Cheltenham’s Big Sleep Hotel hits the small screen

31 July to 4 September – The Big Sleep Hotel in Cheltenham will be hitting Gloucestershire’s television screens this month as the star of Risky Business – a dramatic six-week behind-the-scenes documentary showing on ITV West.

Gloucestershire viewers are being treated to Risky Business, an exciting behind-the-scenes documentary premiering on ITV West this month, which shows The Big Sleep hotel’s owners Cosmo Fry and Lulu Anderson, pulling out all the stops in a bid to open the county’s new hotel on time.

While Cheltenham’s funky new hotel, which boasts Hollywood giant John Malkovich as a shareholder, successfully opened its doors in December 2006, viewers of the Risky Business series can expect to be glued to their television sets by the tales of the team’s trials and tribulations.

Cosmo Fry said: ‘I don’t think we quite realised just what we were letting ourselves in for when we agreed to go ahead with this fly-on-the-wall documentary. It’s one thing being filmed at the hotel, but when you come out of your bathroom in the morning to find a camera in your face, it is a little disconcerting.’

It took hundreds of hours to convert the dishevelled former Inland Revenue office block into the stylish 62-bedroom hotel that stands on Cheltenham’s Wellington Street today. The ITV cameras covered everything from boardroom talks and production of bespoke furniture at Cosmo’s Bath factory through to marketing activities and the fitting-out work on site.

‘Still, we got used to it and we do hope people will enjoy sharing this often frenetic, certainly bitter-sweet and totally unforgettable experience with us,’ Fry added.

As well as laying their money on the line, the owners also had to live-up to the success of their Big Sleep Hotel in Cardiff, heralded as nothing less than one of the 25 coolest hotels in the world by Conde Nast Traveller magazine.

To find out whether or not they achieved their goal, you’ll have to tune in to the first episode due to be broadcast throughout the ITV West region on Tuesday 31 July at 7.30pm – running each week until Tuesday 4 September. Or, you could always book into the hotel and catch the show on the flat screen television in your room.

Find out more about The Big Sleep Hotel in Cheltenham by clicking here or go straight to their website at thebigsleephotel.com.

SoGlos.com
10 July 2007