BBC boss teases wild Celebrity Traitors series 2 full of "surprises": "The paranoia is off the scale"

Anyone concerned that the second series of The Celebrity Traitors will be lacking in drama can rest easy, it seems - as the BBC's Director of Entertainment has teased what sounds like a gloriously chaotic run.

The show completed filming back in the spring and released its first teaser trailer today, with Claudia Winkleman addressing contestants including Richard E Grant, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Joanne McNally and Julie Hesmondhalgh among others.

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival today (via The Independent), Ed Havard indicated that the twists and turns will be in no short supply.

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“The thing about this season is things happen that you didn't think could happen on Traitors, that you have never seen before,” he teased. “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. I really wanted to step in and go, ‘no one is actually being murdered.’"

He added: "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."

Hoping to replicate Alan Carr's success from 2025, other contestants this time around include Bella Ramsey, James Acaster, Amol Rajan, James Blunt, Jerry Hall, Joe Lycett, King Kenny and Maya Jama.

Related: Celebrity Traitors' Richard E Grant reveals "accurate" warning from Celia Imrie

Michael Sheen, Miranda Hart, Myha’la, Professor Hannah Fry, Rob Beckett, Romesh Ranganathan, Ross Kemp, Sebastian Croft and Sharon Rooney complete the impressive set.

While the cast have been tight-lipped about what's in store, Ramsey recently admitted that they went into the whole thing "naive".

"I started playing it [Mafia] in the Television Workshop, so I've been playing it since I was 11," they told The Guardian. "I love it so much. I've done Mafia nights at my flat. So fun. In my head, it was just, like, 'I'm going to go to this castle and play this game for two weeks.'

"Yeah. So I'm, like, 'you just go and you do that [The Celebrity Traitors]'. But I'm too naive. I should know, after doing this for so many years, that what you see on screen isn't actually what it is."

The Celebrity Traitors returns later this year on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Season 1 is streaming now on BBC iPlayer.

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Shaun is an Evening News Editor at Digital Spy, with over a decade of experience reporting on all things pop culture. He has written for outlets including Metro, Attitude, Huffington Post, The Mirror, Yahoo!, Pink News and Express Online, specialising in TV, movies, soaps, music and LGBTQ+ issues. He is also a BAFTA Rocliffe-winning scriptwriter, having written episodes of the soap Hollyoaks, the official Steps musical Here & Now and multiple Offie Award-nominated plays. He studied English Literature and Drama at the University of East Anglia, and will happily talk at length about Desperate Housewives to anyone who'll listen.