ULVA, Scotland — The 16 residents of this tiny Hebridean island got their Sundays back last year, thanks to a TV show they never asked to host. Now they are bracing for round two. Banjo and Ro Beale are back.
The cameras are rolling again. And the ferry schedule that was pared back to give locals a break from day-trippers is about to be tested once more.
The BBC confirmed this week that filming has begun on a second series of Grand Island Hotel, the reality show that follows the couple’s attempt to turn a derelict mansion into a boutique hotel. The first series was a hit. It was also a headache for the people who actually live on Ulva year-round.
Tourists flocked. The island’s single-track roads clogged.
The 16 residents — farmers, crofters, the ferryman — asked the local council to stop Sunday ferry crossings. They wanted one day of quiet. They got it.
Now Banjo and Ro are back, and the residents are watching. “The plans are bigger, and so is our family,” Banjo said. He was not joking.
The new series will feature a Scottish Deerhound puppy named Cousin Jerry. Also in the pipeline: peacocks, a llama, and “plenty of drama,” as Banjo put it.
Ro, who makes cheese and distills spirits on the island, offered a dry assessment of their approach. “Most people, after renovating a crumbling mansion on a remote island, would probably have a lie down,” he said. “Banjo looked at the situation and decided what we really needed was more animals, more projects and less money.” The couple relocated to Ulva in 2025, bringing their dog Grampa.
They bought Ulva House, a crumbling estate that had sat empty for years. The first series documented the early stages of the renovation.
It ended with the hotel still unfinished and the budget blown. “We blew our budget last year, so this time around we’re really getting creative,” Banjo said. Creative, in this context, means more animals, more side projects, and a continued push to finish the hotel on a shoestring.
The BBC has not announced a premiere date for the new series. But the ripple effects are already visible. Local businesses that depend on summer tourism are watching the filming schedule.
The island’s single pub, the Boathouse, saw a surge in trade after the first series aired. The ferry operator, a one-man operation, is bracing for another rush.
And the 16 residents? They are not complaining. Not exactly.
The show put Ulva on the map. It brought money.
It also brought crowds to a place where the only road is a single track and the only way off is a short ferry ride across the sound. Banjo and Ro are aware of the tension. They have leaned into it.
The show’s charm, for viewers, is the collision of grand ambition and remote reality. For locals, that collision is daily life. The new series will follow the couple as they push ahead with the rest of the renovation.
It will also follow their expanding menagerie. The Scottish Deerhound puppy.
The peacocks. The llama. All on an island with 16 people and a single Sunday ferry that now does not run.
Ro summed up the situation in a way that might resonate with the islanders. “Naturally we’ve got grand plans to finish the hotel and somehow, even more hare-brained schemes,” he said.
The residents of Ulva can only watch, and wait, and hope the Sundays stay quiet.
