locations, but mixing up locations is common to get the best effect, the opening scene in “The Sound of Music” being a classic example.

“Paradise Found” was filmed partly in Australia. Is a pattern developing here?

There were advertisements a few months ago for locals to be extras on the sets, with an emphasis on people doing sports typical for idyllic beaches - e.g. running, surfing or yoga. Should we have sent in the following photograph, and pretended that we were just about to go para-sailing?

Bald Hill features prominently in the series

That photograph of our family all together was taken ten years ago, but little has changed since then, or so I keep telling myself.

I am not a great fan of "Death in Paradise", so I somewhat reluctantly watched "Return to Paradise".  It is similarly formulaic and quirky, but it was fun trying to identify the local scenes. Maybe you can stream it where you live.