I caught up with hotel manager and star of The Hotel Mark Jenkins to get his take on the latet series and what he really thought of his co-workers.
So first things first, after the first series what made you agree to another?
I didn’t have a choice, everyone who’d see the first series loved it so much I was being bombarded with requests for another one…. I think it was they couldn’t believe what they were seeing….So they wanted to see it again.
How long does the series take to film and how does it affect the day-to-day running of the hotel?
They have the Cameras installed for about 6 weeks, and because they are fixed cameras it has no real effect, you hardly ever see anyone from the TV company, so everything runs normally, well as normal as the hotel is!
Do you think anybody played up to the cameras at all? Or do you forget they're there after a while?
If anyone waved at the Cameras and said ‘Hello Mum’ obviously that bit didn’t get shown on the TV. They ended up with about 2,000 hours of footage and then edit it down to 8 x 46 minute programs.
So they only bits shown are real when it’s obvious that who ever features has forgotten about the Cameras.
Right then, I want to know, what do you really think about Christian and Alison?
Don’t ask! Christian and Alison are both a nightmare, although Christian became just too much of a nightmare for me to put up with any longer.
Alison despite being a nightmare has actually worked for me for almost 9 years and despite what you see and how she talks to me we’re actually good friends. She’s not quite as she appears in the programme , well she is but her hearts in the right place and she really cares about the hotel.
Were you surprised at the reaction of what can only be called 'sausage gate' and a certain VIP sausage?
Sausage Gate…. Amazing it was still trending on twitter 2 hours after the programme had finished. In reality the Sausage up-grade was a great success, and not just for the ‘posh’ people…. ‘poor’ people we’re more than happy to opt for the up-grade!
Talking about reactions, let's talk about last week's episode, so called 'Balti Towers'. We saw you 'black up' in the show which caused quite a stir online. What's your take on it
‘Balti Towers’ was taken in the true spirit in which it was intended, it was a bit of fun and a great night at the Hotel.
Throughout both series you've proven to be quite the entertainer. Has you ever considered a career in entertainment before The Hotel?
I said in our previous series last year… I always wanted to be an entertainer. I mean who in their right minds would actually want to run bloody Hotels!
How do you feel when people compare The Hotel to Fawlty Towers?
There is a big difference, Fawlty Towers was funny because Basil viewed the guests as an inconvenience. Whereas I like the guests and it’s all the staff that are my inconvenience!
What can we expect for the rest of the series?
I don’t want to spoil things (for the finale) but it get a bit emotional….. you’ll have to watch and see 2 more Episodes to go 10th & the last one is on the following week 17th.
So what's next for you then Mark?
Well… You’ll have to watch the ending, but what I can say is it’s unlikely that this is the last you’ve seen of me on TV.