Fri, Jun 19, 2009
Jack has gone and the hotel is due to be closed and sold to Japanese developers and Juliet Miller is caretaker manager for its final weeks. Despite a terrorist alert following a bomb blast a lavish party is being held for Bollywood star Omar Pandit's engagement to Aishia Chadhuri,daughter of a Mumbai hotel magnate whom Tony hopes will buy Hotel Babylon. Sam Franklin, a handsome millionaire, brings customers galore to the hotel, following the blast. He is Juliet's ex-husband and she is cool towards him but trade booms as a result of the influx of guests and,following a power cut, the couple share an intimate moment. Chadhuri withdraws his offer to buy when Tony exposes Pandit for paying a prostitute but Sam saves the day by buying the hotel, though his other investments are less successful. Anna is annoyed that staff are laying bets as to the father of her unborn baby.
Fri, Jun 26, 2009
Having lost all his other investments the hotel is Sam's only asset and his first job is to bring in an inspector to assess its 'green' credentials. He is very fussy but James exposes him as a hypocrite, wanting a cushy holiday. Married television cooks Erin and Ed Martyn, the "perfect" couple, arrive with small son Tyler whom Anna is delegated to baby-sit. She discovers that the Martyns are far from happy and on the verge of divorce but talks sense into them for the sake of Tyler who tells her she will make a good mother. To quash the staff rumours about her child's father she has named young waiter Darren, who is happy to play along. Two rival boxers are double-booked on the eve of a big fight and start brawling. One is injured and threatens to sue the hotel but Juliet and Sam unite to expose the claim as a scam by his crooked manager.
Fri, Jul 3, 2009
The posthumous biography of thief-turned-author Harold Kelly claims that in 1973 he hid twelve stolen emeralds in Hotel Babylon and it gives clues in verse as to their location, causing dozens of guests, including Michael Winner, to turn up and join in the treasure hunt along with the excessively eager staff. Foul-mouthed ex-movie queen Constance Evergreen is another guest, whose son has asked she never be left alone ...or near a bar. Tony fails twice over here but she helps him secure the services of singer Olivia Nightingale. Tanya finds two corpses but both disappear and Gino believes they are assassins sent to kill meek little Arthur Barnes who,years earlier stole away the wife,now deceased,of scary mobster Gary Pointer. In fact Arthur is a dangerous gangster, a rival out to kill Pointer,but Juliet and Tanya arrest them. Anna goes into labour and her baby's father arrives, proposing to her as Olivia serenades them and Anna accepts. She calls her daughter Scarlet Rose - after her favourite lipstick - but bids genuinely fond farewells to her co-workers. And with good reason... Who do you think found Harold Kelly's treasure?
Fri, Jul 17, 2009
Whilst tax inspectors and safety officers pay a surprise visit, Hotel Babylon hosts a knock-out poker tournament, one contestant being hotel magnate Damien Rushby, actually Emily's estranged and widowed father.He wants to buy Babylon and when Sam refuses, having guessed that he called in the unwanted visitors to weaken him,Damien plays cards with him with the hotel as the stake. Sam loses... Tony meets his exact double, American writer Bobby Mack, who craves a return to his humble origins and persuades Tony to swap places with him for the day. Both do well, Tony enabling Bobby to date his adoring secretary and Bobby dissuading a disgruntled shipping heiress from leaving the hotel. Damien collapses and Emily saves him. He had come to see her because he has a terminal illness and wants reconciliation with her. She accepts, as he returns Hotel Babylon to Sam.
Fri, Jul 24, 2009
To compensate for a usually slack weekend Juliet has let the hotel to a fan convention for the cult 1970s fantasy hero Captain Stranger and she is annoyed that Sam has gone behind her back by recruiting Meredith, a slick motivational expert, to run a team building exercise at the same time. Gino gets a hot date with Mary, one of the conventioners, but her obsession with the show spoils any future they might have. Juliet and Ben help out washed-up television presenter Martin Armstrong, who has been stowing away in the hotel, pinching food and showers. They get him an audition for a new show, which he passes, but he appears to have stolen a pen from another guest and Juliet resigns. However he has only borrowed it and is quick to return it. Sam discovers that Meredith has deliberately rigged her tests at Juliet's expense because she is after both him and the hotel manager's job. He tells Meredith that her services are no longer required and happily re-instates his ex-wife.
Fri, Jul 31, 2009
A wedding between minor European royals is to take place at the hotel and Sam has secured exclusive photo rights, worth a quarter of a million, with an Italian gossip magazine to pay off a huge tax bill. Unfortunately the royal bride elopes with a Canadian equerry so a fake wedding, enacted by staff, is substituted. Gennaro, the magazine editor, rumbles it and threatens legal action but Sam counters by telling Gennaro he will expose him for the illegal means he uses to gain stories. James learns humility from an aged trainee and Tony combines with a wealthy wild child to help an exploited teenage Olympic swimmer escape her possessive mother's influence.
Fri, Aug 7, 2009
An award ceremony is held at Hotel Babylon, hosted by comic Jim Doody who wants to re-kindle his affair with Juliet, but he is married, and Juliet feels hurt when she finds out. A jealous Sam plays strip poker with journalist Charlotte, who is organizing her friend's baby shower - for the wrong reasons - and Juliet and Sam end up getting a little bit closer. James is caught in the crossfire when the two wives of deceased Italian artist Christiano Cucci disagree over his wake and has cause to thank Gino when the 'corpse' disappears and turns out to be very alive, the two men allying to help the beleaguered Christiano. And homeless job applicant Melanie bluffs her way into a job as the new receptionist, having impressed a suspicious Ben by putting an over-bearing Yuppie guest in his place.
Fri, Aug 14, 2009
Juliet and Sam start to date again whilst the staff are intrigued by the finding of a manuscript of a saucy novel whose characters are obviously based on themselves, the eventual author being an unlikely candidate. The hotel hosts a dating evening where Sam rescues Emily from a lecherous press baron and Juliet's old mate Karen tells Sam that his ex-wife aborted their baby. Sam gets cosy with Emily but she has the grace to send him home to Juliet. Everyone rallies round Melanie to keep her in her job and Tony 's support for a young drug addict gains him promotion in the concierges' circle.