After reading threads on here in relation to the UK law I'm even more confused about where I can fly.
The worst thing about the UK for flying (for me at least) is that all land is owned by someone, and it will usually be impossible or at least very difficult to gain permission from those landowners in advance, or to even know who they are in some cases, and also that the airspace up to at least 500 ft above residential property IS considered part of that property unlike in the States. Lots of the best places for filming are off-limits to us if they are managed by National Trust or English Heritage, both of whom have unnecessarily hostile anti-drone policies. You'll also find yourself unwelcome at Nature Reserves and certain bits of coastline, so it remains a constant challenge to find somewhere safe and legal (yet still visually interesting enough to film) to fly. I spend far longer searching for and planning for flight locations than I do actually flying, but after a while that becomes part of the mission and isn't necessarily unenjoyable in itself.
The good thing about the UK countryside for flying is that it is cross-networked with public bridleways and footpaths from which we can legally launch (within reason), even if those footpaths cross otherwise private land. Also, if you put a little effort in you can often secure yourself a 'home ground' park or something, close to where you live, where you can gain permission to fly from the local council. I wrote to my town council, organised a demonstration flight for their officials to watch, and as a result gained permission to fly in ALL the local parks, ALL the council sports grounds and the vast majority of our local heath and lake, as long as I stay away from match days, or the main drag by the lake where most of the people are - most reasonable I thought... Occasionally I write to them and get extensions to that permission allowing me to overfly the lake when it snows for example, and I have never yet been refused something I applied for, and I don't even have a PfCO ! (Part 107 equivalent). I write to them once a year now to 'thank them for their continued permission', and more importantly, to remind them that there have been no 'incidents' as a result of my flyings, and therefore they should just let that continue...
And then there's all that farmland. Some people think that overflying open fields is the equivalent of flying in the farmer's back garden, but I am not one of them. Flying in a farmer's back garden would be like flying in a farmer's back garden ! Flying over his acres and acres of empty fields, (miles away from his farmhouse) is (in my book at least) a much lesser misdemeanour, and in some cases well worth the risk, and maybe even moderately defensible later. In my experience, you don't get into too much trouble doing this - in the very rare cases where the farmer spots you they will either come and find you, and be nice, and interested, or they may ask you to move on, which you can always do as pleasantly as possible. It is often easier to apologise than it is to ask in advance. But when evaluating the risk, we do have to remember they have guns ! Just occasionally they won't try and find you, but will open fire instead, which sends a fairly clear message that you should probably move on sooner rather than later - on the plus side, most of them miss initially, giving you time to get safely down !!
Of course if there is any farmland local to you that you would like to fly a lot,
then it makes sense to look up the farmer online and to contact him and try and gain his permission. I've got a guy near me who lets me fly in any of his fields that don't have livestock in them for £50 a year, which was just a figure I plucked out of the ether and he agreed to !