Hotel Babylon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hotel Babylon | |
---|---|
![]() Hotel Babylon Main Title |
|
Genre | Drama |
Creator(s) | Tony Basgallop Imogen Edwards-Jones (novel) |
Starring | Present Cast Natalie Mendoza Max Beesley Dexter Fletcher Martin Marquez Michael Obiora Tamzin Outhwaite Emma Pierson Ian Bonar Ray Coulthard Danira Govic Michael Attwell Paul Telfer |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of episodes | 10 |
Production | |
Running time | 60 minutes |
Broadcast | |
Original channel | BBC One |
Original run | January 19, 2006 – present |
Links | |
IMDb profile |
Hotel Babylon is a BBC television drama series based on the book of the same name by Imogen Edwards-Jones and "Anonymous", first shown in January 2006. Produced by independent production company Carnival Films and screened on BBC One on Thursday nights at 9pm, it stars Tamzin Outhwaite and Max Beesley. It has proven to be a hit in the United Kingdom with the ratings as it frequently had around 5 million viewers each episode and winning their timeslot narrowly beating ITV1's rival dramas, Eleventh Hour and Footballer's Wives (latter competition in the series). The finale of the first series obtained 5.74 million viewers, the second series opened with 5.4 million before rising to 6.6 million viewers for episode 2.[1]
The second series is being aired on Thursdays at 9pm on BBC One and BBC HD This will run till sometime in April.
Contents |
[edit] Cast
[edit] Main Cast
- Tamzin Outhwaite as Rebecca Mitchell, the hotel manager. Over the course of the first series, Rebecca is trying to repair her troubled marriage.
- Max Beesley as Charlie Edwards, the assistant manager. Charlie spent time in prison before coming to the hotel, and has a relationship with Jackie.
- Emma Pierson as Anna Thornton-Wilton, one of the two receptionists. Anna slept with Charlie shortly before they began their current jobs, and during the first series narrowly avoids being sacked after having sex with a guest for money.
- Michael Obiora as Ben Trueman, the second receptionist. An outspoken homosexual. He is said to have smoked pot whilst growing up with a fictional rapper who is homophobic. The rapper (Played by Samuell Benta) appears in the second series.
- Dexter Fletcher as Tony Casemore, the Head Concierge. Tony is notable for being able to procure or organise anything imaginable.
- Martin Marquez as Gino Primirola, the bartender. Gino claims to have "come up from the slums of Rome".
- Natalie Mendoza as Jackie Clunes, the head of housekeeping. Jackie is Australian, a single mother, and during the first series is revealed to be in the country illegally.
- Ray Coulthard as James Schofield, the restaurant manager. James is extremely snobbish. In Series Two, he was revealed to have some serious gambling problems, so bad that he has lost his prized BMW and is sleeping in a new smaller car.
[edit] Other Cast
- Michael Attwell as Derek Crisp, the doorman (Series One). Towards the end of the first series Derek is fired, for theft.
- Ian Bonar as Dave Wiltshire, the bellboy.
- Danira Govic as Tanya Mihajlov, one of the cleaners. It would now seem that she is the sole cleaner, after a mass walkout staged by all other cleaners after they were told they were no longer allowed to strip for the guests whilst cleaning. Tanya and Jackie now clean over a hundred rooms together.
- Paul Telfer as Luke Marwood, a Trainee Concierge (first five episodes of Series Two). He is portrayed as amoral, bringing illegal substances to hotel guests, and sleeping with guests and staff. After sleeping with one of Rebecca's friends who was staying for a party, he asked for (and was refused) payment for his services. He was fired after it was discovered he took and sold photographs of a celebrity guest to a tabloid.
[edit] Differences from the book
In the book Hotel Babylon, more than ten years' worth of Anonymous's hotel experience are condensed into a fictionalised day. The TV series uses the same characters but tells the stories - with a connecting theme within each episode - over the space of a week or so.
[edit] Guest Stars
[edit] Series 1
[edit] Series 2
- Chris Moyles
- David Walliams
- Zoe Salmon
- Christopher Parker
- Danny Dyer
- Kelly Brook
- Kacey Ainsworth
- Chantelle Houghton
- Ronni Ancona
- Russ Abbott
- Jennifer Ellison
- Julian Clary
- Mark Heap
- Richard Bacon
- Alexander Armstrong
- Vanessa Feltz
- Jerry Hall
[edit] International Broadcasts
- Ireland - RTÉ Two
- New Zealand - TV One
- Australia - Nine
- Netherlands - Net 5
- Sweden - TV3
- Iceland - Stöð 2
- Poland - TVP2
- Canada - BBC Canada
- Israel - Xtra HOT
- South America - People and Arts
- France - Paris Première
- Thailand - True Series
- Hong Kong - TVB Pearl
[edit] DVD release
Series One will be available on DVD in the U.K. on 19th March, 2007
Series Two will be available on DVD in the U.K. on 30th April, 2007
DVD's released by BBC Worldwide through 2 Entertain.
[edit] References
- ^ Norton chat show pulls over 2 million, Digital Spy Limited in February 23, 2007.