Telenovela takeover

FOX Life is feeding South Africa’s growing telenovela addiction with sizzling Latin passion and intrigue.

- GENEVIEVE TERBLANCHE

Julio (right) falls in love with hotel heiress Isabel while he searches for his missing sister.

I Allow us to meaningfully twirl our moustaches and smoulder at you for a moment. You’re about to be lured into hot affairs with over-the-top drama, wicked villainy and the glamour of Latin American telenovelas with the FOX Life channel (DStv *126), who’ve launched four brand-new Spanish-language, English-dubbed mini soaps. “We know that our audiences love this highly compelling genre of television, so we are thrilled to be bringing these multiple award-winning telenovelas to FOX Life, and to DStv, for the first time,” says Evert van der Veer, Vice President of Media Networks for The Walt Disney Company Africa. Now, let’s meet our dramatic new TV darlings…

SECRETS AT THE HOTEL

This 2016 Mexican telenovela is an adaptation of Spanish period drama Gran Hotel (2011-2013) that was set in the early 1900s. Originally titled El Hotel De Los Secretos), it keeps its 1908 setting and follows Julio Olmedo (Erick Elias) as he applies for work at Isabel’s (Irene Azuela) Gran Hotel. Julio is secretly on a mission to find out what happened to his sister