Pub near Leighton Buzzard stars in Channel 4’s Four In A Bed

A pub in Heath and Reach is due on TV screens this week as it features in Channel 4’s Four In A Bed programme.

The Dukes’ landlady, Sarah Smith, is one of the stars of the reality game show this week.

The programme, which has aired on Channel 4 for almost a decade, involves four B&B owners taking turns to stay with one another and pay what they consider a fair fee for their stay.

The overall winner is the establishment named best value for money.

Regular visitors to The Dukes may not recognise the place, as the TV programme was filmed over a two-week period in 2019, and the pub has had a makeover since then.

Sarah and her sister, Jo Carter, took over the running of the pub in 2016. Jo is no longer involved in the business, but will be cheering Sarah on from the sidelines.

Mum-of-two Sarah will be on the show – which started last night (Monday) – every night and the segment that was filmed at the Heath and Reach pub is due on TV on Thursday night.

Sarah will be screening the episodes at The Dukes each evening and said: “I think it will be pretty nerve-wracking and my daughters Molly (15) and Grace (13) will be probably watching upstairs wishing I hadn’t agreed to do it!

“Running an operation like The Dukes was a fantasy for me as a teenager, working in bars and restaurants.

“I fell in love with The Dukes Head having known it for many years, and it was very much a dream come true for me to be running it.”

On the show, each of the B&B owners visit each other’s premises. At the start of their visit, they are told how much their room is worth and they inspect the room they are staying in.

The guests then take part in an activity and the host then takes them to dinner where they get to know more about each other.

The next day they have breakfast and fill in an anonymous form telling the owners about four aspects of the B&B: host friendliness, venue cleanliness, quality of their overnight sleep, and quality of their breakfast, before saying if they would stay there again.

Four In a Bed is on every evening at 5pm, it is also available on catch-up TV.