Comic James Acaster diagnosed the chaos of a brutal week on BBC One’s The Celebrity Traitors, where a menacing death parade sent contestants scrambling through forests and a tense round table ended with the dramatic banishment of mathematician Hannah Fry.
The death parade and castle captures
Contestants on the BBC One show faced a jumpy mission that required solving puzzles while being pursued across the edge of a forest by a menacing army of marching hooded figures known as the death parade. The menacing army trapped individuals in a cage until the next roundtable if they were caught.
That is genuinely terrifying,
said Pinnock as the walkers approached. We are literally in a horror film.
Michael Sheen used the puzzles as an opportunity to flex his acting muscles, bellowing instructions using a Shakespearean actor’s voice. The celebrities ultimately succeeded, adding £8,000 to the prize pot for charity after Kemp and James Blunt used flints to spark a flame and ignite gunpowder to hold the death walkers at bay. However, the mission resulted in all three traitors—Maya Jama, Hannah Fry, and James Acaster—along with faithfuls Romesh Ranganathan, Jerry Hall, and Joanne McNally, being locked away in a cage until the round table.
This left a traitor-free zone at the castle where theories could fly freely without interference from players trying to derail suspicions.
Hannah Fry banishment and King Kenny recruitment
I came in here with absolutely one job and one job only on my mind, which was to catch traitors. I calculated every conceivable scenario except for the one that actually unfolded… I am a traitor.
Hannah Fry, contestant
Following the exit, Jama and Acaster chose to seduce YouTuber and boxer Kenny Oghenovo Ojuederie—known as King Kenny—to take her place. He accepted the offer but asked for their loyalty, stating, Guys, just don’t do me dirty.
The 29-year-old added a request for them not to betray him so they could try playing a clean game where all three reach the final.
Rob Beckett and Julie Hesmondhalgh departures
The game also claimed Rob Beckett, who became the latest faithful to be murdered. In a confessional, Beckett joked that his death was good news for the faithful since he had no chance of figuring out who the traitors were, while adding that his close friend Romesh Ranganathan would avenge him. Ranganathan expressed sadness over losing his unthreatening friend, noting that Beckett was so unthreatening he would never have been banished.
Hesmondhalgh reflected on her time in the castle during her exit interview, describing the experience as the time of a lifetime and so joyful it ranked right up there with marriage and childbirth. Game of Thrones actor Bella Ramsey, the youngest player this series at 23 years old, was also confirmed to have been murdered by the traitors in a cliffhanger resolution.
This is a bunch of faithful who read into everything… They go, why did this happen? And with this murder, there’s no answer, and they won’t suspect it’s us.
James Acaster, comedian and traitor