Richard E Grant has spoken out about the devastating betrayal he experienced just before his departure from The Celebrity Traitors. The actor became one of the programme's most memorable participants after revealing his true identity shortly after being selected as one of Claudia Winkleman's Traitors alongside Maya Jama.
Despite attempting to retract his statement and rescue himself following his declaration as a Traitor, Richard's elimination was inevitable, and he became the first celebrity banished this series, losing the chance to emulate Alan Carr's success after he triumphed in the inaugural series of The Celebrity Traitors.
Richard reflects on his fellow Traitors' votes
Richard has now reflected on the moment he realised his time was up, despite arguably being the show's most devoted enthusiast. His fellow contestants voted to banish him, citing his own admission as proof against him, with Love Island host Maya and recruited Traitors James Acaster voting accordingly to avoid any suspicions.
Discussing the votes he received from his fellow Traitors, Richard disclosed: "It didn't surprise me because they have to save themselves, and at the Round Table, James never uttered a word, other than when he was asked, 'Who have you chosen and why?' He never said a word before, so he clearly listened to everything, and it was a tsunami of my name around the table. So, to have gone against that like Joanne [McNally] did is risking your neck," reports Wales Online.
The blunder that sealed his fate
Richard also looked back on the blunder that sealed his fate, explaining: "Joe [Lycett] asked me. He said, 'Are you a Traitor?' I suppose what I should have done in retrospect is go around everybody and say, 'Are you a Traitor? Yeah. I am a Traitor, I am Spartacus. I am a Traitor' to try and make light of it, but that may have dug my grave even deeper.
"It was a completely catastrophically idiotic thing to do! I can only imagine the faces of the producers looking at each other and mouthing 'he said WHAT?!"
In the wake of Richard's notorious gaffe, which has become almost as iconic as Alan Carr failing to declare that he was a Faithful without bursting into giggles, Claudia and The Celebrity Traitors producer Sarah Fay revealed their responses.
Claudia and producers react
Claudia remarked: "He was just so happy, he couldn't believe it." She continued: "You couldn't not give it to him, you couldn't not because he wanted it so much and he's so compelling. And he's Richard E Grant, I couldn't believe that he was actually in the castle.
"He was giddy. And five minutes after he said it, he went, 'Ohhhh'. The genius of the game is everybody plays it completely differently, and he took that to the next level."
Ed Gamble, who presents spin-off programme Uncloaked, remarked: "It was absolutely incredible. He was vibrating with excitement in the turret. It felt like he'd been given a lead role in a film, and he just had to tell everyone. It was such an insane moment." He continued: "What an amazing moment, such an insane way to start a brilliant series!"
Executive producer Sarah also revealed at a screening: "Within five minutes of being out of the round-table, he'd already mucked up. I still can't believe it now! Richard E Grant, how iconic!"
"As producers, you always want to make sure the series feels fresh and new, and we're very lucky so far. We've just come back from filming our seventh series, we've just finished civilian, and in every single series, the cast brings something completely different.
"But never in our wildest dreams did we think that we'd have a Traitor admit they were a Traitor within five minutes after the roundtable." She added: "We needed to make sure that we were all on our guard, in terms of the cameras, like how is he going to try and get himself out of this one? We've never, from the moment of being picked, seen a Traitor have to try and backpedal like that."
The Celebrity Traitors continues tonight at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
