CORNWALL will be in the TV spotlight tonight when the first of a new series looks at the merits of family 'staycations'.

In the first episode of six Weekend Escapes, to be shown on ITV on Fridays at 8pm, Life's Too Short sitcom actor Warwick Davis, 44 (whose career began aged 11, playing Wicket the Ewok in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return Of The Jedi in 1983) is joined by his family for this new series about holidaying in Great Britain.

As a keen 'staycationer', Warwick loves nothing more than spending time in Britain rather than travelling abroad, but his family don't feel quite the same way.

Nevertheless, tonight's show sees Warwick's wife Sam, his children Annabelle, 17, and Harrison, 11, and the family dog Sherlock launching themselves into the adventures that the series brings forth, ranging from dressing up as woodland creatures in Cornwall to re-enacting a battle at Sussex's Bodiam Castle.

Tonight Warwick and his family – who, like him, all have forms of dwarfism – pack up the campervan and head to Cornwall, where they are ambushed by pirates, meet a group of 'graffiti grannies' and take part in a boat race with a team of blind rowers.

But the family's first stop is the middle of an enchanted wood in Launceston, where they meet a group of locals dressed up as fairies, pixies, wood elves, merfys (half mermaid and half fairy) and other woodland creatures. The group meet up regularly in costume to keep the area's Celtic legends and mystical stories alive.

Warwick says: 'Cornwall isn't all about cream teas and scrumpy it's a county brimming with magic, mystery and plenty of strange surprises if you scratch beneath the surface.'

Next Warwick and the Davis clan travel to Fowey's Readymoney Cove to discover how smuggling and piracy made the area world-famous many years ago. Warwick decides to bring the area's history to life by enlisting a pirate reenactment group, the Pirates of St.Piran, to ambush his family and give them a genuine pirate experience.

Unfortunately Warwick's surprise ambush is met with a mixed response from his family. In particular his son Harrison is terrified by the experience. Warwick says: 'I think I have traumatised my son now. He'll be forever in fear of pirates running round corners when we go to the beach. It's backfired a little bit.'

However, undaunted and not made to walk the plank, the Davis family travel on to Penzance, where Warwick gets up at dawn to meet a notorious group of women known as the 'Yarn Bombers' or the 'Graffiti Grannies'.

The group is known throughout Cornwall for creating pop-up knitted displays around the town. The group, who remain anonymous and protect their identities by wearing knitted balaclavas, have been yarn bombing every six weeks for a few years and Warwick joins them on their last mission. Warwick admits: 'I'm starting to get a real itch for this yarn bombing game.'

Warwick's last adventure is in Newquay where he participates in a boat race with a difference – the rowers on his team are all blind. Warwick joins them on board their boat, helping out the cox by using ropes to control the rudder and shouting words of encouragement to the rowers. Warwick says: 'So I'm steering, the rowers are blind and I can't swim. What could possible go wrong?'

In the remaining five episodes of the series the Davis family will be going on to visit Sussex, Norfolk, the Lake District, North Wales and Lancashire. As well as showing some of the great destinations the UK has to offer, the series is also an amusing insight into how families behave on holiday.

It also depicts how resourceful the family are on their travels, piling up seats and boxes to reach things and attaching a dog lead to the car boot to help close it.

'It wasn't something that was ever planned, it just kind of came out of the show,' says 3ft 6in tall Warwick.