Welcome to the castle - Sometimes we get burned, you’d think sometime we’d learn | 2026 Celebrity Traitors Thread 8 [Post Final Chat]

[CaveMum]

Previous thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/5594538-welcome-to-the-castle-when-your-fears-subside-and-the-shadows-still-remain-2026-celebrity-traitors-thread-7-tv-pace?page=1

This is a post-Final thread so if you haven’t seen it do not read on!

Finalists
Maya Jama (Traitor)
King Kenny (recruited Traitor)
James Blunt
Leigh-Anne Pinnock
Romesh Ranganathan
Sebastian Croft

Murdered
Amol Rajan
Bella Ramsey
Rob Beckett
RossKemp
Miranda Hart
Sharon Rooney
Michael Sheen

Banished
Richard E Grant (Traitor)
Myha’la
Julie Hesmondhalgh
Professor Hannah Fry (recruited Traitor)
Joe Lycett
Jerry Hall
Joanne McNally
James Acaster (recruited Traitor)
Maya Jama (Traitor)

For these that want to keep up with Claudia’s outfits: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/lifestyle/a73628412/celebrity-traitors-claudia-winkleman-outfits/

If people have twigged that the best strategy is to find one other person you trust, form an alliance and keep banishing until it's just you two, games are going to get samey. Just have to see how many traitors can pull it off...

I don't understand why people are going after James A --- he took the heat off his fellow traitors by sacrificing himself!

haven’t read the whole thread so it may have been pointed out already, but by stating that he hadn’t sprayed the perfume, he made it sound like another traitor had carried the murder out.

maya and kenny were in the library with him and the faithfuls didn’t know that the yawning was involved, so instead of taking the blame with him (ie saying ‘i made ross yawn, that’s how he was killed), he left the faithfuls with the convinction that another traitor had sprayed the perfume, and at that point everyone was convinced it happened in the library.

I think they had a huge potential cast list for this one and it was changing over time. Apparently Daisy May Cooper was all but booked but she baulked in the end by the very strict limited family contact which I can understand. I think family contact
may also be supervised and obviously the celebrities have no mobile phone access.

I think the casting team are looking for people who are likely to be capable of authenticity in public which is what comics specialize in a form of. Acaster is very highly thought of in the industry for being a unique voice.

I think this series didn’t really recover from the REG start because it unhinged the premise somehow. Then you started to see the sheer psychological strength of the individuals and maybe their professional experience. Maya Jama is used to being on camera as a presenter as are the comedians & podcasters. The actors look a bit less easy. Blunt is a strange anomaly but famously open about how sensitive he is to people being mean as Acaster is about his devastation by his gf dumping him for ‘Mr Bean’ ie Rowan Atkinson. Amol probably would have been a very able player as he is used to being ‘live’.
So I think every casting is a massive gamble and the players do not know how well they will manage this captive environment. I would loved to have seen Daisy May Cooper (like Acaster she is unique) but good on her for saying it was too much for her. Acaster might have been the most glorious Faithful but in the chapel he would have had to say ‘don’t pick me - I don’t want to be a traitor’ and he would have been murdered and out first & he wasn’t ready to leave I guess as poor Amol wasn’t.
This format is like a slightly controlled wild horse which is what makes it exciting. So the crazy acts are also why we watch compulsively.

Traitors is literally like Made In... (partially scripted / set up) I think that's why several characters who have Nothing to keep friends with the BBC for, fcked off and didn't bother with the final show . They don't need to keep the bbc friendly as they don't work with or for them, nor do they need them. Bella Ramsey and Jerry Hall for example. Lots of others are linked to the bbc one way or another. I got the feeling Hannah was deeply uncomfortable with the charade, but she has bbc show/s so she had to show up, take part.

So kill me ; )

I think he said that because he had his own (ridiculous) rule that he wouldn't lie. But then he realised he wouldn't be able to stand up to scrutiny, so he bailed before he could reveal anything else.

Oh God - that image is too heartbreaking for me.

It depicts the depth of genuine human emotion so well. Poor Joe, he was so, so hurt.

Betrayal is an evil act.

They had one last season, because it’s when Alan Carr murdered Celia Imrie in plain sight, by quoting Romeo and Juliet at her. Maybe they decided it wasn’t necessary? In the civilian version, it’s a cosy pause from the game where we’re supposed to hear everyone’s story, what they’d do with the prize money, and feel all warm and fuzzy, but in the celebrity version, we already know a certain amount about them, and the producers don’t want anyone to throw in the game because a cancer charity is more deserving than Water Aid or something.

yes, i agree, which to me shows he was being selfish, rather than team traitor.

even saying nothing would have been better for maya and kenny.

Exactly! By doing what he did with his ridiculous no lying rule, he made it impossible for Maya and Kenny. He could have taken the heat off them by just confessing and leaving, but instead he made it so that the faithfuls were even more convinced there was another traitor in the library.

But (as far as I remember) for whatever reason he was under far less suspicion than Maya at that point. I think otherwise she would have been voted off.

Well, so what, though? This is a light entertainment show, not the Old Bailey!

I agree, I was often shouting at Blunty during the series for being so loudly wrong but started to soften on him near the end.

I am going to say it again because it is really bugging me. Kenny wasn't there for most of it. As he should have said!

what an odd response. And weirdly aggressive. I am discussing an entertainment show and how it played out. There isn’t a so what. If you don’t want to discuss it why come on this thread?

we don’t know what really happened at the round table, but i think it was the first time both he and maya had been so openly come under suspicion by Michael (or anyone else).

maya tried to defend herself and it seems james crumbled under the pressure and confessed.

yes, maybe maya would have been voted out regardless, but at least it would have been without the ‘help’ from another traitor who had given up on the game from the beginning.

at least kenny later voted for her to save himself.

james was just clearing his conscience.

He's very likeable on University Challenge.

Maya's defending of herself was constantly "I don't think that's fair".

Rom is on his radio 2 show now.
Guess which Queen song he’s playing 🤩

He's still high as a kite!

Quite!
I can imagine his mum being so pleased. Love seeing her on his Parents’ Evening show.

Yes, Maya and Kenny at that point were the only remaining players who had been in the library - it was a very direct pointer that at least one of them was a traitor.

But the ending was SO satisfying.

I really didn't think so. Found it a very unsatisfying way of wrapping up the game, and completely predictable in what would happen.

But nobody mentioned the yawning which was the main part and James A truthfully said he didn't spray it.