Imagine Downton Abbey transported to the Italian Riviera. Posh Brits party, scheme and fall in love during the Roaring Twenties while their servants graft to keep things running smoothly, all in the sun-soaked splendour of Italy’s playground of the rich and famous.
That’s the gist of Hotel Portofino, the sumptuous period drama that starts on ITV1 this week starring The Crown’s Natascha McElhone. She plays Bella Ainsworth, a rich Englishman’s daughter determined to make her luxury seaside hotel a success.
She’s married to Cecil (Mark Umbers), a gambler who fritters away the hotel’s takings, while their son Lucian (Oliver Dench, great-nephew of Dame Judi) bears the scars of the First World War.
The hotel’s staff and guests provide intrigue and comedy, with Anna Chancellor a joy as Lady Latchmere, an imperious figure akin to Downton’s Dowager Countess, and Elizabeth Carling as cook Betty Scanlon providing Mrs Patmore-ish light relief as she grapples with unfamiliar ingredients such as olive oil.
A glamorous Lily Frazer pictured playing a guest in Hotel Portofino, the sumptuous period drama that starts on ITV1 this week
Meanwhile, a dark shadow is being cast by the rise of Fascist leader Mussolini, represented here by local bureaucrat Signore Danioni (Pasquale Esposito), who has his nose in everyone’s business.
Creator Matt Baker, who also wrote Ben Miller’s mystery series Professor T, says the pandemic gave rise to Hotel Portofino.
‘I wanted to write something sunny and escapist,’ he explains. ‘So I gravitated towards the Roaring Twenties and the hedonistic fun and glamour of that period.’
Natascha’s Bella is at the heart of the series, striving to free herself financially from her tycoon father, to the dismay of her husband, who’s in thrall to the family money. Bella is also secretly in love with a mystery man.
Lucy Akhurst plays Julia Drummond-Ward while Claude Scott Mitchell portrays Rose Drummond-Ward in the show, which is set during the Roaring Twenties
‘She’s bohemian,’ says Natascha, 51. ‘There’s a lovely element of improvisation in her life. I think many who lived through that war had to improvise. Adversity is the mother of invention, and Bella’s trying to create a new life, a new world for her family.’
We borrowed a 1924 Mercedes worth £1 million. We were on the edge of our seats every time we fired it up
Although some of Hotel Portofino’s scenes were filmed in the famously pastel-coloured Italian town of the title, most of the series was shot on the Croatian coast.
‘The villa we used is an architectural gem in the village of Lovran,’ says Matt Baker. But the crew had only two months to turn the villa into a 1920s hotel, sourcing period furniture from all over Europe.
‘It was a huge task,’ says director Adam Wimpenny. ‘But our hotel is historically accurate – there’s no fabric or wallpaper from outside 1926.’
They also had to wrestle with century-old technology, like the sports car driven by flashy American Jack Turner (Adam James).
‘The cars from the period are so striking,’ says Wimpenny. ‘In 1920s Portofino people still travelled mostly by horse and cart, so a gorgeous sports car like that would have been quite a sight.
The series stars The Crown’s Natascha McElhone (pictured left with Mark Umbers). She plays Bella Ainsworth, a rich Englishman’s daughter determined to make her luxury seaside hotel a success
‘We borrowed an amazing yellow 1924 Mercedes from a museum. It hardly ever worked when we needed it to, but when it did it was a thing of beauty. I was told it was worth over £1 million, so we were on the edge of our seats when we fired it up.’
Natascha, most recently seen as Prince Philip’s close friend Penny Knatchbull in The Crown, says she knows what it’s like to be a constant hostess like Bella.
She became one after she tragically lost her husband, cosmetic surgeon Martin Kelly, to a heart condition in 2008 when she was pregnant with their third son.
‘It was born out of being on my own for a lot of my kids’ childhood,’ she says. ‘It felt good for them to have a house filled with laughter, and also for me to have a life other than motherhood. It was exhausting but it was definitely my choice to be the host for a few years, doing the Bella thing.’
Now she’s filling a Downton-shaped hole in viewers’ lives with a delicious slice of la dolce vita. So why not say ‘Ciao’ to Bella?
Hotel Portofino, Friday, 9pm, ITV1.
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