Richard E. Grant

By Richard E. Grant

VIEW Pigg’s Peak, Swaziland
I often think of the view of Pigg’s Peak, bordered by a blue-tinted mountain range to the left and pine forests to the right. There’s a squiggly road leading from the top of the mountain, down through countryside dotted with mud huts, cattle and wisps of smoke from the fires outside every hut. It’s the final image in my autobiographical film “WAH-WAH”. Returning to Swaziland as a middle-aged man, recreating my dysfunctional adolescence with a fabulous cast, was cathartic and fulfilling.

HOTELThe Ballyfin Demesne, County Laois, Ireland
I hosted a TV series on the secrets of extraordinary hotels and this was my favourite. It’s only an hour from Dublin, but 300 years back in time, to an idyll of unadulterated luxury – with 21st-century broadband and central heating, immaculate service and delumptious food. Each bedroom is decorated in fantastically maximalist style; I’d far rather that than fascistic minimalism torturing a row of flowers, angled and strangled in individual vases. There are open fireplaces, fresh scones and an enormous library of fabulous books.