Yes, CELEBRITY TRAITORS (BBC1, Thursday, 9.15pm and iPlayer) will see an all-star cast which includes acting sensation Bella Ramsey, comedians Joe Lycett, Miranda Hart and Romesh Ranganathan, singer James Blunt, former supermodel Jerry Hall, acting legends Michael Sheen and Richard E. Grant, former Corrie star Julie Hesmondhalg and soap star turned adventurer Ross Kemp. Wow – impressive, to say the least – and all watched over by the wonderful Claudia Winkleman!
If you’ve never seen the series, hidden amongst the group are The Traitors whose job is to secretly murder their fellow players, without getting caught. It’s up to the others, the Faithful, to try to detect the Traitors and banish them from the game before they become their next victim. The lucky players who survive to the end have the chance of winning the money. If a Traitor remains undetected, however, they’ll take it all!
To put it mildly, Claudia was impressed with the celebrity line-up.
She said: “I couldn’t get over it. My bosses had to repeat the names at least three times. We’re so lucky they said yes. Everyone taking part is fantastic. We are honoured they wanted to play the game.”
And, once again her “wardrobe” will be catching viewers’ eyes!
“It went a little Artful Dodger for this series,” she laughed. “I borrow a lot of the clothes and the shops / designers were horrified when I asked if we could dip the clothes in tea!”
Bella – who has become one of the UK’s most “in demand” actors following her work on “Games of Thrones” and “The Last of Us” – said: “I’ve been playing a version of The Traitors since I was 10 years old when I joined The Television Workshop. I’ve had game evenings and hosted them at my house and been to other’s evenings so I’m familiar with the game. I love it so much, and that was really my reason why. I was working on a production at the time of the last Celebrity Traitors – It’s called Maya which was filmed in Scotland, actually. We were all watching and so excited about it, and then we ended up playing a crew game.”
They went on: “The characters that I’ve played are definitely not like me in that way! When it comes to this, I will be keeping my opinions to myself until I feel it’s absolutely the right time to share them. I’m going to be very selective about when I make a claim, an observation, and how vehemently I stick to it. I will be very selective. I think when I do, and if I ever do really know something or feel like I have a bold thing to say that I feel very confident in, then I will say so in a way that I think I will be able to stand my ground.”
Bella added: “My biggest strength will be watching and listening, my biggest weakness will be laughing. I can get the giggles and whether I’m otherwise suspicious or not, that makes me look suspicious. I would love to be a Traitor, I really would, but I’m also okay with being a Faithful. I think being a Traitor can make things a bit more stressful, but in a way that’s exciting to me. I think that I will last longer in the game as a Traitor, you’ve only got one way to lose the game rather than two.”
Joe (Lycett) said simply: “Because – I’m going to say it – it’s the best show on TV. The first series was just such phenomenally good television, and I didn’t think that it could be bettered, and then the celeb series came along. The last episode was beautiful. That first year I sent a DM on Twitter, which was not responded to, to Studio Lambert to ask if they could send me all the rushes. I just was so hit by it and wanted more. I am just thrilled to be part of the universe of The Traitors and to have been asked. I have no idea how to play it. I don’t think you can particularly. I think you just have to let it play itself a little bit.”
He added: “I texted Joe Wilkinson (who was in the show last year) and asked, ‘what are the toilet facilities like in the castle?’ and he said, “They’re fine unless you went in after Claudia.’ So there we go. I asked Alan Carr for advice of ‘How to spot a rotten little Traitor like you’ and he said, ‘Just anyone that’s sweating and giggling.’”
That’s it for now – catch you next week for some more TV chatter – stay safe!
Author: Steve
Editor of Hartlepool Life and author of TV Life