Amol Rajan: Celebrity Traitors star Richard E Grant is the ‘lord of chaos’

Broadcaster Amol Rajan has said it was “absolutely horrible” to be the first faithful kicked off of the new series of Celebrity Traitors after giving the “lord of chaos” actor Richard E Grant a hard time.

The 43-year-old journalist was murdered by the traitors, Grant and TV presenter Maya Jama during Friday’s episode of the BBC spin-off reality game show.

It came after he pled his case alongside fellow contestant comedian James Acaster, who was recruited to become the series’ third traitor.

Journalist Amol Rajan at the Bett UK Conference, the British educational technology show at ExCel (Yui Mok/PA)

Speaking on The One Show about leaving the Scottish castle, he said: “It’s absolutely horrible. It was horrible at the time.

“Just so people know when you are on The Traitors, it is your world. It’s not like a game, you are hundreds of miles from your family, you don’t have your phone, it’s so intense, it’s a little bubble.

“So as you walk into that chapel you are absolutely terrified.”

During the first episode, which premiered on Thursday, Grant announced to his fellow contestants that he was a traitor only minutes into the game.

This led to many faithfuls, including Rajan, to grow suspicious of the actor and question whether he was bluffing or had actually revealed his identity.

Rajan described it as a “moment of utter madness” and said if he could do it all over again he would “definitely” do it differently including giving the “lord of chaos”, Grant less of a hard time.

Richard E Grant attending the Serpentine Summer Party at the Serpentine Galleries, Kensington Gardens (Jeff Moore/PA)

He said: “The one thing I would say is lots of people were giving him a hard time and I did get quite close to being recruited as a traitor.”

He also said because he is a journalist he thinks he was a target as people expected him to ask tough questions.

Rajan added: “The thing about the celebrity version, and it’s amazing TV, it’s just fantastic television, but on the celeb version people’s reputation walk in before they do.

“So I should have known I was going to be a target but I didn’t realise Richard would go quite that mad that quickly.”

Thursday’s show was the most watched debut episode of any series of the programme in the UK, with an average audience of 8.9 million viewers, peaking at 9.1 million at one point.

In the hit series, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, 21 celebrity contestants take part with those assigned as faithfuls attempting to seek out those who have been made traitors, who “kill off” players in the middle of the night.

The celebrities are playing the game at Ardross Castle in the Highlands, with a cash prize of up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice up for grabs.

The Celebrity Traitors returns on BBC One and iPlayer on Thursday at 8pm.