Fourth banished contestant wants all female final

Contains Spoilers: Professor Hannah Fry was the fourth contestant banished in The Celebrity Traitors this year. In this new interview, Hannah shares how she’d love to see an all female final.

Professor Hannah Fry was the fourth banished contestant and the second Traitor banished at the Round Table

What was the experience like for you?

That was the wildest roller coaster I have ever been on. I laughed more, cried more and got more excited than I ever have in the entirety of the rest of my life combined, it’s amazing.

Was the game everything you imagined it might be?

And more, I think it’s the intensity of it that you don’t quite expect. I think when you’re watching from home, sometimes people’s emotional reactions seem over the top or outlandish, outsized. But I think when you’re here and you’re so cut off from everywhere else, the game is the only thing you can think about. And so it just heightens everything. It’s so intense.

Were you happy being a Faithful, initially?

I knew that I could be myself. I could relax. I didn’t have to pretend to be anything I wasn’t.

Did you feel that being smart might be a hindrance?

Yeah, on the first day, I asked Michael Sheen who he would murder, and he said, You. And at that point I knew I was really in trouble. Surviving the first day was a really nice surprise. But I think, honestly, there were two separate moments where I was absolutely convinced that I was gone, first, when it was me and Jerry up for murder. Secondly, the Round Table, when half the votes went for me.

Did you think you were at risk, and it could have gone either way?

I knew that the smart thing to do in that situation would be to vote for Julie, just to make sure that there was one more vote on her side. However, I just couldn’t quite bring myself when I thought she was so lovely and I knew she was innocent, I didn’t want to be responsible for her banishment. I then did a very stupid thing, which was to tell Jerry in advance I was going to vote for her, because I think that was what swung her to vote for me. But nonetheless, I think Jerry’s the one person on that whole table who could handle being voted for.

You really had to fight for your place at that Round Table when Julie left, how, how did that feel?

Is does feel quite full on when you’re the one under the spotlight. The conversation around the table was okay. I think one of the reasons why I didn’t want to be a Traitor is because the only way your game ends is by being banished or winning, so I think that having people vote for you and having heat on you is part of the role of being a Traitor.

Did you have a favourite Mission?

The first Mission, of course, What an amazing thing. I’m not the strongest, I’m not the fastest, I’m not the most capable of running, but being part of unlocking the safe, that felt really good, None of the others noticed that I was actually the one who got them the code. But they will, they will.

How did you feel in the Grave Digger mission when Jerry didn’t want to do it, so you were immediately both at risk of murder?

Jerry wasn’t faking. And you can’t ever be annoyed with someone for prioritising themselves in that situation. But of course, I was absolutely gutted. Of course I was, especially with Amol being murdered, I already knew that I was really at risk. I was really vulnerable, and just the fact that the circumstance meant that it’s now between me and one other person, it really wasn’t a good feeling.

Who did you feel closest to? Was there someone in there that you trusted more than others?

I really like Joanne. We actually discovered that we’re cousins, by marriage. So her cousin is married to my cousin. We’re basically sisters. I really loved her so much. She described herself as how she came out of the womb as a show pony. That’s the perfect description of that woman. She is phenomenal. She knows exactly who she is, and she is totally unapologetic about it. I cannot tell you how much I admire her. She’s phenomenal.

Maya as well. I really want Maya to win. I think Maya is playing the most amazing game. When someone looks like that, I think that you expect her to have a bit of a chip on her shoulder in some way or another, because, good God, she’s one of the most beautiful women alive, but she’s also just so much fun. No airs and graces, totally delightful to be around. I really want her to win. Leigh-Anne too, my God, that woman hasn’t got a single thing wrong. Is she actually psychic? She’s the most perceptive person I’ve ever come across in my entire life.

What’s been your proudest achievement?

Getting that bloomin Roman numerals thing. I panicked as well. I knew that everyone was going to expect me to be the one to solve it, but mathematicians do not do mental arithmetic. I think people have this image in their heads that we just sit around thinking of big numbers all day, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. I haven’t seen a number, I haven’t used a number since I was about 16, I’m all about the x’s and y’s. I can’t split the bill at a restaurant any more than anyone else!

When you got your seduction letter, how did you feel?

I was genuinely torn as to whether to accept it or not. On the one hand, I came into this just so wanting to be Faithful, and I had this whole plan, had done all this work in advance of just really, really wanting to play the Faithful game and have authentic interactions with people. So I was tempted to turn it down and go in and tell everybody that I’d been seduced, or that they tried to seduce me and I turned it down, but I knew as soon as I did that that the heat would be on me anyway, and I’d almost certainly be murdered that night.

When you saw who the Traitors were, did you have any suspicions?

It was too early for my data stuff to work, so at that point I’d sort of ruled James Acaster out, because I just really believed him when he told me he wanted to catch Traitors, which actually, at the time, had been true. My God, I didn’t have Maya down at all. My data would have come into play later on in the Game, around now… so there were bits the data picked up, so one is, Traitors feel bad about voting for Faithfuls, and sending them to banishment, so what they do instead is they vote for somebody that nobody else is voting for. They make a burn vote. James Acaster did a burn vote. It’s not a complete giveaway, but it’s a really strong indicator.

And then the other thing that people do, which both of them have done now, is Traitors will vote for another Traitor, having never voted for that person before. So both Maya and James have switched their vote from Julie to me, there are very few people who are in that category, because Joe voted for me both nights. So when you start putting these pieces together it starts to become really clear. The other thing is, three Traitors will never hang out together. You’ll never get three Traitors in a car together, you’ll never get three Traitors sitting together at breakfast. They want to avoid each other.

So if you keep track of every time you see three or four people together, and I have a spreadsheet, then you can really quickly start to filter them down and work out the combinations.

Do you think your behaviour changed when you became a Traitor?

I tried to just carry on doing what I had been doing. But I realise now, in the fullness of time, that actually I should have just shrunk back a lot more. Should have kept my mouth shut a bit more than I did. That is what Maya is doing beautifully. She’s not really going after anybody, maybe at the Round Table to make sure that she speaks, but she’s not actually trying to nudge the boat towards anybody.

How did it feel when both your fellow Traitors voted you at the Round Table?

Absolutely fine. They needed to protect themselves. The reality of the journey that I had with the set of circumstances that I was in, I was never going to make it to the final. They had to do what they had to do.

Did you enjoy being a Traitor?

Killing Rob Beckett was one of the best evenings I’ve had in my entire life. I was running through the woods in the middle of the night, opening the door to Rob Beckett’s face. It was delightful. But I really preferred being Faithful. I think it’s just a much more authentic experience, you get to interact with people and connect with them on a human level that just feels real. It’s so much more stressful being a Traitor.

Do you think you’ve learned anything about yourself taking part in this game?

That I really hate lying to people’s faces. I think there’s actually some pride in being a rubbish Traitor.

Who do you think will win?

I think Maya. Leigh-Anne needs to keep quiet about how good she is because I don’t think people have necessarily noticed, but as soon as Maya notices that Leigh-Anne is that good, she’s going to kill her. I’d also love Joanne to win.

I’d love an all-girl final – Sharon Miranda, Joanne, Leigh-Anne and Maya, that’s what I want.

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