Heartburn Hotel
- TV sitcom
- BBC One
- 1998 - 2000
- 13 episodes (2 series)
Sitcom set in Birmingham's grotty Olympic Hotel, run by ex-Army man and Bucks Fizz devotee Harry Springer. Stars Tim Healy, Clive Russell, Peter Gunn, Zita Sattar, Kim Wall and more.
Press clippings
Heartburn Hotel did not seem to endear itself to many as it did to me. The BBC's own continuity announcer still calls it Heartbreak Hotel. It is, however, co-written by John Sullivan, who also wrote Only Fools and Horses, so it is an egg worth incubating.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 1st July 2000I shall miss Heartburn Hotel (BBC1) very much. [...] I tell you, slip it on at the National Theatre and it would pass as Samuel Beckett.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 25th August 1998First Basil Fawlty. Then that frightening woman at the Adelphi, who charged you for sleeping on the floor. Now the darkly funny Heartburn Hotel (BBC1) or, more properly, The Olympic, named in the belief that Birmingham would host the Olympics. An appropriate home for no-hopers. [...] It's like looking down a plug hole and seeing small, bright eyes looking back.
Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian, 21st July 1998But since Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Mr Healy himself will always command attention, and I liked Harry's tetchy insistence that his family have always been involved in public service - which turned out to mean that his grandfather was a hangman. Heartburn Hotel looks very promising.
Peter Bradshaw, Evening Standard, 21st July 1998