Griff Rhys Jones has recently been seen on a number of television programmes, on the radio and press articles, talking about his new series 'A Great Welsh Adventure'.

There are eight programmes in the series starting in Snowdonia and finishing in the Brecon Beacons. Although Griff was born in Wales he was brought up in England.

But not that long ago Griff was in Monmouth on his way to the River Wye to take part in canoeing for the series.

This is not the first time that Griff has been to Monmouth, he did visit the town and the Wye while filming the last series of 'UK Rivers'.

The Canoeing took place on the lower section of the Wye – Chepstow to Tintern – on an incoming tide this is a hazardous area to canoe and Monmouth Canoe & Activity Centre, together with Monmouth Canoe Club, were contacted and asked if they could help. Griff was paddling a Mad River Canadian Canoe along with two or three other paddlers.

With the high cost of camera and sound equipment great care had to be taken and local boatman Jimmy Simpson from Tintern was drafted in with his boat the 'Mary Wye' to act as backup and safety.

His daughter Caz also appeared in the programme. Each of these programmes follow a theme which is only revealed when the programme is screened.

Everything was going to plan until a technical problem with one of the cameras occurred;  this could not be rectified for some time but eventually the fault was cured and filming started slightly later than anticipated.

Safety and safety equipment was paramount due to the strong tides in this area; all this equipment was provided by Palm International a local company.

The filming that took place in the valley will be shown on ITV on the 17th February at 8pm and is called 'The Welsh Border'.