Welcome to the Hotel Portofino!
The year is 1926. The Great War is past, but hardly forgotten. The Jazz Age is in full swing, having spread from New Orleans' French Quarter to New York's Harlem and Chicago's speakeasies, and even across the pond to London, Paris, Monte Carlo and Cairo. Some members of the British aristocracy and the well-heeled class continue to struggle for relevance and place in an ever-changing early twentieth century, with some tightly clutching their pocketbooks and sense of snobbery with a stiff upper lip, and others broadening their horizons as they embrace the thoroughly modern, unprecedented times and reality of a diminishing Empire. At the same time, Benito Mussolini's fascist regime is becoming ever-present in Italy, even far from the confines of Rome into the nation's backwaters, and Adolf Hitler, who just three years earlier had attempted to take over Germany in a failed coup d'état, will, by 1930, become Germany's dictator and forever impact the Continent and the Allied nations who challenge and ultimately defeat him.
Meanwhile, in Matt Baker's Hotel Portofino, which is currently airing on PBS this summer, one finds a fascinating and, at times, colorful cast of characters situated in the breathtaking Italian riviera amid the roaring twenties. Everyone seems to arrive with their own literal and figurative baggage, much of the latter of their own making, and some a result of life-changing circumstances beyond their control.
Meanwhile, in Matt Baker's Hotel Portofino, which is currently airing on PBS this summer, one finds a fascinating and, at times, colorful cast of characters situated in the breathtaking Italian riviera amid the roaring twenties. Everyone seems to arrive with their own literal and figurative baggage, much of the latter of their own making, and some a result of life-changing circumstances beyond their control.
Some characters are instantly likable. Natascha McElhone plays the role of Bella Ainsworth, an engaging, intelligent, intuitive and beautiful woman, who is married to Cecil (Mark Umbers), an utter cad. Determined to run the hotel without asking her wealthy father for yet another helping hand, Bella finds that profiting from the hotel venture is difficult since she has a past of her own, and a certain matter of delicacy has become blackmail material for Signor Danioni, a powerful member of the resort town's underbelly.
The Ainsworths' son, Lucian (Oliver Dench, great nephew of Academy, Tony, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Olivier winner Dame Judi Dench CH, DBE, FRSA), who has never quite earned the approval of his father, is a passionate and capable artist. He bears physical scars and endures recurring nightmares from his time in the War. Handsome, thoroughly charming and seemingly innocent and naïve (although he has done more living than perhaps imagined by his parents), Lucian is duty-bound to marry Rose Drummond-Ward (Claude Scott-Mitchell), the daughter of his father's old flame, Julia Drummond-Ward (Lucy Akhurst), for reasons besides love. At least that's the way Cecil sees it. Will the young couple follow through on this arrangement? Time will tell.
Like any series of consequence, the inevitable twists and turns are bound to keep viewers returning to see what happens next. Reminiscent of so many British series, including the international phenomenon, Julian Fellowes' Downton Abbey, the show has its own 'upstairs-downstairs' correlation, and reveals the complicated relationships and mostly subtle, but sometimes glaring, contrasts between the elite and their lower class counterparts.
The Ainsworths' son, Lucian (Oliver Dench, great nephew of Academy, Tony, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Olivier winner Dame Judi Dench CH, DBE, FRSA), who has never quite earned the approval of his father, is a passionate and capable artist. He bears physical scars and endures recurring nightmares from his time in the War. Handsome, thoroughly charming and seemingly innocent and naïve (although he has done more living than perhaps imagined by his parents), Lucian is duty-bound to marry Rose Drummond-Ward (Claude Scott-Mitchell), the daughter of his father's old flame, Julia Drummond-Ward (Lucy Akhurst), for reasons besides love. At least that's the way Cecil sees it. Will the young couple follow through on this arrangement? Time will tell.
Like any series of consequence, the inevitable twists and turns are bound to keep viewers returning to see what happens next. Reminiscent of so many British series, including the international phenomenon, Julian Fellowes' Downton Abbey, the show has its own 'upstairs-downstairs' correlation, and reveals the complicated relationships and mostly subtle, but sometimes glaring, contrasts between the elite and their lower class counterparts.
Guests of the English-speaking hotel range from the decidedly reserved Lady Latchmere, played by BAFTA- and Olivier-nominated actress Anna Chancellor, to the rather worldly, sexy and very liberated Claudine Pascal, brilliantly played by Lily Fraser, best known for her roles in Saint Maud (2019), Ladhood (2019-2021), Cuckoo (2019) and Motherland (2016). Fraser is the daughter of British actor Hugh Fraser, who is renowned for his role as Captain Hastings in Agatha Christie's Poirot, acting opposite David Suchet in the famed series.
As the six-episode first season of Hotel Portofino progresses, a variety of unexpected occurrences, including shocking revelations, blossoming romances (some of them forbidden) and the theft of a painting passed off as the work of Flemish painter, Peter Paul Rubens, keeps viewers watching week after week. While all of this can prove intriguing to American television viewers, who made smash hits out of sitcoms such as Seinfeld and Friends, even though the shows were arguably about little or nothing substantive, Hotel Portofino affords PBS and BritBox devotees a voyeuristic look into both a real and imagined place where the reckless abandon of the twenties, the elegance of a bygone era hotel and the riviera landscape simply prove irresistible. For fans of the show, this vantage point is reason enough to watch, even if the English portrayed in the series exist in relative safety, not to mention luxurious surroundings, facing unreasonably minimal conflict, while some of their Italian neighbors endure the wrath of Mussolini and fascism's ruthless whims.
This pre-1910 post card is from the author's collection.
As a result, the show, or more specifically its writer and creator, Matt Baker, has prompted unflattering remarks from some critics. Writing for The Epoch Times, Joe Bendel states in a review (subtitled Nothing to watch except stunning scenery), "Viewers just never feel like most characters are in any peril, even though some of the locals most certainly are. Largely, this is a factor of shallow characterization." Bendel could have a point, but many viewers might be so distracted by who loves who, who did what and when, or where it all will lead, that they, like the Ainsworths and their distinguished hotel guests, remain oblivious to the brutal reality of Mussolini and the threat he actually poses to detractors in 1926 Italy. No worries. Thankfully, it is just a television series.
Bendel, Joe. "Television Series Review: 'Hotel Portofino': Nothing to watch except stunning scenery." The Epoch Times. 14 June 2022. Retrieved 21 July 2022: https://www.theepochtimes.com/television-series-review-hotel-portofino_4532944.html
21 July 2022. By Greg Freeman. ListenHereNow.com
21 July 2022. By Greg Freeman. ListenHereNow.com
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