‘Spanish Downton Abbey’ to debut in UK next month

Gran Hotel, the Spanish version of Downton Abbey, currently airs on Spain’s Antena 3 and will debut on 18 November on Sky Arts in the UK.

Julio and Alicia What a beautiful couple!

Beginning in the year 1905 in Cantaloa, a fictional town near Santander, Spain, the series is about a man, Julio Olmedo, who visits the hotel to uncover the truth about his sister Cristina’s disappearance and falls in love with one of the hotel owner’s daughters, Alicia Alarcón.

The main cast of Gran Hotel

Antena 3 has even provided an interactive guide of the characters and their relationships (i.e. marriages, engagements, friendships, enemies, etc.), as well as certain details about them (e.g. pregnancies, briberies, etc.). Just click on the characters with beige boxes and you’ll find a video clip on them.

Interactive guide of Gran Hotel on Antena 3’s website

Update (2015): Gran Hotel (Grand Hotel) S1-3 are now available on Netflix in Canada and in the US. The series is in Spanish and subtitles are available.

Update (2016): Gran Hotel was so popular that even Italy and Mexico decided to have their own adaptation of the series. Italy’s Grand Hotel premiered in 2015 and Mexico’s El Hotel de los Secretos premiered this January 2016.

Update (2017): There’s to be a Gran Hotel by Televisa USA set in 1950’s Cuba and Grand Hotel (2016) set in 1950’s Egypt. Again, same story, different country and time period.