EXCLUSIVE: Stephen Mangan believes he'd be 'terrible' in new quiz series The Fortune Hotel

Virgin Radio

13 May 2024, 11:22

Star of Green Wing and Episodes, Stephen Mangan hosts a brand new ITV game show, The Fortune Hotel, tonight (13th May).

Inspired by the likes of The White Lotus and The Traitors, the high-stakes game of wit and wagers is set in a luxury Caribbean resort. Ten pairs of hopefuls will aim to win a very tasty £250,000 grand prize, but not everyone will check-out a winner.

In an exclusive interview with virginradio.co.uk, the actor and childrens’ author gave us an idea of what we can expect: “Not everyone is as they seem,” he told us. “First of all, it's people from all over the British Isles of all ages and different professions. We've got a barrister, who's married to a woman who runs her family hotel. We've got a landscape gardener and a builder from Bognor.”

The couples taking part will be handed an 'all-important briefcase' upon arrival at the fancy hotel. One of them has £250,000 in it, eight are empty and one contains an Early Checkout Card. Contestants will take part in challenges every day and, at the end of each episode, the pairs will decide whether to keep or swap their cases.

Stephen told us: “A bit of investigation is required to spot who is lying. But also, it doesn't matter if someone does work out who's got the money, because then it's like, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ The game is not over when you're discovered that you're not who you say you are. It goes on and on and on, because people are building alliances, or they're pretending to form alliances, or they're saying one thing to one person and something else to another. I mean, it's just fascinating. So the game itself really hooked me as soon as I heard about it, I thought, ‘That sounds like a brilliant game.’”

When we asked how he thinks he would have fared as a contestant, the I’m Alan Partridge star said: “I think I'd have been quite good at the puzzle bit, I think I'd have been terrible at the lying bit. But then it sort of doesn't matter. Because sometimes, people who are obviously bad at lying, people start to think that they're no threat, which can be a brilliant sort of double-bluff. But you've got to be lucky among all these things. 

“You've got to be lucky at the right moment, which is why they're so amazing to watch.”

Promising “intrigue and drama and a bit of treachery” he added: “I spend my life doing scripted shows where we're trying to bring the drama from the page to life, but we all know where it's going, we all know what's going to happen. With this, we didn't have a clue from day to day, not a clue of what was going to happen next - so it was really exciting.”

The Fortune Hotel begins at 9pm tonight, Monday 13th May, on ITV1 and ITVX.