New series will feature celebrities including Bella Ramsey, James Acaster, and Richard E Grant
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The new series of Celebrity Traitors will see the stakes upped from its inaugural hit season last year, and will feature “tears” and “paranoia that’s off the scale”.
This is according to Ed Havard, the BBC's director of entertainment, who opened up about the forthcoming reality series during an appearance at the Edinburgh TV Festival this week.
“The thing about this season is things happen that you didn't think could happen on Traitors, that you have never seen before,” he said. “I came from working on the US version, and it just shows how many surprises this show can deliver. I can't stop thinking about it. The paranoia is off the scale.
He continued: “I really wanted to step in and go, ‘no one is actually being murdered.’ I don't want to give too much away, but there are tears in this series. I don't think that I thought there would be this many surprises in this season… but there are.”
The second season of Celebrity Traitors will see a roster of big-name stars compete in a game of deception and scrutiny, as a designated trio of “Traitors” must undermine the “Faithfuls” and remain undetected while staying in a Scottish castle.
On Thursday (27 August), the BBC released a first teaser trailer for the new series, which will see celebrities including Bella Ramsey, James Acaster, James Blunt, Joe Lycett, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Michael Sheen, Richard E Grant, and Sharon Rooney compete. You can find the full cast list here.
In an interview earlier this year, Grant alluded to his time on the series, which has already been filmed, during an appearance on The One Show on Thursday 4 June.
He claimed to have received advice from the actor Celia Imrie, who featured on the first series of Celebrity Traitors last year.
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“When it was announced who was going to be in it, I called her, because we’ve known each other for 40 years. And I said, ‘Celia, what is the thing that you can’t be prepared for?’” he said.
“[Imrie] said, ‘the cruelty of people who you instinctively want to trust, in a room like this where suddenly every single person suspects you.’ I think that’s a very accurate thing to have said.”
Grant nonetheless joked that he was unable to divulge further details about his time on The Traitors, because “I value my knees, and I don’t want the BBC’s security to break them”.
Celebrity Traitors returns on BBC One this autumn.
