Richard E Grant was banished on Celebrity Traitors (BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)
Richard E Grant has said he assumed the other contestants would treat his confession blunder as a joke, as he was voted off The Celebrity Traitors.
Speaking on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the actor said he misjudged how seriously the group would take his confession. “I never thought they would take me seriously,” Grant said.
He called the moment “a completely catastrophically idiotic thing to do”, adding that he could “only imagine the faces of the producers looking at each other and mouthing ‘he said what?!’”
Grant suggested his strategy was “no strategy is the strategy”.
Richard E Grant gives the game away on Celebrity Traitors
Grant’s slip-up came in the opening episode, after he was selected as one of the Traitors. In the moment seen in the premiere, he revealed his role almost instantly, admitting to Joe Lycett he was a Traitor.
The exchange began when Lycett asked him which side he was on. Lycett said, after Grant’s confession: “I think you’ve done something that’s never been done in the game. It’s a bold strategy.”
Grant said he now thinks he should have tried to make light of it, suggesting he could have gone round the group asking “are you a traitor?” and repeatedly declaring “I am Spartacus”.
He also said his daughter warned him before filming that he would be “slaughtered” because he was “incapable of hiding what you feel about people or anything”.
Contestants ‘institutionalised
Grant also described the conditions during filming, saying: “You are so institutionalised in that thing within 24 hours, because you are isolated, kept in a room, there is a guard outside your door, your food is delivered and there’s no internet access, so you are kind of shut down.” He added that contestants were not told the time and were told what to wear each day.
He said he is not watching the series back because unscripted TV leaves “no place to hide”, adding: “That is unequivocally you.”
Grant was the first participant banished at the roundtable vote after suspicion was rightly sparked by his admission. Last week’s episodes also saw Myha’la and Julie Hesmondhalgh banished, and Bella Ramsey “murdered”.
Friday’s episode ended with a cliffhanger, with Ross Kemp, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan at risk of “murder” – though Pinnock was given a secret lifeline that the Traitors have no knowledge of.
The Celebrity Traitors continues at 8pm on Thursday on BBC One.
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