Bunhill: Sitcom hotel

VIEWERS of the BBC1 sitcom If You See God, Tell Him on Thursday will have seen the eccentric played by Richard Briers being chatted up by a prostitute in a hotel bar before leading him to a room where she started to strip, offering him 'straight, French, back scuttle or hand relief?'

Later Briers was seen being humiliated by the woman in front of the hotel, which appeared repeatedly in different scenes.

All good clean, or rather grubby, stuff. Except that the hotel in question was a Queens Moat Houses hotel and was clearly signposted as such. Senior management of the stricken hotels group, which turned in a loss of more than pounds 1bn last year, seem rather bemused: 'This matter is being looked into,' says a spokesman. 'It's certainly not the kind of publicity we would be seeking at this time.'

One furious Queens Moat employee is less circumspect: 'This firm, one of the biggest in the country, is in trouble already. To any customer watching the programme, it would appear that prostitutes gather in our bars, prowling for men they can take up to rooms they can rent by the hour for quick sex.

'I bet our bosses just don't have any idea what a disaster this is.'