Maggie Smith and Celia Imrie’s comedy drama, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, is airing on TV tonight (28 December). Scheduled to premiere at 9:30pm on Channel 5, the film, which boasts an A-list ensemble cast, is a sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011).
Directed by John Madden, the filmmaker behind Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2011), The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel follows a group of British retirees as they move to a hotel in Jaipur, India, which is billed as a beautiful retirement home.
Reprising their roles from the first movie, Maggie Smith, Celia Imrie, Dev Patel, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Tina Desai and Ronald Pickup return. Meanwhile, newcomers Richard Gere, Tamsin Greig and Shazad Latif round out the cast.
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, released in 2015, has received glowing reviews and holds a score of 67% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Described as “charming” by Slant Magazine, the publication praised the film for “creating a joyful picture of what life can look like long past what we’re generally taught to think of as our sell-by date”.
Searchlight Pictures
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Echoing this sentiment, The Australian wrote: “Fans of the first film (of which I am one) will be pleased to know Madden and his terrific ensemble cast deliver more of the same. We are talking feelgood with a capital F.”
Meanwhile, The Toronto Star raved: “As with the original, Dench, Smith, Nighy and the rest of the standout senior ensemble cast are a joy to watch and the setting, gorgeously lensed by cinematographer Ben Smithard, will have more than one person staring wistfully at their suitcases…”
Searchlight Pictures/Laurie Sparham
In our review, we called the sequel a “worthy successor” to the first film, owing to its “gentle humour, sunny outlook and slightly doddering plot”.
Speaking with Digital Spy, Patel, who portrays hotel manager Sonny, said it was a “dream come true” to reunite with the cast. “It’s a character that I really love and I’m part of a film that everyone really liked so it’s a real vote of confidence. It’s really fun,” he added.
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel will air tonight at 9:30pm on Channel 5.
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Megan is a freelance news reporter for Digital Spy.
