The Fortune Hotel's Stephen Mangan worried about ruining contestants' chances

The actor hosts the new ITV gameshow and revealed he chose not to know which contestants had the money in the case as he thought he would give it away.

Albertina Lloyd
·Contributor
Updated ·3 min read
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The Fortune Hotel's Stephen Mangan worried about ruining contestants' chances

Stephen Mangan has said he didn't want to influence the contestants in new gameshow The Fortune Hotel.

The actor is host of ITV's new show - which has been compared to The Traitors - which sees 10 couples holidaying in a Caribbean resort competing to claim the briefcase containing the jackpot cash prize of £250,000. The Trip star revealed he asked not to know which case contained the money as he didn't want to give it away to the other contestants.

Mangan admitted he struggled to emulate The Traitors' presenter Claudia Winkleman, in messing with players' minds.

Stephen Mangan is host of new ITV gameshow The Fortune Hotel. (ITV)
Stephen Mangan is host of new ITV gameshow The Fortune Hotel. (ITV)

Mangan appeared on This Morning to chat to Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard about his new role as host of The Fortune Hotel. The new ITV gameshow sees 10 couple compete to win £250,000. At the beginning of the show, set in a luxury hotel in the Caribbean, the couples are all given a briefcase. Eight cases are empty, one contains an early check-out card and one contains a jackpot cash prize of £250,000. During the series they can bid and deal among each other to swap cases.

Mangan said: "I didn't want to know who had the money, because I'm grilling them all. Why have you done that? I just didn't want to lead anyone because it's a life changing amount of cash, and I don't want to be the one that sends someone down. Stephen said this about someone." He added: "I did try and work it out [who had the money], and I was wrong most of the time."

The Traitors II,24-01-2024,10,Claudia Winkleman,Studio Lambert,Llara Plaza
Stephen Mangan said he cannot be as devious as Claudia Winkleman is in The Traitors. (BBC)

The actor also confessed he really struggled to be like The Traitors host Winkleman and manipulate the players. He said: "I can't do that. It can be spicy at times, you know people are under pressure and they're suddenly discovering things and people are saying things in the heat at the moment and I want to jump in and go, 'Hey, it's all right, Everyone, calm down.' But of course, I can't, that's not my job."

And Mangan admitted he was sad every time he had to send a couple home. He said: "You're with these contestants for three or four weeks. I was gutted every time somebody went home because, you know what a difference it could make that sort of money and you get to know them."

Embargoed for publication until 00:00:01 on Tuesday 29/03/2022 - Picture shows: Hannah (NICOLA WALKER), Nathan (STEPHEN MANGAN) L-R,Hannah (NICOLA WALKER), Nathan (STEPHEN MANGAN),14
Stephen Mangan is delighted to be working on a new special of legal drama The Split. (BBC)

Mangan admitted he did not expect The Split to return to TV. The actor is delighted to be reuniting with co-stars Annabel Scholey, Nicola Walker and Fiona Button for a new two-part special of the BBC divorce legal drama written by Abi Morgan, set in Barcelona.

He said: "We thought it was over. We thought that was it for the split. But the BBC have come back, and we're doing two one-off episodes that are set in Barcelona. We do feel like a family, you know, because we did three series together. And it's quite, traumatic stuff you're dealing with 'cause it's about divorce. So to see everybody again was a joy."

This Morning airs on weekdays from 10am on ITV1.

The Fortune Hotel starts at 9pm on Monday 13 May on ITV1, STV and STV Player.