Billion Dollar Playground: Will you be coming out to play?
KNOW your Louis Vuitton from your Bric's ? Adore a temperamental chef? Enjoy watching rich people behaving badly? Then you, my friend, are likely a veteran of the reality show Below Deck, and therefore the target audience of new arrival Billion Dollar Playground. Lucky you.
Below Deck, with Kenny Rogers-lookalike Captain Lee and no-nonsense chief stew Kate, was set on a luxury charter yacht. Every week it cast off with a new batch of guests, but the crew stayed the same. Wildly differing personalities thrown together by circumstance, they bickered, bonded, got bladdered, and occasionally did something else beginning with 'b'. Think Upstairs Downstairs in deck shoes. One of the earliest streaming hits, you can still watch Below Deck for free on Channel 4.
Billion Dollar Playground, set in an Australian luxury lets business, updates the idea. 'Our guests are the world's elite,' said Tom, one of the owners. The first let was an apartment in Rose Bay, Sydney Harbour, where a crack team was waiting to serve. In true Apprentice style they introduced/hanged themselves.
'I've had to be a best friend, the servant, and a downright slave,' said lead concierge Salvatore, not at all dramatically. His deputy, named Heaven, said her superpower was making guests' dreams come true. Hard as the team were working to get the place spotless, there was a distinct whiff of something in the air and it wasn't bleach.
The clients, a group of business women, arrived and immediately began demanding their money's worth. The team were delighted to oblige in the spare moments between gossip sessions, with the Salvatore and Heaven clash top of the bill.
'I think Salvatore has had a go at Heaven,' said trainee concierge Nicole.
'Why?' said Elsie the chambermaid.
'I don't know why.' said Nicole.
Elsie tried again. 'What for?'
'I don't know what for,' said Nicole.
If you can stand an hour of this verbal jousting you'll feel right at home in the Billion Dollar Playground club.
In the kitchen were George and Matt, brothers and chefs. They were already looking frazzled one episode in, having been asked to whip up extra canapes before dinner. I wouldn't fancy their chances in a below-deck kitchen.
Trying to play it cool was JB, the French butler. Australian standards of hospitality were a 'little more laid back', he said. JB lost his cool in the Mystery of the Missing Dom, a fraught little episode involving a guest asking for the Champagne she had brought. It was in the boot of the car, but running around like headless chickens meant no one on the staff clocked it. A quick trip to the shops to buy replacements and the panic was over.
More crises followed as a matter of course. Dog-gate, Bowl-gate, Missing Dessert Spoons-Gate, Salvatore and Heaven hissing at each other, living in the lap of luxury was hardly stress-free. No prices were given in the first episode so who knows how much it all cost, apart from your precious time. Another glass of Dom, anyone?
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