Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan have revealed they received death threats over their dancing during a visit to Jamaica to see Usain Bolt. The pair, who are competing on this season of Celebrity Traitors, shared the story from their Sky series 'Rob and Romesh vs...'.
In the first episode of that show in 2019, the duo travelled to Jamaica to meet the Olympic athlete and world-record holder. They performed a dance routine that offended locals, who made their feelings clear during the event.
Threats from the front row
Ranganathan explained that the event was Jamaica's biggest dance hall occasion, comparable to X Factor. He said the audience found their performance so poor that it was "an insult to their culture".
He added: "What you don’t see is that the front row were shouting, telling us to stop. Not in a funny way, in a 'We’re going to kill you if you don’t stop insulting our dance' because it was embarrassing."
Beckett told the Metro at the time: "In every episode there’s always something we’re doing that really puts us out of our comfort zone, and it [the dancing] was, awful. I was so stressed doing that dancing, it was horrendous! But hopefully, our pain is the viewers’ gain."
Meeting a superhero
The pair also tried athletics with Bolt's help. Beckett described the sprinter as "like a superhero" when they first met, adding: "He’s so physically impressive and so chilled. He’s such an icon ain’t he?"
Bolt, now retired from sprinting, is an eight-time Olympic gold medallist and world record holder in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. Across his international career, he won 29 major medals - 23 gold, five silver and a bronze - including at the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and World Relays.
Beyond athletics, Bolt has played, co-captained and managed the World XI during Soccer Aid. He has six appearances in the charity football game, scoring twice and winning five tournaments with his team.
