Welcome to the castle - we take it day by day | 2026 Celebrity Traitors Thread 3 [TV Pace]

[CaveMum]

Previous thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5584899-welcome-to-the-castle-we-got-fun-and-games-2026-celebrity-traitors-thread-2-tv-pace?page=1

This is a tv pace thread so make sure you’re up to date with the live broadcast and yes, previous series (regular and celeb) will be discussed.

Please no spoilers if you read them online!

The story so far (as of end of episode 3)

Traitors (still active)
Maya Jama
James Acaster (recruited)
Professor Hannah Fry (recruited)

Faithful

Jerry Hall
Joanne McNally
Joe Lycett
Julie Hesmondhalgh
King Kenny
Leigh-Anne Pinnock
Michael Sheen
Miranda Hart
Rob Beckett
Romesh Ranganathan
Ross Kemp
Sharon Rooney

Up for Murder
Bella Ramsey
James Blunt
Sebastian Croft

Murdered
Amol Rajan

Banished
Richard E Grant (Traitor)
Myha’la

I said in the last thread the OG traitors aren't strategic thinkers - James was a poor choice as a recruitment (though he will be entertaining but possibly also the choice is to his detriment as he might not cope, hopefully he got on ok). They should have gone with Ross and Bella - murdered Ross and recruited Bella as a potential traitor to sacrifice (due to the putting the hat on Ross' head thing) which would have got more time for Richard, meaning more time for him to try wriggle out of why he told everyone he was a traitor. (Though we know now editing did a good job of leading viewers to have a bit of doubt many of the players were taking it was face value. So he was most likely always done for eventually. )

Recruit was a poor choice. They should have just murdered Jerry - and see how things lie with Hannah, with the hope suspicion eases off her and they get the chance to seduce again . While Hannah would be a good traitor she was too at risk already. Recruiting her as a traitor to work with just isn't going to be successful- it's just made it harder for her.

Also why did Hannah make much of not saying what went on between her and Maha'la? Don't understand her aim with that.

Same.

In the diary bits she seems calm and quietly clever.

I do think it feels awkward having two traitors who specifically wanted to be Faithful. And I think that's why last night's episode felt a bit flat I loved Hannah's video about how to spot a traitor and an really sad for her that she didn't get to put her theories into practice. I don't think she can survive very long as she's so obviously changed and became more nervous.

I really like Bella so hope they stay longer but think they probably will be murdered. Miranda is very smart, hope she stays.

Jerry is nobody's fool - I reckon she has worked out that in the beginning you lie low (if you're a faithful) to stay off the radar of the traitors. She is also charming and funny - she'll stay for a while I reckon.

I think Miranda is also an astute observer. I like how she plays, she watches and notes whereas Julie is a big headstrong and shares too much, although hopefully she'll simmer down a bit because she does clearly love it. Bella maybe thinks too much and tries to work things out rather than going with her intuition?

I love James Blunt just for the way he totally takes command in the tasks. He's decisive - maybe he's playing a smart game. Too early too tell.

I liked Myha'la - I was surprised they didn't take account of what she said as she came across as sincere and honest but then again, I knew she was sincere and honest so hard to say how it would be from the contestants viewpoint.

If she disclosed that she didn’t accept the offer of the shield from Myha’la it would make her look suspicious.

So when she was forced to speak up about it at the RT she said something about Myha’la saying she herself didn’t need a shield and offered it to Hannah.

Myha’la, to her credit, was very switched on in defending herself and corrected Hannah by saying that she told Hannah that she thought that Hannah needed the shield more because of the heat Hannah had on her.

However, the effect was probably the same.

I thought that about Myha’la too but wonder if they thought it was her acting chops at work.

The shield thing with Hannah pitted them against each other and I reckon that most of them would prefer to have Prof Hannah around for longer.

I thought that Myha’la had perhaps cottoned on to Hannah by the end and was leaving the faithfuls with a parting clue that “ the traitors are smarter than you think” but it turns out that she hadn’t suspected Hannah 😆

I really like Miranda. I see she’s marmite on here! I so hope James Blunt stays in, he’s very entertaining.

I'm a bit confused about the timeline. I know they don't do it to real time anyway, but even the pretend timeline is a bit strange. Claudia says goodnight to everyone, and they all go back to their individual accommodation, probably including Hannah and Jerry, waiting to see if they're murdered in the morning.

But then they decide to recruit, and it could be from anyone. So did they all know that they were at risk of being woken up in the middle of the night, brought back to the castle to get the letter (still in the same clothes from the day), then having some time (not sure how much) to decide, and then go to the tower with the traitors and get the cloak and find out who they are. Because that all seemed to happen in the night; Hannah was wearing the same day clothes in the video where she gets the recruit letter. Then in the morning she came in with Jerry, in different clothes etc, so she didn't just get the letter in the morning. And the accommodation was quite a long way from the castle I think, so they must spend ages going back and forth. Unless the producers kept people hanging around in cars around the corner somewhere, but they wouldn't know for sure who the traitors would pick, and also it would have given the game away to the players that someone was being recruited (potentially) if they realised they were hanging around for something.

Would be weird to be woken by the producers at some point after you'd gone to bed (if it really was night) and told to get back into yesterday's clothes, to come film a scene of getting a letter that night.

And did the traitors actually decide anything that night? Other than how to protect Hannah at breakfast. I know she had to meet them that night to find out who they were and have some strategy in general, so that she definitely knew who they were by breakfast. Might have been interesting if she didn't know yet!

The sensible thing to do about the shield was for Hannah to have said nothing about it at all. With Myha’la banished no one would have known she had it (did she mention it to anyone)? Then at breakfast tomorrow she could have claimed to have had it but that as Myha'la was the only other person who knew about it she must have told someone who was a traitor and that’s why Hannah wasn’t targeted for murder that night - she’s an obvious pick at this stage.

No one will admit to being told about the shield as that fingers them as a possible Traitor, cue lots of discussion about who was Myha’la seen talking to last and the heat comes off Hannah for a while.

All very easy to say with hindsight of course 🤣

I think controversially, Jerry would have made a better traitor than Hannah. She’s been with Mick Jaguar & Rupert Murdoch, she’d have picked up some tips along the way. <big mistake, huge>

Hannah, like James, is a reluctant traitor. Won’t work.

I don't think Bella will be reading this so it hardly matters if we use sex based pronouns for her here.

i hope Bella gets murdered (weird typing that) she is really annoying.

Love Miranda and Hannah.
so glad they actually banished REG.

I'm finding this year more interesting but less entertaining than last year. Although we don't have the drama of massive personalities the people we do have are playing the game more strategically and have reasonable grounds for their suspicions.

I agree Miranda is good at the game, I just find her grating. But that doesn't affect my opinion that she is good at this.

I expected to find Bella annoying but I'm actually enjoying the way their mind works. It's nice to have a set of faithfuls that are mostly thinking things through before accusing anyone.

ETA considering how last year everyone kept bigging up the so called genius of Stephen and David, it's clear that this year we have some actual game players.

The first celebrity traitors was so brilliant, it was always going to be a hard act to follow.

This one is falling a bit flat for me thus far. James A is just annoying insomuch as he's concerned largely about how he's perceived by viewers, and not by how to be a brilliant traitor - i'm already fed up of hearing how difficult it is for him to be traitorous.

Rob, Romesh or James B would make good traitors.

it might be because I have no clue who she and Bash are.(or Kenny) so a bias based on that.
saying that Ross is megga annoying lol

On the timeline thing, I don't think people are woken up in the middle of the night ... more likely it's all filmed in the morning before breakfast. They've said they actually eat a real breakfast at the hotel, because castle breakfast is endless shots of them in different configurations so the audience's last two in must be faithfuls thing doesn't work.

I also didn't love last night as much I usually love it but it was still fun,

Have said before, actors can appear clever (or posh, or thuggish etc etc) because of their faces and the parts they're therefore assigned. But it doesn't mean they are. That probably applies to Bella, my jury is out on their intelligence.

Ross is unintentionally hilarious and I hope he lasts a long, long time.

I hadn't heard of Bash or Kenny either. They haven't had much screen time so maybe they go quite far?

I find Ross' paranoia hilarious!

A woman without make-up is seen as more intelligent, it's the opposite of the "dumb blond" theory.

No, not the opposite; the corollary.

Please ignore my previous ramble about the shield - I’d forgotten that a) Myaha’la had given hers up and b) that they’d been talking openly about it at the table 🤣

They're certainly smarter than she thought... Was she serious that Maya couldn't be chosen as a traitor because she's so pretty??

I find Miranda funny at times but she hams it up too much at other times, I’m never too sure what’s real and what’s an act.

Did anyone notice at breakfast Joanne said ‘Poor Hannah she’s been recruited’. The camera then flashed to Hannah who looked haunted. Then it was promptly forgotten. Joanne is very scatty so I’m not surprised she forgot and moved on but nobody else said anything when it was evident Hannah looked positively frightened.

Having Hannah and James as reluctant traitors is unfortunate for the game. It’s better to have people who want to play the characters. I read they stopped filming because James had some sort of anxiety episode. It isn’t fun to watch people who aren’t enjoying it.

Ah posted this on the end of other thread so bringing it with me

I think the thing about the first Traitors Celeb series was that it was the first-very much uncharted celeb territory.
This one feels more like they have all watched it and studied it within an inch of their lives. They all feel much less natural and having a go and more "playing the game" all the time.
I agree with a PP that they seem to talk of nothing else whilst the first series was a bit more of a crazy game in a castle but they still chatted and hung out.
Obviously the editors completely control how/who we see but it still feels so much less fun.

That’s awful if true about James having an anxiety episode. I am totally with him, I’d never want to be a traitor.