May 7, 2024 – A thrilling and high-octane new reality entertainment event, The Fortune Hotel is produced by Tuesday’s Child exclusively for ITV and STV, the 8 episodes x 60 minutes prime-time series will invite viewers into a luxury Caribbean resort filled with glamour, opulence and deception.

Hosted by the incomparable Stephen Mangan, 10 pairs of contestants will arrive at The Fortune Hotel, where they will be given an all-important briefcase. Inside one case is the ultimate jackpot of £250,000 in cash, eight are empty, and one contains the dreaded Early Checkout Card – whichever pair is left holding that case at the end of each show will see their stay brought to a dramatic, premature end.

Every day the contestants have the chance to try to uncover who has which case through playing compelling challenges, and as the “Whogotit” mystery ramps up for the hotel guests, viewers at home will remain deliciously in-the-know throughout, witness to all of their plans and strategies playing out.

The climax of each episode is the nerve-shredding case swap in the seductive Lady Luck bar where each pair must decide whether to keep or swap their case. Have the couple with the life-changing sum of cash managed to bluff and blag their way free of suspicion? Or will their case be ruthlessly taken off them? And who will be left holding the case containing the Early Checkout Card?

What was it about hosting The Fortune Hotel that initially appealed to you when approached to present the show?

The opportunity to head to the Caribbean sounded very interesting on its own 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 so a combination of that alongside the backdrop in which it was set was just pretty irresistible.

Can you give some insight as to what viewers can expect from The Fortune Hotel and how you’d best describe it in a nutshell?

Ten pairs of contestants are trying to win a huge life changing amount of money, the pairs are made up of partners, best friends, parents and children, all sorts of combinations. Each pair has a case they’ve randomly been given, eight cases have nothing in them, one has the Early Checkout card and the remaining case has the cash. You certainly don’t want to end the day with the Early Checkout card because that means you’re going home. The pairs play games, they swap cases, they’re trying to stay at the hotel whilst working out where the cash is and the goal is to be the couple at the end holding it all because if they are, they win a life changing amount of money.

The Fortune Hotel is a different proposition to some of the other shows and projects you’ve fronted, what was it about the show that made you want to front this type of format?

People are endlessly fascinating to me as an actor and the reason you become an actor is because people and how they get on with each other, especially in moments of high stress is deeply fascinating. Human beings are complex and interesting 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.

You got to shoot in an incredibly luxurious hotel in the Caribbean, can you tell us about the best perks whilst filming and any unforgettable memories or stories you have from the experience?

We took over the entire resort and I got to have a very nice suite without having to pay for it. The presidential suite, which 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.

The Fortune Hotel is a high octane game of deception, can you tell us about any dramatic moments viewers can expect to see when tuning in?

Everyday ends with a drink at the hotel’s Lady Luck Bar which is referred to as ‘the Night Cap’. The Night Cap is when all the contestants have an opportunity to swap cases with each other which 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 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.

The show’s cast is a brilliantly eclectic mix of people, can you tell us more about what viewers can expect when they meet the hotel’s 10 pairs of guests?

We’ve got people of all ages, from all parts of the country, from all different backgrounds. Some of them got on like a house on fire and some wanted to set each other’s houses on fire. You put twenty 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 and this is no different.

How invested and engrossed were you in the game and did you ever find it difficult to remain neutral amongst all the action?

I found it almost impossible to remain neutral, I was heartbroken for every couple when they were eliminated.

If you could pick any 3 celebrity guests to join you at The Fortune Hotel who would they be?

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.