MARK Jenkins, owner of The Hotel, has hailed the fly-on-the-wall documentary as good for business — for him and Torbay.

The popularity of the programme chronicling the daily goings-on at his Grosvenor Hotel in Belgrave Road hasn't surprised him.

In fact, he says he worked to make sure it would be entertaining for the millions of viewers now hooked on its weekly behind-the-scenes look at life running an out of the ordinary seaside hotel.

The programme has been so successful he said there is talk of doing some more episodes.

Mark (pictured), one of the stars of the show which goes out at prime time on Sunday nights, said the Grosvenor has been flooded with bookings.

"It's like being in the middle of summer," he said.

"We recently did more than 200 Sunday lunch carveries, in one week we had 600 brochure requests and more than 50 wedding inquiries."

He believes he has got the best out of the programme for the hotel.

"I have always wanted to be an entertainer," he said. "I wouldn't say I played up to the camera, but I wanted to bring out the comedy.

"I almost wrote a comedy script in my head. Everything I did and said I knew what I was saying. When I was talking to my son and said 'the only people left in Torquay are the ones not smart enough to find their own way out' and phrases and sayings like that were gags.

"I knew what I was saying and I knew they were drawing attention.

"I did it on purpose. There were two ways of playing it when you have 60 cameras being monitored 20 hours a day. They are going to capture everything they wanted anyway.

"I could have played it quite sensible, and they still would have caught us out one way or another. Or I could play the complete opposite — create a really good comedy fun programme with great characters which becomes a great talking point."

One talking point has been his manager Christian Scott-Lee, who appeared in drag on the cabaret night while the worse for wear.

"Christian's a nightmare, I employed him for the programme because I knew he would make great TV. He wasn't working for me at the time," he said.

"He had worked for me before but left, so I got him back in. I'm not really there everyday, some days I don't even go in the Grosvenor. I was just there while the filming was on. I am in my office in the Inglewood running three hotels.

"The programme's done exactly what I hoped it would do for the hotel. It's done marvels for Torquay. The amount of publicity it has had. The beginning of every show and with the great footage out and about, it says Torquay is one of the top holiday destinations for more than 100 years and home to some of the country's finest hotels.

"With a total viewing of more than two million people, what better advertising could you get? I know there will be thousands and thousands more people staying in Torbay as a direct result of the programme."