 and the riff-raff queuing up at Stansted. While most opt for private jets – usage has boomed this year, up 56 per cent compared with 2020 – some travel on public airlines, 'although we don't have many clients flying Ryanair,' says Anderson. Go figure. We love nothing more than to watch how the other half live, and if it comes with a dose of schadenfreude, that's even better. TV shows that skewer the privileged lives of the 0.1 per cent have taken over our screens: Succession; Big Little Lies; and The White Lotus, in which a luxury resort starts to feel like a gilded prison.){kind=link}
A private jet for a parrot or J-Lo for evening entertainment? The real-life requests from the uber-wealthy are often stranger than fiction
The second series of The White Lotus, an acerbic satire about the holiday habits of the super-rich, starts in a similar way to the first.
“The hotel’s perfect, the staff is excellent… you’re gonna die [sic],” effuses Daphne Babcock (Meghann Fahy), a wealthy housewife with an impossibly bouncy blow-dry and a secret stash of cannabis edibles. She’s holidaying with her philandering husband (played by Theo James) and “new money” friends (Will Sharpe and Aubrey Plaza). “They’re gonna have to drag you out of here.” Spoiler alert: within the first few minutes of the first episode, body bags are being dragged from the beach.
This tragicomedy of manners takes place over a week and is set in an exclusive Sicilian resort. The cast is a gang of monied, miserable holidaymakers who have paid a premium for la dolce vita, and the long-suffering staff who must cater to their every whim. It’s the perfect vehicle for satire. But when it comes to how the ultra-wealthy holiday in real life, the truth is stranger than fiction.
“‘No’ is not really something we can say,” explains Peter Anderson, managing director of Knightsbridge Circle, a members-only concierge service that offers luxury travel services. “We will always go above and beyond to achieve what the client wants.”