Professor Hannah Fry is almost certainly facing murder on Celebrity Traitors after being paired with Jerry Hall, a fate that seems a crying shame given her sharp gameplay. In the second episode, the paired-up celebrities were shown a row of coffins and told to get in, with host Claudia Winkleman delivering, 'Players, please get into your graves.' Hall, who wanted out as soon as she got in, put herself and Fry on the murder shortlist.
Ross Kemp's Shortlist and the Mission Bias
Ross Kemp almost single-handedly saved everyone else by making what Fry fretted to the BBC cameras was 'the world's shortest murder shortlist.' This highlighted an issue with the role of missions in the gameplay, which are often biased against older contestants. Hall, at 70, is the oldest celebrity in the castle and couldn't stand being in the grave, though she 'manned the crowbar' in the first challenge.
Every Traitors victor, celebrity or otherwise, has been under 50, many years younger. In the last season of the regular show, Judy, 60, was first to be banished, partly because she kept needing to pause during a physically demanding mission. By the final, the mission was more like an Ironman, and someone threw up.
Fry's Sharp Gameplay and Likely Exit
Fry has shown herself to be far better at sussing out the game than the last Fry to grace Celebrity Traitors. She was immediately suspicious of Maya Jama, and her Leigh-Anne Pinnock make-up theory was a cracking one, even if wrong. At the first roundtable, she coolly deflected James Blunt's left-field wallop and presented a counter-case, telling the group the Traitors 'are not cocksure, strategic; they are people who are picking the most obvious options.'
As a professional brainbox, Fry was probably going to be up for murder at some point, but part of the joy of Celebrity Traitors is discovering new personalities like her. She's clearly a decent player, capable of spotting clues, rather than resorting to wild guesses or bandwagon-jumping. Jama told Grant she doesn't want to murder the mathematician but also seemed to see it as the obvious choice.
Fry couldn't have known it would pan out like this when she paired up with Hall, but she's been far better humoured about being half of the murder shortlist than I would be, which makes me even more disappointed she is probably going. Celebrity Traitors returns next Thursday at 8pm on BBC One.
