James Blunt says BBC viewers missed the full Acaster interrogation on Celebrity Traitors

The roundtable confession

On 29 October, during the semi-final, comedian James Acaster, 41, confessed to being a Traitor after Michael Sheen, 57, cornered him in a tense round table interrogation. His fellow players were left stunned, and the confession led to his banishment from the castle. James Blunt, 52, said in a BBC interview that viewers did not see the whole picture. He said Acaster had been caught in a lie about a perfume bottle used in a murder in plain sight, and that he was "pinned to a post" during the questioning. Blunt added that Acaster did not simply concede when he was confronted.

Blunt put it this way:

“You didn't see the full extent of the interrogation. It was heavy in there and it was clear-cut.”

Blunt also said the editing shaped what audiences saw, and that he had been shouting at the screen for different reasons than viewers. He said he had signed up to promote his new music rather than to play the game to the end, and that contestants were paid the same whether they lasted one day or 23.

A confrontation that never aired

Acaster told Alan Carr on the Life's a Beach podcast that Jerry Hall, 70, had approached him face to face and accused him of being a Traitor. She said "I think it's James!", and he replied that it might be him as well. He had expected the exchange to make the edit, but it never appeared on screen. Acaster recalled his answer on the podcast:

“I think it might be me as well, Jerry!”

Acaster had been recruited as a Traitor by actor Richard E Grant, 69, and Love Island host Maya Jama, 32.

Croft's unaired collapse

Sebastian Croft, 24, the Heartstopper actor who won as a Faithful alongside Romesh Ranganathan, said on his podcast The Sunday Scaries with Bash Croft that Ross Kemp kept pushing him through a grave-digging challenge. He later fainted, and the show's medics gave him water and chocolate to raise his blood sugar. When he came round, Hall and Grant were standing over him, he recalled. He said the producers did him a favour by not airing the moment, which he described as a medical matter. He summed up the end of the task this way:

“Anyway, got to the end and felt really lightheaded and fainted.”

Teasing reports and the show's response

On 18 October, around halfway through the five-week run, tabloids reported that Acaster had complained about teasing from Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan. In an interview with Carr, Acaster called the reports "completely fabricated" and said he had been friends with the pair for over 10 years. He said the papers had contacted his agents and those of Beckett and Ranganathan, and all of them said the claim was categorically untrue. The show's team said at the time that there were no incidents of this nature and no evidence to support the allegations. Representatives for Beckett and Ranganathan said the claims were completely untrue.

Final result and reaction

Ranganathan and Croft triumphed over the Traitors in the final and shared £83,000 for their chosen charities. Acaster's confession at the penultimate roundtable drew criticism from some viewers who accused him of "ruining" the game, although fellow stars in the industry defended him. After leaving the show, Acaster said the round table had been sprung on him, but he was glad they caught him.