Welcome to the castle - it gets worse here every day | 2026 Celebrity Traitors Thread 4 [TV Pace]

[CaveMum]

Previous thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5587046-welcome-to-the-castle-we-take-it-day-by-day-2026-celebrity-traitors-thread-3-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 at end of episode 4)

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

Faithful

James Blunt
Jerry Hall
Joanne McNally
Joe Lycett
King Kenny
Michael Sheen
Miranda Hart
Sebastian Croft
Sharon Rooney

Up for Murder
Leigh-Anne Pinnock
Rob Beckett
Romesh Ranganathan
RossKemp (full name)

Murdered
Amol Rajan
Bella Ramsey

Banished
Richard E Grant (Traitor)
Myha’la
Julie Hesmondhalgh

Thank god you posted this, because I thought I was alone in all these thoughts.

The casting this year seems really bad, and there's a very weird lack of any charisma or personality from almost all the players. I've been glued to previous series but this one is so flat and unamusing, I found myself scrolling for wall panelling during last nights episode.

I really hope it picks up a bit and starts to get interesting, but I do think they've just picked badly. There needs to be more loud, polarising characters - even if we find them annoying or too much - they do tend to be the ones who generate the more buzzy atmosphere. Julie was a huge kiss ass and should never have been in there. Richard should never have been made a traitor as it would have been obvious they'd make the biggest star in there a traitor. I really love James A as a comedian, so it's disappointing to see how serious he is out of character. And that was before he got recruited.

Hopefully Kenny being a traitor will liven things up a bit, but I do wish they'd have selected Joe or Romesh, purely for entertainment value.

I don't think you can make assumptions about how well-off people are though. None of us really have any idea about other people's personal finances.
And how many famous people DON'T go on telly and risk making fools of themselves/work hard physically and mentally to make money for charity?

I also really want one of the faithful's to come down to breakfast and announce that last night the traitors tried to recruit them and failed. Just to see what happens! James A could probably get away with it as a clearly reluctant traitor, but not sure he would cope with lying.

Gosh these traitors are bores! Hannah says she's proud of being a rubbish traitor 🤦‍♀️ Between her and James's performative moral objecting (without even mentioning the Richard shit show) it's making it all but unwatchable for me. They killed Rob too, who imo would've been a brilliant traitor (there's a reason Rob is far more successful in the comedy field than James). Granted I don't watch the regular show, i've only watched the celebrity ones; this one is really poor compared to the first.
And why did they recruit the guy they did (sorry, I dont know who he is or his name). Sharon would also be a brilliant traitor. Maybe they need an option where producers can pick mid series 😂

I'm just waiting/hoping for James A to be asked if he's a traitor, so we can see him punted!

I haven't read through this new thread yet so sorry if I repeat stuff, but I think the series is picking up a bit - last night's episode was better, I thought. I enjoyed the gallop (even if they were actually skipping). WTF was Joanne on about? She's so chaotic. I think Jerry has probably spent her whole life pretending to be more stupid than she is. Kenny in the tower was excellent - James A needs to get a grip. And so funny that they all think you need to be a maths professor to open that gate. Pretty sure half of them there could have done that sum.
And I still love the guardian live blog of each episode. So funny

Some of them do, Nick Mohammed apparently gave the same amount to his chosen charity as Alan won last year.

Oh but PS Even though I think Kenny is going to be excellent, I would prefer them to have murdered last night

If they stopped now, what would we watch🤔

Agree, Richard Osman said the same - they should have murdered simply because neither of them have any heat on them and it would have been an opportunity to thin the herd a bit more and keep them confused. There would have been the chance to recruit again in a day or two by which time some of the quieter ones will have revealed themselves.

Or, better still, a task where more than one shield is won and use it as cover to recruit.

There’s no strategy to their game!

So several of us would have picked Joe and Romesh from the start as traitors. I really don’t understand what the producers were thinking. I guess they maybe picked REG as the Jonathon Ross equivalent. Maybe Maya was the Cat of the group (quiet and under the radar). But they were missing an Alan traitor from the start - no one could replace him but surely they should have been thinking of a big character who is really funny as the third traitor, instead of taking a huge gamble and letting the other two pick the third traitor (badly). Joe or Romesh would have been perfect as the third from the beginning. REG probably would still have messed up but together the other two might have picked a better replacement.

It’s annoying as getting the wrong first three traitors has massively impacted things and not in a good way. But let’s hope Kenny livens everything up. I think he will.

I would have recruited Michael Sheen-likeable, good actor and he’s been v under the radar so far.

I hope James A's chosen charity were unaware, save them getting their hopes up 🤦‍♀️😂

I don't think he would drop that hint - I saw it this morning and thought maybe he has a new song coming out (about farming?😂) or more likely it is a hint to the mission - perhaps they have to drive something?

The charity isn’t the point of Celebrity Traitors, though — it’s incidental. The purpose is making a TV series, for profit. You could say ‘Why not donate a percentage of the profits to charity and skip the prize pot?’ But then there’s no reason to have missions, and no reason to compete and want to stay in till the end, to be the equivalent of the individual prize pot being competed for by the non-celebrities in the ordinary version.

Agree with @AlwaysExtraHot . I know a couple of comedians and they are not particularly well off. James A looked round a house near me (sadly didn't buy it) a couple of years ago, it's just a normal terraced London house in not great condition as the sellers were a group of hippy trustafarians playing house with Daddy's cash. Not cheap as we're in London but not silly money either. Think King Kenny has also been spied near by.

Obviously Jerry, James B, Michael Sheen and probably Leigh-Ann are rich but not sure about the rest of them.

I think Amol would have been a decent traitor better than James A anyway. And he didn’t mind being one.

You could just switch off the tv if you dislike it so much!

I don’t get the Kenny love.

No idea who he is. Google says a former boxer and a YouTuber. Came across very performative with his OTT reactions in the tower.

I expected to see more of Michael Sheen. We’ve hardly seen him. I expected him to be more dominant in the castle.

Never heard of him either.

But think we do need a bit of OTT to balance the lovely but ‘bland traitor’ James.

Think it will also trip up the faithfuls especially after his excited gallumping with Miranda and Bash.

I agree. Amol Rajan said he’d really love to have been a traitor, whereas James A has been so glum about it.

I've no idea who he is, either, but I like him. I like him even more since he was so keen to get involved in skipping up and down the corridor

It's her lime green nails for me! Horrendous

For my 14 year old, he’s much the most famous person in there. He’s best known for being one of the Beta Squad, the same YouTuber group that Niko from last year is from.