British hotelier Bella Ainsworth and her friends/lovers/employees return for a third season of romance and intrigue on the Italian Riveria, all under the looming shadow of fascism
From the iconic fashions to the stunning views, Hotel Portofino has been a feast for the eyes since the very beginning. The British ex-pat family that owns and operates a hotel for elite travellers on the magical Portofino coastline amidst the Roaring ’20s has offered viewers escapism in the form of forbidden romance and sultry excursions. But now, as the Second World War nears, the dark cloud of fascist Italy grows, threatening to turn out the lights on this lavish party.
“Having this microcosm of world events and the darker themes of politics to contrast against the smaller individual stories is a bit of a gift as a writer,” says series creator Matt Baker. “The clouds of war and conflict are coming, so there is a marked change in season three. Season one and season two were notable for more of the lighter play between upstairs and downstairs. In season three, we start in quite a different place, against the backdrop of a fascist parade.”
Much like where we left them two years prior, spouses Bella (Natascha McElhone) and Cecil (Mark Umbers) Ainsworth are estranged and romantically entangled with other people. Although time marches forward, divorce still doesn’t seem to be on the table due to the social climate of the era. “She can’t quite escape from him because of the legal restrictions in Italy and the social restrictions back home in England,” says Umbers. “She’s really serving a kind of prison sentence. And I don’t know whether Cecil is necessarily deliberately exploiting that or whether he’s just seeing his own benefit.”
This season, despite the consequences, Bella will attempt to break free from this particular prison, as she flirts up a storm with sexy architect Marco. “The story is a gradual story of liberation from those pressures,” says Baker. “Bella’s trajectory is definitely becoming more liberated socially and her ability to stand on her own feet is the theme of the story. Although those restrictions do exist, it’s her ability to turn her back and give up her concerns about that which is the primary narrative of the show.”
As the war looms, and the fascists’ oppressive presence can be felt throughout their lives, Baker still wants to maintain a certain optimism when it comes to his protagonist. “Bella certainly travels in hope,” he says. “I don’t think she is totally aware of this dimension to fascism and its potential to become what we know it eventually becomes. I think Cecil is probably more ambivalent about it. Certainly politically he’s more of a conservative character than to the left. But Bella is an individual caught up in her own story rather than worrying too much about the broader politics of Italy.”
This year, we are also introduced to Bella’s father and sister, revealing more of her background to the audience. “She doesn’t come from an aristocratic family like Cecil does,” says Baker. “In season three, we find that Cecil’s brother has died and he’s inherited the title and the estate back in England with all the financial problems that come with that. But what you also get is a lot more of the detail of Bella’s background and why she might have married Cecil in the first place. What were her father’s desires in marrying her off to Cecil? With her sister, it’s a more troubled relationship and it brings a different dimension to the story, to see her struggling to find common ground with a female character and struggling to come to terms with some problems of a shared past.”
Having ended the second season on the death of Bella’s son Lucian’s (Oliver Dench) despondent wife Rose (Claude Scott-Mitchell), and the assassination of his best friend Anish (Assad Zaman), this darker season promises to draw even more character arcs to a devastating end. “The pleasure of being a writer is to try and find ways to bring the audience with you, rather than shock them and disappoint them,” says Baker. “But the truth is that when you’re building a narrative across three seasons and multiple episodes, you can’t just keep on going around in the same loops. You have to develop characters, you have to bring new characters in, you have to provide these high emotional moments of drama.”
While these are heartbreaking decisions, Baker maintains it allows for a lot of creative options in a probable season four. “I think we leave it with multiple directions in which it could go — which is, to me, the key to good drama,” the creator muses. “We leave season three in a place where it’s clear that some characters are starting a very distinctive new arc.”
Indeed, the best news of all for fans is that Baker sees plenty of narrative vacancies at the Hotel Portofino moving forward. “These beautifully rounded characters, created with the help of the actors, the directors and the brilliant crew, have been a real joy to write,” he says. “I’ve got multiple ideas for future storylines. We can move it forward a year, a few years . . . a couple of decades if you like. A hotel is going to be there in different circumstances and it’s about moving characters around in that precinct and having fun doing it.”
Hotel Portofino airs Sunday, August 4, on WTVS and KCTS