Hotel Babylon

This article is about a television drama. For the novel of the same name, see Hotel Babylon (novel). For the similarly titled novel by Arnold Bennett, see The Grand Babylon Hotel.

Hotel Babylon
Hotel Babylon's intertitle
Format	Surreal Comedy-Drama
Created by	Tony Basgallop
Written by	Imogen Edwards-Jones (novel)
Starring	Nigel Harman Anna Wilson-Jones Dexter Fletcher Martin Marquez Michael Obiora Ray Coulthard Danira Gović Alexandra Moen Amy Nuttall
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	32 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC One
Picture format	576i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV)
Original run	January 19, 2006 (2006-01-19) – August 14, 2009 (2009-08-14)
External links
BBC Website

Hotel Babylon was a BBC television drama series based on the book of the same name by Imogen Edwards-Jones, that aired from 19 January 2006 to 14 August 2009, produced by independent production company Carnival Films for BBC One. The show followed the lives of workers at a glamorous five-star hotel.

Actress Alexandra Moen (who plays PR Manager Emily James) mentioned in an interview that the show was cancelled after its fourth series, leaving the series 4 finale cliffhanger unresolved. One reason might have been due to the fall in ratings.^[1]

Plot

Drama series set in the sexy world of the luxury five star hotel, on a journey beyond the facade of the smiling faces and glittering chandeliers and into the frenetic, non-stop world of the hotel staff.

Cast and characters

Main article: List of Hotel Babylon characters

Main cast

• Nigel Harman as Sam Franklin – (series 4) the hotel owner.
• Anna Wilson-Jones as Juliet Miller – (series 4) the general manager.
• Dexter Fletcher as Tony Casemore – the head concierge.
• Martin Marquez as Gino Primirola – the head barman.
• Ray Coulthard as James Schofield – the food and beverage manager.
• Alexandra Moen as Emily James – (series 3-4) the PR manager.
• Michael Obiora as Ben Trueman – the head receptionist, formerly receptionist.
• Amy Nuttall as Melanie Hughes – (series 4) the receptionist.
• Danira Gović as Tanja Mihajlov – the head of housekeeping, formerly maid.
• Tamzin Outhwaite as Rebecca Mitchell – (series 1–2) former general manager.
• Natalie Mendoza as Jackie Clunes – (series 1–3) the former head of housekeeping.
• Lee Williams as Jack Harrison – (series 3) former general manager.
• Max Beesley as Charlie Edwards – the former general manager, former deputy manager, former head receptionist
• Emma Pierson as Anna Thornton-Wilton – the former head receptionist.
• Paul Telfer as Luke Marwood – (series 2) the former junior concierge.

Guests

The show often attracts well known actors and celebrities,^{[original research?]} normally posing as guests staying at the hotel.

Series 1[2] Martin Ball Keith Allen Joan Collins Alan Davies Susie Amy Dugald Bruce Lockhart Les Dennis Steve Pemberton Anthony Head Rachael Stirling Anamaria Marinca Jamie Theakston Zoe Tapper

Series 2[3] Chris Moyles David Walliams Zöe Salmon Christopher Parker Danny Dyer Kelly Brook Kacey Ainsworth Chantelle Houghton Ronni Ancona Russ Abbott Cherie Lunghi Jennifer Ellison Julian Clary Gina Bellman Mark Heap Richard Bacon Alexander Armstrong Vanessa Feltz Jerry Hall John Sessions

Series 3[4] Adele Anderson Bonnie Langford John Barrowman Kwame Kwei-Armah Megan Dodds Anita Dobson Daniel Lapaine Jeremy Sheffield Alan Davies Jon Culshaw Paula Abdul Nicola Stephenson Lesley Garrett Lee Sharpe Marc Bannerman Donna Air James Lance Nigel Quashie Don Gilet Abigail Peel Sophie Wu

Series 4[5] Preeya Kalidas Chris Bisson Ernest Ignatius Abi Titmuss Ben Fogle Patrick Baladi Honor Blackman Tony Robinson Michael Winner Christopher Cazenove Frances Barber Alex Zane Denise Van Outen James Fleet Janet Ellis Darius Danesh Kelly Osbourne John Savident Hugh Dennis Michelle Collins Thaila Zucchi Ruby Turner[6]

Episodes

Main article: List of Hotel Babylon episodes

There were four series broadcast.^[7]

Reception

The show achieved high ratings at around 5 million viewers each episode and winning their timeslot. The programme often beat shows shown on other channels in the same timeslot, such as Eleventh Hour, Footballers' Wives, and Ladette to Lady, all shown on ITV1. Despite Tamzin Outhwaite's departure at the end of season 2, the show still managed to maintain similar figures as the first two series, during the first half of season 3. However, after Max Beesley's departure at the middle of season 3, the show saw a decline in figures from 5 million to 4 million viewers.

The finale of the first series obtained 5.74 million viewers; the second series opened with 5.79 million before rising to 6.6 million viewers for episode 2.^[8] The fourth series opened with 4.28 million (20.1%).

Home video releases

The DVDs are released by BBC Worldwide through 2 Entertain. Series One was released on DVD in the UK on 19 March 2007, and in the US and Canada on 12 February 2008. This series was also released in high definition in the UK on HD DVD (Combo disc) and Blu-ray Disc on 5 November 2007. Series Two was initially slated for release in the UK on 30 September 2007 but was released on 17 March 2008. Internationally, it was released on 14 Feb 2008 in Australia and 5 Aug 2008 in the US and Canada. Series Three was released on DVD in the US and Canada on 3 March 2009 (released before it premiered on BBC America). In the UK, it was on 13 July 2009. Series Four was released on DVD on 17 August 2009 in the UK.

All series have been released digitally in SD and HD via the iTunes Store in the UK.

Netflix also carries the entire series.

References

1. ^ Lambert, Doug (15 December 2009). "Hotel Babylon Axed?". http://www.atvnewsnetwork.co.uk/today/index.php/atv-today/1923-hotel-babylon-axed=ATV. Retrieved 29 April 2010. 
2. ^ "Hotel Babylon Starts Thursday 19 January at 9.00pm on BBC ONE". BBC. 11 January 2006. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/01_january/11/babylon_credits.shtml. Retrieved 29 April 2010. 
3. ^ "Hotel Babylon – second series coming soon to BBC One". BBC. 20 December 2006. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/12_december/20/babylon_profiles.shtml. Retrieved 29 April 2010. 
4. ^ "Hotel Babylon". BBC. 8 February 2008. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/02_february/08/babylon_guest.shtml. Retrieved 29 April 2010. 
5. ^ "Hotel Babylon – introduction". BBC. 1 June 2009. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/06_june/01/babylon.shtml. Retrieved 29 April 2010. 
6. ^ "Ruby Turner (I)". IMDb. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0877852/. Retrieved 1 October 2009. 
7. ^ "BBC One orders fourth series of Hotel Babylon". BBC. 3 April 2008. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/04_april/03/babylon.shtml. Retrieved 29 April 2010. 
8. ^ "Weekly Top 30 Programmes". BARB. http://www.barb.co.uk/viewingsummary/weekreports.cfm?report=weeklyterrestrial&RequestTimeout=500. Retrieved 29 April 2010. 

External links

• Official website
• Hotel Babylon at the Internet Movie Database
• Hotel Babylon at TV.com