Joe Lycett has opened up about his departure from The Celebrity Traitors, revealing that the experience made him feel grateful for his life.
The 38-year-old comic became the most recent Faithful to be banished from Claudia Winkleman's murder mystery show. Despite successfully identifying Traitors through his investigative skills, and even prompting Richard E Grant's revealing slip after questioning the actor about being a Traitor, Lycett had raised eyebrows at the roundtable after pleading with the Traitors to recruit him.
Instead, Maya Jama and James Acaster chose to bring King Kenny into their fold, following Professor Hannah Fry's exit from the BBC programme.
Farewell message and gratitude
Delivering his farewell message during Friday 16 October's episode, Lycett 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."
He has now discussed his elimination, 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."
"The word is gratitude"
He continued: "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 added: "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."
Connections with fellow contestants
He also spoke about his bond with fellow contestants, including Miranda Hart, who was left in tears following his departure. Lycett remarked: "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."
Audiences confessed to being moved to tears by his departure, with one viewer writing: "I can't believe I've just cried at Joe Lycett being banished, what has this show done to me???" Another commented: "Can't believe they banished national treasure Joe Lycett he was the most Faithful of them all." A further viewer added: "Gutted for Joe, but he unfortunately didn't help himself."
The Celebrity Traitors continues on Thursday at 8pm on BBC One and is available to watch on iPlayer.
