(bright music) - Hey PBS, I didn't see you there.

You've actually caught me taking a little moment 'cause it's 38 degrees outside, and I'm just having a look at our beautiful set.

Come on, let me show you around.

(bright music continues) (sighs) Hey, PBS.

There you are again.

You're stalking me.

Here we are on the upper terrace of Hotel Portofino, where many, many dramatic scenes have happened so far.

I had one of my first scenes up here with Jack Turner, talking about the Rubens painting and Renaissance art.

And I couldn't light a cigar.

It was all very, very stressful.

Anyway, let me show you around the garden, come on.

(bright music) So we're coming down the steps to the breakfast terrace of Hotel Portofino, which is the hottest place on the entire set to film.

But look at that view.

It's incredible.

That's what we have to look at, the Adriatic, when everybody else is on holiday and we're working, sweating like pigs.

But, it makes for very tense scenes, so it's all right.

Come on, let me show you the garden.

So I'm gonna show you my favorite location at the villa, which is this lovely sea point.

We're on this very gravelly path, which means we always have to rerecord our dialogue when we're down here.

Very annoying.

Now, I can't show you this location without first introducing you to statue lady.

She doesn't have a name, nobody knows who she is.

But she features more heavily than any other cast member in the show.

And she does it entirely for free.

It's quite remarkable.

They don't have unions, statues.

(bright music) And so this is it, this is the viewpoint where lots of pivotal scenes have happened.

I had a big scene with Danioni in season one here, which was the scene where he was goading me into anger with regard to my wife.

We know how that ended, not happily.

But look at this view.

That's the city of, beautiful city of Rijeka over there.

Which when you see the show is all CGI-ed out and it looks like the Italian coastline.

And then we just have this beautiful bay, and the island of Cres and Krk.

It's a stunning view.

(gentle music) And you can imagine, in our first season when it was still covid and everybody was still in lockdown, and we came out here like caged animals who thought we were never gonna work again.

And then suddenly we were going on boat trips at the weekends and diving into that sea.

It's incredible.

Now let me give you a closer look at the water.

Come on, I'm gonna show you the sea-gate.

Now I have an ulterior motive for bringing you down here.

As you can see, it's in the shade.

And everybody's melting, so we're all a winner.

This is the sea-gate, which has played home to lots of pivotal scenes in the first two seasons.

But more importantly, this is where the camera crew come for their dip at lunchtime.

Now actors are not allowed to have a swim at lunchtime because we're all in makeup and costume, but the crew are allowed to.

(gentle music continues) So here we are on the side lawn of the hotel.

If you see up there, that's Bella's balcony where me and Natascha do lots of scenes.

And this, in season two, you won't have seen it yet, but there's an exercise class scene.

And luckily, the older cast members didn't have to do it.

It was just the younger ones.

And they were doing all this kind of like calisthenic stuff, and it was hilarious.

And they hated us 'cause they were jealous.

(gentle music) And I wanted to show you this location 'cause it's the setting of one of my favorite scenes from season one, which was the big showdown in episode six between Cecil and Lucian.

And Cecil's being a very, very bad father, and forcing him into an unhappy marriage, which of course is the whole cycle of unhappiness that the Ainsworth family suffers from.

It's what Bella and Cecil was subjected to as well.

But it all took place here, where you're standing.

There was a lot of shouting involved, I remember.

- This will be in the Times next week.

You, do your duty.

(bright music) - And I'm taking a look at our beautiful villa.

Come on, let me show you inside.

(bright music continues) So I'm now gonna take you to where all the big drama happens, the marital bedrooms.

Now this is Cecil's bedroom.

And unsurprisingly, it's the most depressing room in the house, I think.

Look at this bed.

It's tiny and looks so uncomfortable.

It is actually really uncomfortable.

There's just about room for me on it.

And if you recall there, there was this tiled boiler in season one where the big slap happened in episode five.

And that's now been removed, and replaced with this huge wooden wardrobe, presumably so they can forget.

Let me show you Bella's room.

Separate bedrooms, of course, in those days.

And unsurprisingly, given that it's Bella, it's much nicer, bigger and lighter, and airier.

But this is the piece de resistance.

So this is Bella's balcony.

And where you are right now, that's where Natascha McElhone reclines very precariously on that ledge.

Look at this beautiful view across the Adriatic.

And down there, that's our breakfast terrace where we shoot all of our morning scenes.

(bright music) Hotel Portofino, season two.

I gotta go, they're calling me.

(bright music continues)