Alex Polizzi, star of hit Channel 5 series The Hotel Inspector, is to front a new show for the BBC about failing family businesses.

Alex Polizzi: Business in the Blood (working title) will focus on a different firm each week and will attempt to tackle problems ranging from warring couples to parents attempting to pass on the family business to their uninterested children.

Broadcast Greenlight

The 6 x 60-minute series has been ordered by Alison Kirkham, commissioning editor of factual formats and features for BBC2, and will be produced by Twofour – makers of The Hotel Inspector – for broadcast in winter 2012.

Polizzi has “business in the blood”, having come from a family of distinguished hoteliers. She is daughter of Olga Polizzi and niece of Sir Rocco Forte.

She said: “Almost all the important lessons I have learnt in business have come through my experiences of working with my family.

“When you can make a family business work, there is no better way to combine the pleasures of working with people you love and trust with being an essential and valued part of a successful team. I relish this new challenge as it appeals to all that I hold most dear in life.”

BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow said: “Alex Polizzi really does have ‘business in the blood’ and I’m delighted that she will be joining our line up of experts on the channel, from Robert Peston and Evan Davis to Peter Jones.

“The business world - how we make money and also how we lose it has never been more relevant than it is today. Alex will bring a very real, personal understanding of what it’s like to run a family business and the added pressures it entails.”

Polizzi took over Hotel Inspector duties from Ruth Watson, who defected to Channel 4 in 2008. A new series of the programme, fronted by Polizzi, will air on C5 later this year.

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