Everything To Remember Ahead of 'Hotel Portofino' Season 2

It's been a minute since PBS checked into Hotel Portofino, the British drama set on the Italian coast during the 1920s. Themed as a series about the personal awakenings of its main characters, especially Bella Ainsworth (Natascha McElhone), an upper-class woman of a certain age, who leaves the U.K. after the death of her youngest child drives her to try for a fresh start and open a hotel business for the wealthy as the aristocracy collapses back home, it was filled with the small-time dramas of both those who worked and played there, from the staff members to the guests, while the creeping fascist that would soon take over the whole of Italy state nipped at their heels.

The series' opening episode established this as the sort of show where nothing of particular import seems to happen in any specific installment. Yet, when all is said and done, radical change has somehow crashed over everyone involved. The premiere mainly busied itself in introducing the cast of characters gathered at this particular establishment in the summer of 1926 for various reasons, starting with Bella, her no good con-man of a husband Cecil (Mark Umbers), her "passionate artist" failson Lucian (Oliver Dench), trying to avoid marriage and her equally faildaughter Alice Mays-Smith (Olivia Morris), widowed in the Great War with no particular aim in life.

Bella's staff are not much better than her family; there's cook Betty Scanlon (Elizabeth Carling) and her son Billy (Louis Healy), who at least has the good sense to discover garlic and olive oil make everything better, and nanny Constance March (Louisa Binder), who clearly has a child out of wedlock back home that the show is trying to pretend is a mystery. There's also Anish Sengupta (Assad Zaman), who isn't technically staff, but since he's not white, everyone assumes he is. He's Lucian's BFF (and also clearly not straight); he has a medical license, so he winds up being the hotel's doctor on call by default. 

As for the guests, technically, the most important one is Lady Latchmere (Anna Chancellor), whose recommendation can make or break the new vacation spot's reputation among the elite. However, she and her niece/travel companion, Melissa De Vere (Imogen King), are mostly played for laughs. In reality, the most important guests at the hotel are the Drummond-Wards. Mother Julia (Lucy Akhurst) is the with wallflower daughter Rose (Claude Scott-Mitchell), with the understanding by both families that this is a match to be made for money and respectability. In reality, it's a match to be made because Cecil and Julia are having an affair, and they are creepy narcissists.

Lucian and Rose both know why she's there. Though Lucian acts like he is trying to seal the deal, he's too busy having an affair with one of the hotel maids, Paola (Carolina Gonnelli), when he's not being crushed on by Anish or mooning over Constance. (Nice work if you can get it.) Meanwhile, Cecil is distracted by Jack Turner (Adam James), another guest who is as much a con artist as his proprietor. However, as an American, he can at least date more interesting women like Claudine Pascal (Lily Frazier). Cecil is also over-excited when washed-up tennis pro Pelham Wingfield (Dominic Tighe) and his wife, Lizzie (Bethan Cullinane), check-in, seeing $$$.

And then there are the local government officials, like Vincenzo Danioni (Pasquale Esposito), Portofino's resident Fascist leader, who Cecil is dumb enough to think he can snow. However, Bella is already being blackmailed by him and has to knuckle under despite her instincts. Her long-term guest, Count Carlo Albani (Daniele Pecci), who is clearly smitten with her, advises her well. He knows danger when he sees it, even if his son Roberto (Lorenzo Richelmy) is not so wise.  

Cecil's first scam is to get involved in trying to get his hands on some fake paintings he can pass off as authentic works of Peter Paul Rubens. The sheer amount of work that goes into this scheme is only made more comical by how bad he is at it. Meanwhile, Nisha and Lucien get pamphlets from Gianluca Bruzzone (Rocco Fasano), who is part of Portofino's anti-fascist movement, and Nisha decides to go check out what the meeting is about. Lucien goes with him, which means they are both present when the meeting is raided. Both escape but not before leaving a towel stamped with the hotel's logo behind, another headache for Bella to clean up, considering she just paid off Danioni again.

Post-raid, Nish and Luca meet up again and begin an affair while Lucian goes on a boat trip without Rose, who is suffering from too much sun and alcohol. He and Connie wind up having a secluded swim and a heart-to-heart over his experience in the Great War while Roberto chases Claudine, and Count Albani tries to set his son up with Alice. While the Wingfields turn out to be more broke than the Ainsworths, and make a hasty exit without paying their bills, Cecil continues to bait his fake painting scheme until they are stolen.

While people panic over the disappearance of fake paintings, real problems are happening, like Nish's getting in deep with the anti-fascist movement and storing illegal pamphlets for them, which wind up under Lady Latchmere's bed because, of course, they do. The cops fail to find either the pamphlets or the paintings, so they arrest Billy because he's an easy target and leave. The Count goes down to the station and drops a few names and makes all the problems disappear for the moment, but that's when she learns Cecil discovered she was having a love affair all along with a man back home, because he beats her for it.

Of course, despite Jack driving off and looking like he was trying to hide he stole the painting, it was Cecil behind the theft the whole time since that was the fastest way to make his forgeries were never discovered. He now has money and tries to give it to Bella, but she realizes that she no longer needs Cecil, and she throws him out. Meanwhile, instead of feeling sorry for them, Alice, jealous that Lucian and Constance are falling in love, tries to get Constance fired for having a child out of wedlock. Lucian ignores her, and Bella, all too aware of having lost her son, tells her daughter to jump in the ocean.

It's not like Lucian and Connie can get married. Cecil's fraud windfall puts him in a position to support his son and daughter-in-law, so the marriage proposal is on, despite neither party wanting to get married and leaving Paola, Nish, and Connie all heartbroken. Nish at least has the good sense to join Gianluca in Turin to fight the fascists. Meanwhile, Alice discovers it was never Roberto but Count Albani who wanted to marry her. But at least one person won by losing: Wingfield bet against himself in his tennis tournament and is officially solvent.

Claudine and Jack head back to America, saying they will recommend the hotel to people as they do. Oh, and Lady Latchmere and her niece, Melissa, had a wonderful time and plan to recommend the Hotel Portofino to all their upper-class friends. It's a good thing the show's renewed for Season 2.

Hotel Portofino Season 2 debuts on Sunday, October 15, 2023, at 8 p.m. ET on most PBS stations, and all six episodes are available for members on PBS Passport to stream the same day. As always check your local listings. Season 1 is available now.