Is there an English country mansion with a background far more rich than the Hertfordshire outpost of the wellness spa empire Champneys in Tring? It was built as a home for 1 lady, the Rothschild dowager her 54 servants moved in but she never ever did. Later, it was owned by Walter Rothschild, who filled the grounds with zebras and kangaroos and could typically be noticed riding a giant tortoise. Far more recently, it has hosted British royalty and played a minor role in the phone-hacking scandal thanks to its owner’s generosity in the direction of police chiefs and newspaper editors. Absolutely there is a fantastic documentary in right here somewhere?
Sadly, Champneys (ITV) wasn’t fairly it. In retaining with ITV’s recent obsession with providing us a peek behind the frayed velvet curtain of Britain’s luxury business (see final week’s Within Asprey: Luxury by Royal Appointment), this mildly amusing movie showed the Tring resort and celebrity haunt barely coping with a pile-up of dissatisfied visitors, internecine warfare amongst the employees, and competitors from wannabe spas that – as place-upon owner Stephen Purdew had it – are merely hotels with “a handful of poxy pictures of a pool” in the brochure.
Champneys, Purdew was at pains to stage out, is a overall health spa and not just another 5-star hotel. But the delights of the reiki treatment method rooms, the blood-freezing kriotherapy chamber and the healthier-residing menu seemed lost on numerous. One guest was most put out by the dimension of the portions and the lack of chocolate gateau, one more baffled by the daytime alcohol ban. The location appeared to be complete of girls there just for a dip in the scorching tub and a spot of flirting with the waiters.
A lot of the material here felt like something out of Small Britain: new recruit Bettina’s efforts to “Champney-fy” the reception staff’s phone manner housekeeper Irena, who kept hunting daggers at her superior and operations manager Lee’s very certain instructions for preparing a space for Arab royalty (covered floors and furniture, a Harrods catalogue, “citrus blush” soap in the bathroom).
It was brave – some may possibly say foolish – of Purdew to permit the cameras to present his valiant attempts to cease Champneys looking a lot more like Alan Partridge’s Travel Tavern than a five-star hotel. But this movie sorely lacked a touch of Champneys’ significantly-vaunted glamour. Daniel Craig and the Arab royal investing £250,000 have been talked about, but in no way observed. Who did we get as an alternative? Bobby Davro on a treadmill and a member of Ladies Aloud.
Champneys, ITV, review: "the bubble has burst "
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