Pack your bags, your swimsuit and don’t forget the sunscreen. For the next two weeks, ITV1 is whisking viewers off to a luxury resort in the Caribbean for sun, sea, sand… and secrets in its new nightly reality game show, The Fortune Hotel.
As ‘hotel manager’, actor, writer and presenter Stephen Mangan welcomes 10 pairs of holidaymakers, all hoping that, by the end of their stay, they’ll be leaving with a golden glow and £250,000 cash.
"Each pair has a case they’ve randomly been given," Episodes star Stephen says of the show, which looks set to rival BBC1's The Traitors.
"Eight cases have nothing in them, one holds the cash and the remaining case contains the Early Checkout card - end the day with that and you’re going home! All our pairs are trying to stay at the hotel while working out where the cash is and the goal is to be the couple at the end holding that case. If they are, they win a life-changing sum of money."
Each episode, our ‘Fortune Holders’, ‘Fortune Hunters’ and ‘Unfortunates’ will try to unravel the ‘Whogotit’ mystery by playing the Day Trip Challenge. Where they place in the challenge will determine their order in the nail-biting case swap in the hotel’s Lady Luck bar later that night. Who’s holding the fortune? And who’s destined for an early checkout?
Here, Stephen tells us why, on this show, fortune favours the brave…
What appealed to you about hosting The Fortune Hotel?
Stephen: "The opportunity to head to the Caribbean sounded very interesting on its own - that’s before you even get to what else is involved. That’s the thing that first got my attention but, when the game itself was explained to me and I played it, it’s just brilliant. The game is pretty simple but endlessly fascinating. That combination was pretty irresistible."
What more can you tell us about the 10 pairs of ‘hotel guests’?
Stephen: "We’ve got people of all ages, from all parts of the country, from all different backgrounds on this show. Some of them got on like a house on fire… others not so much. You put 20 people at random together regardless of how luxurious the resort is, some are going to get on and some aren't. People trying to cover up the fact they didn't like each other was almost funnier and more dramatic than people being openly hostile to one another. We’ve all been on holiday and found we’ve met someone that gets up our nose or found friends that we want to be mates with forever. This show is no different."
The Fortune Hotel is an intriguing game of deception. What drama can we expect?
Stephen: "Every day ends with a ‘The Night Cap’ at the hotel's Lady Luck Bar, where all the contestants have an opportunity to swap cases with each other. This was always dramatic because the people holding the money had no idea whether it was going to be taken away from them. The people who thought they had a safe, empty case had no idea if they were about to be given the Early Checkout card and be sent home. So there was always a very tense, exciting, thrilling end to the day where you just never knew what was going to happen."
As the series progresses, how invested do we see you become in the game?
Stephen: "I found it almost impossible to remain neutral. I was heartbroken for every couple when they were eliminated."
The Fortune Hotel is very different to many other shows you’ve hosted. What is it about this format that you enjoy?
Stephen: "People are endlessly interesting to me as an actor; the reason you become an actor is because, how people get on with each other - especially in moments of high stress - is always deeply fascinating. Human beings are complex, so The Fortune Hotel felt like the perfect mix of entertainment and drama. It’s a way of putting people together under pressure set amongst a stunning location. The whole package was just incredibly intriguing to me, so I had to be a part of it."
The Fortune Hotel is shot in an incredibly luxurious hotel in the Caribbean. Do you have any unforgettable memories from the experience?
Stephen: "We took over the entire resort and I got to stay in a nice suite without having to pay for it. The presidential suite was bigger than my house - it took me four minutes to walk from one side of the living room to the other, it was that big! I had a balcony that looked over the ocean, which was west facing, so every night we got a view of the sunset - and sunsets in the Caribbean are incredible!"
Finally, if you could pick any three celebrity guests to join you at The Fortune Hotel who would they be?
Stephen: "I’d like to see George Washington, who famously boasted that he could never tell a lie so I’d like to put that to the test. I’d like to see Mohamed Ali because he was a great talker and as smart as you like - and Alan Carr because he’s hilarious and would get into a pickle!"
The Fortune Hotel airs nightly from Monday, May 13 at 9pm on ITV1.
