Richard E. Grant

Joe Lycett was voted off after telling the Faithful he was desperate to become a Traitor, admitting afterwards ‘I’ve done this to myself’

Banished Faithful Joe Lycett was so desperate for a green cloak that after being voted out of The Celebrity Traitors he called for a rule change allowing dumped players to return as baddies.

His exit last night came after he loudly proclaimed he wanted to be recruited into the turret – which didn’t happen – but nobody believed him when he truthfully announced his disappointment the next morning.

“I’d like to motivate the Traitors to find an unknown clause in the contract that can bring back a Faithful that’s been banished to recruit because I’m there if they want me,” he laughed.

The comedian, 38, received 11 of the 14 votes after what seemed like a big slip-up at the round table in which he said that if he went, the Traitors would need to recruit again. Afterwards he acknowledged that he only had himself to blame. “I sort of didn’t play being a Faithful or a Traitor right. I tried to straddle both, and I was being greedy and I was rightly punished for it.

“I’m a silly billy – it was a combination of me begging for recruitment and then the Faithful being thick as mince. I concede I’ve done this very much to myself, but I was too hungry to be recruited. And you know, if being passionate is a crime, then banish me from the castle.”

Joe, who was instrumental in exposing Richard E Grant as a Traitor by asking him what he was on the first day, said the experience of being kept separate from friends and family during filming had been enjoyable. Asked to explain what he’d learned about himself by taking part in the game, he said: “The word that comes to mind for this whole experience is gratitude. It’s made me really grateful for my life. I’m really grateful that I am in a position that I get to experience this, because I’m famous enough to be in the mix. I loved having my phone taken away from me, and I’m really grateful for the fact that I have a lovely life to miss.”

Admitting that the game was sometimes “infuriating”, but also “joyous and thrilling”, Joe said he thinks the most likely winner is Romesh Ranganathan. “I think Romesh is a front runner,” he said. “I think he’s kind of unreadable but may get heat just on that basis. Then I think there could be a real curve ball, like Jerry or Joanne, someone who’s playing it in a way that’s out there.”

But he said it was hard to stick to strategies when you were inside the castle. “I’ve gone to Round Tables not knowing who I was going to vote for, and I don’t know who’s a Traitor – any of them could win at this stage.”

Miranda Hart formed such a close bond with Joe during their time filming together that she wept when he left – having refused to put his name on her slate and writing Ross instead. During the programme she explained: “Three or four years ago, due to illness, I thought that I might not ever have a gentle walk around a park again. Now I find myself on a Scottish Highland wheelbarrowing along a very large head. It’s really exciting.”

Miranda, 53, has been suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome for many years, which she believes was caused by having Lyme disease as a teenager. Having recently recovered enough to sign up for the programme, she has joined in with the missions wholeheartedly. In last night’s effort she grew tired carrying the statue parts at one point so swapped to transport a giant head in a wheelbarrow towards the plinth where it could be erected on top of its body, earning money for the prize pot. The current fund stands at £46,000, after the players successfully constructed five out of the six statues.

The comedy star tearfully told James Acaster that having fun outside with Joe had made her feel the happiest she’d felt in a long time. “I can’t believe how emotional I’m getting,” she said, as the floodgates opened. “Connection and laughter and joy are bigger than this game and to meet someone and to just play and laugh, it’s all us humans need.”

The good news is that she is proving so popular in the castle that many fans are calling for a return of her BBC sitcom Miranda, which last aired with a Christmas special in 2015. Another suggestion is that she stars in a different show. “A Miranda detective series like Jonathan Creek would be… such fun!” one fan said.

Joe felt that he would miss her too. “Miranda is someone that I’ve met briefly in the past and I’ve always loved. I’m really pleased that I got a chance to play with her, do some sort of an improv, essentially, and kind of mess about. I got very close with her.”

He said that – against his expectations – he’d got on well with everyone. “I really, really liked them all – and didn’t expect to when I saw the lineup. I thought, well, there’s going to be some people I’m going to find difficult, or are divas or whatever. And the reality was completely different.”

Joe’s high point came right at the start when he asked the question that sparked Richard E Grant’s astonishing outburst. The comic said he was glad he hadn’t been persuaded to ignore it. “I know lots of people tried to steer me away from it, but I was like, there’s no game around that, he absolutely meant it when he said it to me. God knows what was going through his head. It was an absolutely superb, classic, Richard E. Grant way of responding to this game. It’s one of the most iconic performances I’ve ever seen.”

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Like many buff-bodied Traitors hunks before him… Tom Daley… Freddie Fraser… James Blunt stepped up to take on the pensive shower cutaway scene in this year’s series.

Viewers were left in hysterics by James’ take – nipples out, thoughtfully scrubbing himself in a very awkward manner and donning a shower cap – all while puzzling over whether he’d be next for murder.

Fans took to X to share their excitement at the scenes.

“Not James Blunt in the shower!!!” cried one.

Others soon chimed in:

“James Blunt with a shower cap and huge brush was just not on my 2026 bingo card.”

“Can only assume that James Blunt is taking his first ever shower and is more of a bath man.”

“All of these shower scenes from previous seasons have nothing on James Blunt and his haircap and scrubber.”

Fans are hoping it doesn’t mean the end for the British Army Captain. In last year’s Celebrity edition, poor Tom Daley was murdered hours after he stripped off.

If we’ve learned anything it’s that you can be too squeaky clean when it comes to the Traitors.

Welcome Faithfuls, come on in Traitors, and a special hello to anyone who claims to be both (Richard E Grant, we see you there in your Burberry scarf).

Celebrity Traitors is back on screens tonight for episode 3 and we dive straight back into the first banishment with the Faithfuls hoping they’ve caught a Traitor.

But it’s a battle between people taking Richard E ‘I’m a Traitor’ Grant at his word and the others that think he’s a Faithful on a wind-up, which is proving an increasingly tricky position to take.

Will he survive? Can’t see how, but this is Celebrity Traitors and Alan Carr, who couldn’t even say “I am a Faithful” without cracking up, won it! Anything could happen.

An ‘epic moment’ has reportedly caught Celebrity Traitors bosses off guard and forced them to scrap huge plans they had for the series. The change will reportedly “make great TV”

The Celebrity Traitors bosses have been forced to scrap a cliffhanger but what has replaces it “will make great TV” according to sources.

The show sees twenty-one famous faces head to The Traitors castle, ready to play the ultimate game of deception and betrayal in the hope of winning a cash prize of up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice.

Fans quickly become invested in the show and to keep viewers hooked it has become known for it’s cliffhangers.

Tonight, viewers will tune in to watch the result of last Friday’s cliffhanger. The all-star line-up will be casting their votes on who to banish from Ardross Castle after the Withnail and I actor battled to convince them he was a faithful.

Actor Richard E. Grant was chosen by host Claudia Winkleman to be a Traitor alongside presenter Maya Jama. However, just minutes into the game, comedian Joe Lycett casually asked him what role he had been given, to which Grant immediately replied, “Traitor!”

He then spent the rest of the premiere manically back-pedaling to convince his fellow contestants that he was actually a Faithful who had simply made a bad joke.

A source told The Sun: “Cliffhangers on The Traitors have become legendary so bosses never want to disappoint and hope to have the nation on tenterhooks all week, waiting for Thursdays to come around – that’s part of the reason the format being fed out twice a week works.

“So they plot out likely moments in gameplay that will be the Friday cliffs. But during filming, something so unbelievable happened even execs didn’t see it coming.

“It forced them to throw plans out the window to accommodate the epic moment – which should make great TV.”

Production firm Studio Lambert decide what elements of the show would make good teasers during pre-production.

Speaking at the launch of the series, executive producer Sarah Fay said: “We always have an idea before going into pre-production what might be cliffhangers but we have to be so reactive because who knows what the story is going to be.

“Last year we went to deadlock [at the Round Table] when it was down to David [Olusoga] and Mark [Bonner] where it was a tie. We never knew that that was going to happen until obviously, it was happening right before our eyes.

“I think the beauty of this game as well is every episode we’ve probably got about three options of what the cliffhanger could be because it’s so nail-biting.”

The Mirror has contacted the BBC press office for comment.

The Celebrity Traitors returns tonight at 8pm on BBC One.

The Celebrity Traitors got under way in dramatic fashion this week and traitor Richard E Grant admitted he ‘just went mad’ with one of his decisions.

Celebrity Traitors star Amol Rajan has said Richard E Grant told him that he “just went mad” when he decided to remove him from the game.

Writing in his newsletter Amol said he asked Richard why he chose to eliminate him and the actor replied: “To protect myself. And that’s a compliment!”

Amol replied: “But if you really wanted protection, you should have recruited me. That would have been a compliment!” He says Richard told him: “Ah yes, that makes sense. But I think I just went mad.”

Traitor Richard gave away the game almost immediately in the show’s second series when the actor admitted he was a traitor, despite the aim of the game being to hide the fact.

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Richard was picked by Claudia Winkleman to be one of two contestants picked to be a traitor – a player who attempts to “murder” others on the show while pretending to be an ordinary participant.

But rather than go under the radar, Richard announced his role as a traitor. And he has now admitted to Amol Rajan that he doesn’t know what came over him.

Richard and fellow traitor, Love Island host Maya Jama, chose to murder the former BBC presenter in episode two.

Amol explained: “He said: “I was so thrilled to be chosen as a traitor that, in my unguarded excitement, I said, ‘Of course I’m a traitor.’ I clearly need to diffuse all the heat that’s coming in my direction.”

Richard added: ““Well, the game had actually started, I was so relieved that it started because I had been so blatant about saying I came into this thing and it’s called Traitors, because I wanted to be a traitor.

“So when I walked into the bar, somebody said, ‘so you’re a faithful or a traitor?’, and I said, ‘I’m a traitor’, of course.”

While Amol admitted he would have liked to have been recruited to be a traitor, that accolade fell to comedian James Acaster.

The decision left Amol being murdered from the game and speaking on The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked on Friday, he said: “It’s hard not to watch it and think I, obviously, with 20/20 hindsight, I played the wrong game. That was a crazy, crazy once-in-a-lifetime [opportunity].”

He went on: “I think I would have been quite a good traitor because I’d actually known what it was like to be a faithful.”

And in advice to Richard he said maybe the star should have tried to stay off the radar a bit more rather than confess so blatantly. Amol said: “I think the one tactic that you should try to abide by is to keep a little bit, you know, fly under the radar a little bit for the first few days. Just shut up for the first few shows.”

After the second episode left fans wondering what was to come in a tense cliffhanger, viewers have to wait until Thursday to find out. Celebrity Traitors isn’t on again until Thursday (October 8, at 8pm), with the show once again doing a Thursday-Friday double.

The Celebrity Traitors airs on Thursdays and Fridays on BBC1 at 8pm.

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The opening episode ended with two players fighting for their lives but before that – what on earth was Richard E Grant thinking?

Richard E Grant’s outrageous act of self-sabotage on The Celebrity Traitors last night left producers and fellow players reeling.

Claudia Winkleman said she believed the huge gaffe, in which he openly revealed his role as a Traitor just minutes after she’d selected him, was not because he was nervous, but because he was giddy with excitement after achieving the role he’d always dreamed of.

Now viewers will have to wait until tomorrow’s episode to see if the actor can survive the first roundtable banishment – while also discovering whether it was comedian James Acaster or TV journalist Amol Rajan who met their grisly end in a coffin.

Claudia said that Richard, 69, was so desperate to be a Traitor, she had no choice but to tap him on the shoulder. “You just couldn’t not give it to him, because he wanted it so much,” she laughed at a screening last week. “I couldn’t believe he was literally in the castle. And yeah, he was giddy. The genius of the game is that everyone plays it completely differently, and he took that to the next level.

“I think it was excitement. I think he was genuinely so happy. He came into the church. He loved the game. He had to eat. He wanted to be a Traitor. He got picked for a Traitor. He just wanted to tell everyone.”

Producer Sarah Fay agreed: “Never in our wildest dreams did we think that we’d have a Traitor admit they were a Traitor five minutes on from the round table. We’ve never had anything like that happen before. I think it was just static delirium. I don’t know what he was thinking. I still can’t believe it now, but yeah, Richard E Grant, how iconic.” She confessed that the star’s astonishing faux pas had left her feeling conflicted in the moment: “It was a mixture of a little bit of sick coming up in my mouth and a punch at the same time.”

Ahead of being picked, Richard told Claudia: “If I was lucky enough to be a Traitor, that would be one of my dreams come true – it’s the only way to have some control. Friendships means diddly squit!” And he won over the audience by speaking about his late wife Joan Washington, who told him four days before she died, in 2021, that he was to find “a pocketful of happiness” each day. “I feel like I’ve got a wheelbarrowful, and then some,” he marvelled.

But it wasn’t long before he boldly told Joe Lycett that he was “a Traitor” – leaving the group stunned. Luckily for him, Jerry Hall – who claimed in the show that she’d make a good Faithful because her uncle was one of the Texas Rangers who’d caught Bonnie and Clyde – quickly dismissed his outburst. “Oh, that’s just Richard, he wanted to be a Traitor so bad,” she said. “I’ve known him for 30 years and he says and does eccentric things.”

Many of the group appeared to follow her lead, with actress Myha’la insisting he must have been joking because “he’s too smart for that”. But viewers saw Richard sigh on camera: “That might be the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life.”

Finding out her fellow Traitor was like “an unhinged uncle” left Love Island host Maya Jama, 32, realising they’d have to work hard to keep him in the game. Despite this, she wholeheartedly accepted the challenge of getting him off the hook. “Me and Richard are in it together,” she said in a solo chat. “It’s like heaving an unhinged uncle running wild in the castle – that is my partner in crime.”

Told they had to choose a new recruit to join them in the turret, the duo picked the pair who had expressed the loudest views about Richard being a Traitor – Amol, who called Richard the “lord of chaos” and James Acaster. Whoever joins the Traitors after pleading for their life and ending up in a coffin cliffhanger will now have to change their argument – or throw Richard under the bus. But what is certain is that either James, 41, or Amol, 43, will tonight follow in the footsteps of Paloma Faith by becoming the first celebrity to exit the series.

Sarah said the idea for this twist was sparked by the pop star’s swift death last year. “We thought wouldn’t it have been interesting if Paloma had had the chance to plead for her life?” she explained. “Going home first is a massive thing, but if you can slightly put the power back in their hands, how interesting would that be?”

The idea of having Claudia pop out of a coffin at the start came after the celebrities had to dig their own graves in last year’s opener. “We were racking our brains: how can we make this feel different” Sarah said. “We landed on starting in the church and ending in the church, bookmarking episode one. So opening with Claudia popping out of a coffin, and then our first murder being someone getting slammed into one.” Claudia’s own ideas, that she got into the suit of armour or emerged from the grandfather clock, were both dismissed.

Almost all of the 21 celebrities wanted to have the green cloak, with only a handful determined to be Faithful, including singer James Blunt, mathematician Hannah Fry and comedians Miranda Hart and James Acaster – who will have failed in that quest if he remains in the game.

Ross Kemp said in his entrance interview that he wanted to show people he had a good sense of humour – and he certainly provided plenty of laughs last night. But, sadly for him, the comedy he brought was mostly at his own expense after he went into a tailspin first during the mission, and then later over drinks in the castle.

The TV tough man had prepared so thoroughly by going through previous episodes that he interpreted any gesture towards him as an attempt to kill him in plain sight. First Bella Ramsay was under suspicion after placing the Captain’s hat on his head as an mark of respect because he’d excelled in the mission. Then it was Leigh-Anne Pinnock’s turn after she touched him in the bar because she felt chilly. “I’ve just had my arm rubbed – she rubbed me on the arm,” he spluttered to the group. Accusing her outright of murder, she could only insist: “Oh my gosh – calm down! Stop.”

Admitting he was caught in a spiral of doom, the 62-year-old sighed: “My guard is very much up. Anyone touching me, offering me a drink or talking to me in a slightly odd way – that could be me gone. I’m feeling pretty paranoid.” Uncloaked host Ed Gamble branded his reactions as “one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen”. He laughed: “He’s a big hard man running that mission and then immediately terrified of a member of Little Mix touching him on the arm.”

The Celebrity Traitors returns tomorrow on BBC1 at 8pm.

Ross Kemp wants to prove he’s more than just a tough guy while Richard E Grant hopes being ‘geriatric’ will excuse him from the money-making missions

There’s just three days to go until the new series of Celebrity Traitors hits the screens and some of its biggest stars have revealed what drove them to sign up for the hit BBC1 show.

Former EastEnders star turned documentary maker Ross Kemp says he is a huge fan of the series, and of host Claudia Winkleman, and wants to show people that there’s more to him than just playing, or being, a tough guy.

“I think if I’m able to stay or survive for a period of time, it would give people an opportunity to see that I’m not just Grant Mitchell or a man that goes around the world confronting people with guns,” he says. “I think obviously there will be people that will only know me as Grant, and then people may have seen the documentaries, which are often quite brutal. I think people probably think that I don’t have any kind of sense of humour whatsoever, which hopefully will come out.”

That said, the 62-year-old admits that being a real-life hard man might actually be his biggest asset when it comes to The Traitors. “My strength hopefully would be some of the physical challenges. I’m a qualified HSE diver, so anything with water I should be able to do. I don’t mind heights too much, I don’t mind cold weather, I’ve completed hostile environment training and I don’t mind being uncomfortable, so I should be able to make a good contribution to Missions.”

But ahead of filming, he admitted he did have a few nerves. “There’s an element of: A, I don’t have control over this; B, I don’t want to let the side down; and C, I don’t want to let my family down by making myself look an idiot.”

Unlike Ross, actor Richard E Grant is hoping to pretty much swerve the Missions altogether – using his age as an excuse. The 69-year-old says: “Jerry Hall and I are the geriatrics of the great group. So, I’m rather hoping there will be some leeway about whether we’re expected to bungee jump off the castle’s wall.”

Richard, whose wife Joan Washington died five years ago, openly admits he is desperate to be picked as a Traitor because he feels they hold all the power. “Absolutely! I would love to be a Traitor,” he laughs. “You have no control in real life over anything. Any chance for that would be welcome – and a little bit of mischief is always welcome.”

He feels he’d be good in the role because he is “definitely” better at telling lies than spotting them and believes that a competitive nature is a pre-requisite for actors. “You can’t survive the profession without being so. It’s too brutal.”

But he doesn’t think his award-winning acting skills will actually help him much. “I think it’ll make people more suspicious because they assume that you’re a natural-born liar. I’ve played so many villains that I assume people will think that I’m a bad egg.”

Whatever happens, he’s hoping his positive attitude will help him to thrive at the Round Tables. “My weakness will be trying to hide what I feel about somebody, and my strength is that I’m a glass three-quarters full person.”

Jerry, 70, says she’s “completely obsessed” with the TV game and was thrilled when she learned that pal Richard was also taking part. “Richard was my neighbour for 30 years and we did a movie together called Tooth, where we played Tooth Fairies, and it was ridiculous,” she says. “We had such a laugh, and I went on holiday with him earlier this year, just after Christmas, to Africa with some friends. And we danced all night and had so much fun! Little did we know back then that we’d both be here.”

Unlike Richard, she is embracing the Missions and believes she can contribute to the effort to win the £100,000 prize pot despite being the oldest in the game. “I am quite an active person,” she explains. “I don’t sit down much. I have a lot of animals – two dogs, a cat, three horses, eight chickens. I do a lot of gardening. I’m very, very busy, and then I babysit my three grandchildren a lot.”

And she has revealed certain secret skills that might come in useful. “I was a girls’ leg wrestling champion in my school district growing up which is very popular in Texas. I come from a very athletic family. My sister Cindy was a girls’ champion bull rider and my sister Rosie was a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. We all used to train horses too and you just get bucked off all the time.”

She says the whole of her immediate family is behind her, including former husband Mick Jagger and their four grown-up kids. “I’m very competitive, as are Mick and our children. My competitive nature will always override any fear. I’m going to try to behave myself on the show. I’m going to try and be a good sport.”

She would like to be a Traitor, even though she thinks she has Faithful-style sleuthing in her genes. “All the men in my family have been law enforcement officers and in the military. My father was General Patton’s staff sergeant on all his campaigns, so I think I get my organisational skills from him. All my uncles, even my nephews, have been policemen.”

Maya Jama was advised to take part by her Masked Singer pal Jonathan Ross – the first Traitor to be outed last year – having decided she wanted to take part in something “where people get to see more of my personality”.

The Love Island host reckons: “I can be warm, but I can also be quite direct when I need to be, so maybe people won’t quite know what to expect.” Laughing that she’s “not massively” competitive, she says her gameplan is to not overthink things, reasoning: “Sometimes you actually do better when you’re relaxed.”

But she also fears her naturally jolly nature might not go down well with those playing the game in earnest. “I’m not naturally very serious, and obviously this is a very serious game. It’ll be interesting to see whether I can keep a straight face.”

Maya, 32, has prepared by watching old episodes to remember deflection techniques if she finds herself accused of being a Traitor. In reality, she’s not actually sure which role she’s aiming for. “At first, I thought I’d rather be a Faithful, but then I started thinking, if I’m doing this experience, why not go all in?”

– The Celebrity Traitors starts on Thursday 1st October at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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