TV Restaurants

Is The Dukes Still Open? The Hotel Inspector Update (Heath and Reach, UK)

Open

As of October 2026, The Dukes is open — confirmed via the restaurant's current website/social account, accessed March 31, 2026.

Primary source
eatible.co.uk ·
Secondary source
travelocity.com ·

Last verified

What the source shows: Eatible shows a Food Standards Agency inspection of The Dukes on 2026-03-31 and a Travelocity listing shows a guest review dated 2026-04-23 with no closure notice.

  • Season / episode Season 16, Episode 2
  • Original air date
  • Address 7-9 Leighton Road, Heath and Reach LU7 0AA

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What happened after The Hotel Inspector?

The Dukes is a Grade II-listed, thatched pub at 7-9 Leighton Road in Heath and Reach, a Bedfordshire village near Leighton Buzzard. It featured in Series 16, episode 2 of The Hotel Inspector (Channel 5), which aired on 2021-06-17 under the title "The Dukes, Heath and Reach". According to TheTVDB's episode page, Alex Polizzi visited to help Sarah, a mother of two, improve the business she had bought three years earlier. A personal setback after a successful first year had hurt Sarah's confidence and occupancy had dropped sharply. When Alex arrived, Sarah was keeping out of sight in the kitchen and the staff were idle. Wikipedia's list of Hotel Inspector episodes gives the same title and air date.

What has happened since: The Dukes' own website, read on 2026-10-19, describes a Georgian building built in 1735 as two cottages and turned into a pub about ten years later. It now offers table bookings for food and drink, exclusive-use venue hire for weddings and events with a capacity of 60, and self-catering accommodation that sleeps eight. The page is undated and does not mention the television episode. Eatible's page for The Dukes lists the pub at the same address, with a 2026 copyright notice and a Food Standards Agency hygiene rating of 5 from an inspection dated 2026-03-31. Travelocity's listing for The Dukes shows six rooms, a guest review dated 2026-04-23 with a 10 out of 10 score, and no closure notice. The sources read do not say whether Sarah still owns the business.

The Dukes Revisit, series 19, episode 12 of The Hotel Inspector (Channel 5), was the finale of the series. It aired on 2024-06-27 and returned to The Dukes, a pub in the Bedfordshire village of Heath and Reach. Wikipedia's list of the show's episodes records the pub's first appearance in series 16, episode 2, aired 2021-06-17, in which Alex Polizzi helped a woman named Sarah improve the pub she had bought three years earlier, and records the revisit as overall episode 167. The list gives the 2024 revisit a title and air date but no description, and TVmaze and TheTVDB carry no summary for it, so the sources read do not show what the revisit covered.

Featured on The Hotel Inspector

Season / episode
Season 16, Episode 2
Original air date
Episode title
The Dukes, Heath and Reach
What was featured
Thatched Bedfordshire village pub with rooms and an owner who had lost confidence
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
The Dukes
Season / episode
Season 19, Episode 12
Original air date
Episode title
The Dukes Revisit
What was featured
Revisit episode returning to The Dukes pub in Heath and Reach
Role
Featured restaurant
Name on the broadcast
The Dukes

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All East of England locations

Nearest restaurants

Visit info

Address
7-9 Leighton Road, Heath and Reach LU7 0AA
Venue type
bar
Official website
thedukes.uk.com

Businesses change fast. Always confirm directly with the restaurant — call ahead, or check its own current website or social media — before making plans around anything on this page.

Sources

  • eatible.co.uk — https://www.eatible.co.uk/east-of-england/central-bedfordshire/the-dukes
  • travelocity.com — https://www.travelocity.com/es/Leighton-Buzzard-Hoteles-The-Dukes.h27650339.Informacion-Hotel
  • thedukes.uk.com — https://www.thedukes.uk.com/
  • TheTVDB — https://thetvdb.com/series/the-hotel-inspector/episodes/8222367
  • Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Hotel_Inspector_episodes
  • TheTVDB — https://thetvdb.com/series/the-hotel-inspector/seasons/official/19
  • tvmaze.com — https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/3130/the-hotel-inspector/episodes

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