January 2021
Joanna had been working incredibly hard on decorating and refurbishing the guest bedrooms, we were in lockdown and had nothing better to do, when we got another call from channel 4. It was always an easy no in previous years, but we were asked to go on Four in a bed and after a bit of haggling with the good wife we agreed to enter, it was completely out of our comfort zone, and we couldn’t begin to imagine what we had let ourselves in for.
9th March 2021
The big day, First day of filming.
Having spent over a week previously with friends and family scrutinizing the bedrooms that were going to be used on the show with a fine-tooth comb and literally a white glove, we were not going to let the hotel, or the staff down.
What they didn’t tell us was it took 13 hours of filming for a 20-minute episode, the re-takes, the angles, the probing questions, where the answers would be used on the other contestants to provoke a response that created drama and a potential cat fest that the program is known for. But we remained true to ourselves, and fortunately so did the other contestants and none of us rose to constant baiting.
Meet our fellow contestants; Jill and Inez from Middlewick Holiday Cottages in Glastonbury, Jamie and Leila from the Griffin Inn near Grantham and Alistair and Julie from Crossroads House in Carlisle.
We were so lucky to be picked with such a lovely bunch of people, we were all like-minded and very supportive of each other and it was clear we were all very proud of our individual businesses and cared passionately about their success.
Ok, we didn’t win, having come second the exposure it created can’t be easily quantified, except to say we won 5 weddings because of its first viewing, and always another wedding when it is shown as a series, it’s a gift that keeps giving,
We would never do filming again, it was not for us, but from a business perspective it has had a massive impact on it’s profile, we occasionally get noticed and quizzed about the show, there are some serious lovers of the program and I still offer cheap autographs and selfies if I’m around the hotel on an event
