The Fortune Hotel's Stephen Mangan's 'struggle' as he admits 'I'm the wrong person'

Daily Mirror

a day ago

Taking the helm of The Fortune Hotel for a second season, Stephen Mangan recently revealed one of his biggest struggles on the hit ITV show - and it may surprise fans.
TV fans may love The Fortune Hotel's rows and betrayals - but for Stephen Mangan, the drama is sometimes difficult to handle.
‌
The Fortune Hotel opens its doors once again for a second season on ITV, and host Stephen Mangan was the first to check in. 'It's a month in the Caribbean in November,' says Stephen. 'I did not need to be asked twice.'
‌
The format sees ten pairs check into the luxury Caribbean resort, where each are handed a briefcase. One holds £250,000, another contains an Early Checkout card and eight hold blank cards.
‌
The aim is simple: find the cash and keep it. In this new series there are more high-stakes challenges than before as the contestants compete to figure out who has which case before the nerve-shredding nightly case swap.
While there's change in the air, the Lady Luck bar remains a staple in The Fortune Hotel, where the atmosphere was always tense. 'I walk in and you can cut the tension with a knife because people have formed alliances,' Stephen says, 'But they don't know if they can trust the partners.'
Stephen promises emotional eliminations. 'There are often a lot of tears, there's a lot of whispering but people are shaking with nerves. You're out of the hotel that night,' says Stephen.
‌
The show is brutal but the contestants are never abandoned. 'We never leave them on the streets,' smiles Stephen. 'They go to another hotel down the road and they fly home the next day.' And when pairs aren't rowing, duos are turning on each other - with Stephen caught up in the middle.
'It's jaw-dropping because you think, 'If you're not going to work as a team, you're screwed. In some ways, I'm the wrong person to host it, because when people start arguing with each other, I want to calm everybody down,' he says.
‌
'But that's what everyone wants to see. I find it hard sometimes to stand by and watch.' His other struggle is keeping his cool, literally. 'Trying not to sweat too much,' he says, 'It's very hot, nobody wants to see a clammy host!'
'There were so many points in this second series where you thought, 'that's where this episode is going to end,'' says Stephen. 'Then something would happen. People would behave in the craziest way and self-sabotage when they were in a great position. People under pressure do odd things.'
Though filming took place at the Silversands hotel in Grenada again, bosses made sure not to pull the same tricks on participants. 'We're back at the same hotel,' Stephen says.
‌
'But we start with much more drama. People on the show watched the first series, and they've come with a plan. Part of our job is to keep pulling the rug from underneath them.'
The first twist of the season sees eleven pairs land in Grenada - but only 10 can actually check into the Fortune Hotel. Racing to the main reception and attempting to grab a room key on a floating buoy was no easy feat for participants.
But the challenge only seemed to make them bolder. 'In the first series, everyone was very cautious,' Stephen remembers. 'They didn't want to swap cases, they felt it might give away information. That went completely out of the window. It was getting to the point where I couldn't get a grip on what was going on. I never knew where the money was.'