Joe Lycett has broken his silence after his exit from Celebrity Traitors. The comedian, 38, was banished from Claudia Winkleman's murder mystery show as the latest Faithful to leave the castle.
Exit from the Castle
Despite catching out the Traitors with his detective skills and sparking Richard E Grant's blunder after asking if he was a Traitor, Joe had aroused suspicion at the roundtable after enthusiastically begging to be recruited. Instead, Maya Jama and James Acaster chose to bring King Kenny to their side, following Professor Hannah Fry's exit.
Sharing his parting words during the episode on Friday 16 October, Joe said: "Absolutely loved it, like total dream. I do sort of feel like we’re all a family now, and as such, expect to be in all of your wills. Very sad to be going, but what a wonderful group of people. I always wanted to start as a Faithful and end as a Traitor. I started as a Faithful, I did not get my wish. I am a Faithful."
Gratitude and Reflection
He revealed the experience gave him gratitude for life, saying: "It was beyond what I was expecting. It was so much more immersive, and I cared so much more about it than I thought I would. Obviously, when you watch the show and people really get into it and they start crying, you think get over yourselves, it’s just a game. But when you’re in it, it is your whole life."
He added: "And because I love the show, it was everything I wanted it to be, it was so much fun playing the game, and obviously very frustrating when you didn’t find the Traitors. But I was fortunate enough to find two Traitors in my tenure and that’s amazing."
He went on: "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. It’s been full on, but there’s been lots of periods where I’ve been able to pause and reflect and enjoy the company of the other players and the production team. It has been a life changing experience in lots of ways, and made me more grateful and happier about the life that I live."
Bond with Co-stars
He spoke about his close bond with co-stars, including Miranda Hart, who was left in tears after his exit. Joe said: "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. So I got very close with her, and then all the comics, of course.
"But I felt like I had a meaningful connection with everyone in there and really, really liked them all, and didn’t expect to when I saw the line-up, 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. I got a lovely experience in either a big or a small way out of all of them."
Viewers admitted they were left in tears over his exit, with one writing: "I can’t believe I’ve just cried at Joe Lycett being banished, what has this show done to me???" Another said: "Can’t believe they banished national treasure Joe Lycett he was the most Faithful of them all." Someone else wrote: "Gutted for Joe, but he unfortunately didn’t help himself." "Gutted for Joe, loved him from the start," another echoed, as someone else said: "I’m actually so torn up about Joe getting banished, I just sobbed…"
Celebrity Traitors is available on BBC iPlayer and next airs on Thursday at 8pm on BBC One.
