Warning: this article contains spoilers for episode one of The Celebrity Traitors. So – have they managed to capture lightning in a franchised bottle again? The new series of The Celebrity Traitors, more hotly anticipated than Nigella entering the Bake Off tent, is here.
Twenty-one contestants of varying levels of fame, but never dipping below C-list, have signed up to endure Claudia Winkleman’s tyranny in Ardross Castle, in the hope of winning up to £100,000 for their chosen charity and a place in the nation’s consciousness and possible heart for between one week and a lifetime, depending how things work out. We get our first glimpse of the gang as they file into a church replete with masked guards and floral tributes spelling out RIP and VIP at the altar. Actors, broadcasters, comedians, musicians and some miscellanea start to fill up the pews.
Young Sebastian Croft pauses to genuflect before continuing down the aisle, and such is the power of the format that you immediately wonder if this is a tactic to make himself seem trustworthy. Or is anyone with a religious belief marked as a weirdo for whom anything is possible these days? If you think that’s sensitivity gone mad, may I introduce you to Ross Kemp?
Before the episode is out, he is turning bewildered circles in the castle, convinced that anyone who touches him is trying to murder him in plain sight. We’ve a long way to go yet. But this is what we came for, of course.
To see behind famous faces to the reality beneath. The hard man who is actually a soft target will do nicely. If mathematician Hannah Fry proves incapable of putting stats to work in her service, it will be noted.
If Julie Hesmondhalgh (“I get hungry for friendship with people I see on the telly!”) turns out to be a Machiavellian genius, we will be over the moon. How long can they last in a game that is all about personalities before they have to reveal the true nature of theirs? It’s about 30 seconds for Richard E Grant.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
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