James Acaster on Celebrity Traitors: Brand new Interview

The multi-award-winning hit psychological game The Celebrity Traitors returns as host Claudia Winkleman welcomes a brand-new group of celebrities to The Traitors castle in the Scottish Highlands to play the ultimate reality game of deception and betrayal in the hope of winning a cash prize of up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice.

Hidden amongst the group are The Traitors whose task is simple: under the cover of darkness, they must pick off their fellow players one by without getting caught. The others – the Faithful – must try to uncover the Traitors and banish them before becoming their next victim The lucky players who survive to the end have the chance of winning the money. If a Traitor remains, they take all the money and leave victorious.

James Acaster Q&A

Why have you decided to take part in The Celebrity Traitors?
I just love it. I’m a huge fan and have been since series one. I instantly got addicted to it when I started watching. I think I started watching it halfway through the first series, so I was catching up on iPlayer. I did all of it in one night and then got really frustrated that I had to wait for all the other episodes. And then I really loved the first Celebrity series and instantly became jealous that I wasn’t doing it. I had to get in here!

Do you know anyone that did it last time?
I know some of the comics. I saw both Joe Wilkinson and Nick Mohammed after they’d done it and l said, “Yo, congrats! It was great!” They talked to me a bit about what it was like for them. I think they both had different experiences. Joe was very laid back, and Nick was very much trying to crack the case. I think I’m going to be a mix of the two.

Do you quite like games and puzzles and figuring things out?
I do, but I’m not very competitive. I just like how fun they are, the joy in trying to do the thing rather than determined to come out on top. It does mean I’m never too disappointed.

Are you looking forward to the Missions?
I am actually because I think that we’re doing a lot of knocking around a castle and it will be nice to just get outside. It’s a beautiful part of Scotland. Growing up, I was in the Scouts so it’s going to be nice to get back to that. I haven’t had that in my life for a long time.

Have you done anything to prepare apart from the years of Scouting?
Years of scouting and I do my morning crossword. That keeps me mentally agile.

How would you describe your strategy in three words?
Absolutely no touching. Not letting anyone touch me, because I’m not getting murdered in plain sight.

Apart from Claudia, she might need to touch your shoulder if you’re selected as a Traitor…
Yeah, I hope that doesn’t happen. I’d like to be a Faithful. This is the only time I’ll be able to play it, and I like being in a position of figuring something out rather than having the information the Traitors have.

You may need to be good at bluffing and deception. What’s the biggest lie you’ve ever got
away with?
If I tell you, I haven’t got away with it anymore. I’m not good at lying and I don’t make a habit of it. Maybe the biggest lie I’ve ever got away with was telling Ed Gamble I’m not doing The Celebrity Traitors.

Have you got any hobbies that we might not know about that might be useful in this game?
I do all the New York Times puzzles in the morning. Could be useful. I don’t know if drumming is going to come in handy, but I do that too. I don’t think it will, but who knows.

Lots of comedians taking part this year…
Which is a concern. There will be suspicions that it’s going to be at least one of these guys, that we might form an alliance if we’re not broken apart. I think we’re going to be the first ones under the magnifying glass being looked at. Particularly at the beginning when you have absolutely nothing to go on. And then you consider that a comedian won last year with Alan Carr disarming everyone with jokes the whole time. He has tainted us all! Hannah Fry will probably tell you that probability-wise, there’s most likely to be at least
one comic chosen as a Traitor because there’s enough of us. Even though it could obviously easily be three people who aren’t comedians…I don’t know how it works out, but if maths turns against us we’re in big trouble.

Do you think you can win this?
Do YOU think I can?

Yeah, why not I have genuinely no idea at all. Because every time I watch any of the series there seems to
be no rhyme or reason. People can be really quiet, and they make it to the end. People are huge characters, and they make it to the end. You can be quiet and go under the radar; you can be a big character and end up putting yourself in the firing line. Anyone could get to the end. You can avoid murder or banishment by simply not being respected enough to be seen as a threat. And I think I could very easily be seen as not a threat. Yeah, I could be there to the end. It’s anyone’s game really.

The Celebrity Traitors starts on Thursday 1st October at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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