Amol Rajan has revealed that Richard E Grant told him he “just went mad” when deciding to eliminate him from Celebrity Traitors. Writing in his newsletter, Amol said he asked Richard why he chose to remove him from the game, and the actor replied: “To protect myself. And that’s a compliment!”
Amol responded: “But if you really wanted protection, you should have recruited me. That would have been a compliment!” He said Richard told him: “Ah yes, that makes sense. But I think I just went mad.”
Traitor gave away game immediately
Richard gave away the game almost immediately in the show’s second series when he admitted he was a traitor, despite the aim of the game being to hide that fact. He was picked by Claudia Winkleman to be one of two contestants chosen as traitors – players who attempt to “murder” others while pretending to be ordinary participants.
Rather than staying under the radar, Richard announced his role as a traitor. He has now admitted to Amol that he doesn’t know what came over him. Richard and fellow traitor, Love Island host Maya Jama, chose to murder the former BBC presenter in episode two.
Richard explains his unguarded excitement
Amol explained: “He said: ‘I was so thrilled to be chosen as a traitor that, in my unguarded excitement, I said, “Of course I’m a traitor.” I clearly need to diffuse all the heat that’s coming in my direction.’”
Richard added: “Well, the game had actually started, I was so relieved that it started because I had been so blatant about saying I came into this thing and it’s called Traitors, because I wanted to be a traitor. So when I walked into the bar, somebody said, ‘so you’re a faithful or a traitor?’, and I said, ‘I’m a traitor’, of course.”
While Amol admitted he would have liked to have been recruited as a traitor, that accolade fell to comedian James Acaster. The decision left Amol being murdered from the game, and speaking on The Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked on Friday, he said: “It’s hard not to watch it and think I, obviously, with 20/20 hindsight, I played the wrong game. That was a crazy, crazy once-in-a-lifetime [opportunity].”
He went on: “I think I would have been quite a good traitor because I’d actually known what it was like to be a faithful.” In advice to Richard, he suggested the star should have tried to stay off the radar a bit more rather than confess so blatantly. Amol said: “I think the one tactic that you should try to abide by is to keep a little bit, you know, fly under the radar a little bit for the first few days. Just shut up for the first few shows.”
Viewers wait for next episode
After the second episode left fans wondering what was to come in a tense cliffhanger, viewers have to wait until Thursday to find out. Celebrity Traitors isn’t on again until Thursday (October 8, at 8pm), with the show once again doing a Thursday-Friday double. The show airs on Thursdays and Fridays on BBC1 at 8pm.
