Richard Osman, the creator of The Thursday Murder Club, has revealed that he declined an invitation to appear on the first celebrity edition of the BBC reality gameshow The Celebrity Traitors. The 54-year-old author and former Pointless host told ITV's Good Morning Britain that he would only have participated if he could be guaranteed a role as a traitor.
Osman explained his reasoning, saying: 'I love Celebrity Traitors, but I said I would only do it if I could be a traitor. Only because I couldn’t bear if I was a faithful – that thing where you go back to your room at night and you’re just lying there, and you know that there’s three people up in that tower filming, having a load of fun wearing cloaks and filming something.' He added that he would lack control in that situation and that producers could not guarantee his traitor status.
The show, which launches on October 8, features 19 famous faces including actress Celia Imrie, retired Olympic diver Tom Daley, and actor Sir Stephen Fry. Contestants gather in the Scottish Highlands to compete for a cash prize of up to £100,000 for charity, with traitors secretly working to eliminate faithfuls.
When told that his admission might now prevent him from ever appearing, as everyone would know he wanted to be a traitor, Osman joked: 'Am I double bluffing?' He also ruled out ever appearing on Strictly Come Dancing, calling it a 'beautiful bit of television' but something he would 'definitely not' do.
Osman was promoting his latest book, The Impossible Fortune, the fifth in The Thursday Murder Club series, published on September 25. He declined to discuss a sequel to the Netflix film adaptation but claimed it was 'the most requested sequel in Netflix history'.
