'Hotel Portofino’s Mark Umbers on What His Delightfully Dastardly Cecil Will Be Up To in Season 3

Hotel Portofino returns for its third season this Sunday on PBS. Since the show’s inception, Mark Umbers’ Cecil has been up to no good. The impeccably dressed Cecil constantly schemes against his wife, Bella (Natascha McElhone), while getting himself into all sorts of trouble with his questionable get-rich-quick schemes. 

But what will this season hold for the character we all love to hate? Telly Visions had the chance to talk to Umbers during the recent Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Pasadena. Our conversation with him ranged from whether or not he considers himself a villain, the Season 3 time jump forward to 1929, and exactly what his character thinks he's doing in Season 3.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Telly Visions: When Season 3 begins, two years have passed, and Cecil and Bella have moved on to other relationships. 

Mark Umbers: I think that was really helpful. We always end with these kinds of cliffhangers, and it was so clear at the end of Season 2 that this marriage is over and we can’t come back from this. It was a real sort of dividing moment. So it was nice to have those two years to see them both acclimatize to their new realities and jump straight in.

TV: So what is the state of Bella and Cecil’s relationship in Season 3?

MU: This year, he realizes that his marriage broke down because Danioni (Pasquale Esposito) manipulated it; he just wanted to sow discord. Cecil is filled with regret about what happened, and part of him wants to pretend that it didn’t happen and go back to the way things were before, but it’s too late. 

TV: Bella has found someone she’s in love with, whereas Cecil is marrying someone to maintain his fortune and social status.

MU: That’s really painful for him to witness. We will see if he can accept it. But at this point, Cecil wants the divorce because he wants the money. 

TV: How much did you know about Cecil before you accepted the part?

MU: I didn’t know anything. I was given two episodes, so I knew he was a bad father. He was so rude to Lucian (Oliver Dench) in those scenes that I found it really entertaining.  I thought, “Oh, this is quite a charming, funny character but just a terrible father and an aristocrat, so I think I had fun with it” [in the audition].  Then I got offered it, and they sent the other four episodes, and, at that point, there was a rape. He didn’t just smack Bella [in Season 1], he raped her. It got cut, thank God. I thought, ‘“So he’s a terrible human.” And they said, “Yes, we are going to kill you off at the very beginning of Season 2.”

About two or three weeks into filming, they said, “Oh no, we really like Cecil. We want to keep him in the show.” So, they had to rethink. I’m thrilled that they did. It was strange to have to navigate such reprehensible behavior. But knowing he got to stay in the show, I couldn’t go beyond a certain point, or he wouldn’t have had a place in the story anymore. 

TV: How do you approach playing a character who, on the surface, is quite dastardly?

MU: I still have some sympathy for him. Although I can’t justify his behavior, I understand what informs it. No one is one note. We are all many, many things, and it’s a gift to be given a character that is so kind of multifaceted. He’s a cheat, a gambler, and a manipulator. He’s always a different person, depending on who he is talking to, and that’s really interesting to play. I think if I tried to make sense of it, I’d be on a high end to nothing. It’s easier to play each scene believing what he believes in the moment. I always leaned into the fact that, at this moment, he believes what he’s saying, even if, in the next scene, he contradicts himself. The stakes are always incredibly high for him. There’s always a threat to his life. 

TV:  This season is set in 1929 amid Mussolini’s increasing rise to power.

MU: We’re showing the pitfalls of what happens when you do turn a blind eye. What we are seeing is people going on holiday to this beautiful place. This kind of dream world of Italy, but a dream is all it is because, actually, it’s a country descending into hell. And all these holidaymakers are just standing there with cocktails in their hands as though nothing is happening, and that’s really quite resonant for today. There’s sort of a detachment. People are not getting involved in politics and sort of abdicating their responsibility. I think it’s really important that we show that. Gradually, as the show has gone on, that sort of evil that lurks beneath the beautiful surface is starting to kind of seep into these people’s lives because they can’t escape it. There are a lot of period dramas. I don’t think any of them use the tropes of period drama to tell a story that involves politics in the way that this does.

TV: Danioni is even more powerful this season. In the third season premiere, we see him once again blackmail Cecil. What will Cecil’s relationship with Danioni be like this season?

MU: Cecil is an opportunist. To be fair to him, I don’t think he takes the fascists seriously at all. I think he thinks they are quite stupid and a joke until his life is threatened by them. He just thinks, “Oh, I'll be able to work these people to my advantage.” He doesn’t have an opinion of them politically. But he’s treading an incredibly fine line at the moment. Danioni is not just the local fascists, but he’s also in with the mafia. The fact that both of those two camps are encapsulated in one particularly evil mastermind and Cecil is involved with this man financially, that’s going to pose a lot of problems for him for sure. Ever since Danioni found out about the whole Ruben painting fraud thing [in Season 1], he’s been extorting money from Cecil. Danioni says jump, he has to jump and there’s nothing he can do about it.

TV: We don’t see Lucian (Oliver Dench) in the Season 3 premiere. How is Cecil’s relationship with his son this season?

MU: That relationship is in a lot of trouble. I think it’s gone past the point of no return. He can’t afford to give up on Lucian because this is a very patriarchal world that Cecil inhabits and he needs a male heir. Lucian has gone off to India, grown his hair, and driven his wife to suicide. It’s an absolute disaster. In Season 3, Oliver and I didn’t have much to do together at all because they had nothing to say to each other. But in terms of Oliver's storyline, the whole thing is heading towards a really tragic ending. 

TV: That sounds very ominous.

MU: Cecil is really going to have to confront something at the end of the season. Without spoiling what it is because it’s a big deal, it will be interesting to see how he confronts it. The fallout from that lack of communication we will be able to pick up on in Season 4.

Hotel Portofino Season 3 continues with new episodes every Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on most PBS stations and streams on the PBS app and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. All six episodes are available on PBS Passport for members to stream. As always, check your local listings.