IAN HYLAND
On last night’s telly
Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond The Lobby, BBC2: ★★★★
Over on BBC2 last night, Giles Coren gave us an insight into his character.
“I seek approval,” he revealed.
“I can’t bear just to be rubbish.” So, in a way, you could say ITV was protecting him from further pain back in 2016 when it axed his terrible primetime quiz show 500 Questions after just four episodes. Besides, he lived to fight another day. The third series of his tour of the world’s most luxurious hotels with Monica Galetti began with a stay at the incredible MGM Cotai in the Chinese gambling haven of Macau.
That may sound like a total blag, but the format of this show does at least require the presenters to sing for their expensive suppers. First up, Coren was tasked with the incredibly arduous task of joining the hotel’s team of flower arrangers for an hour or two.
Amazingly, the chief flower lady Christine was so impressed with Coren’s efforts that she agreed to display the fruits of his floral artistry in the hotel’s vast lobby.
Without wishing to rain on Coren’s orchid parade, I couldn’t help noticing that Christine had a cheeky air about her.
I’m not saying that Christine’s effusive praise was definitely encouraged by the BBC crew... I’m just saying we shouldn’t completely rule out the possibility that he was being set up to look like a fool.
We could also speculate as to why the production team picked Coren, not Galetti, to visit the hotel’s state-ofthe-art theatre – a visit that ended with Coren being hoisted 30ft into the air in a chair that was attached to hi-tech ropes and pulleys, and swung around like a rag doll on a bungee.
NB. In unrelated news, Coren opened this episode by boasting, “I have opinions on just about everything.”
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Coren had the arduous task of joining the hotel’s flower arrangers