The Celebrity Traitors ★★★★
It was the fart that broke the internet. Well, in England, anyway, when acclaimed 73-year-old British actor Celia Imrie let out a nervous squeak on The Celebrity Traitors and promptly cemented her place in the reality TV hall of fame.
Celia Imrie and Alan Carr are stealing the show on The Celebrity Traitors.
“I’m so sorry, it’s nerves – but I always own up,” said Imrie when the show’s host, the formidable Claudia Winkleman, asked what the noise was.
Next to her, comedian Alan Carr collapsed into a fit of giggles.
If you are rolling your eyes and bemoaning the state of television – reality! Celebrities! The end of civilisation! – The Traitors could change your mind. Yes, it is reality and this version is stuffed with celebrities, but it’s also a delightful bit of nonsense that reveals more about the human condition than any deeply serious – and deeply depressing – bit of true crime ever could.
“Players never really seem to get their head around the fact that trustworthiness, and whether somebody’s a traitor, are completely unrelated,” psychologist Clea Wright told The Guardian. “If they decide they trust someone, they decide that person can’t be a traitor – logic deserts people.”
Lucy Beaumont (left), Joe Marler, Cat Burns, and Jonathan Ross on The Celebrity Traitors.
It reveals how, deep down, most us are susceptible to group-think and tend to favour people who are like us. It lays bare the depths many would sink to win the prize and the deceit they happily engage in to trick their fellow players. It is a masterclass in manipulation – and it’s very, very watchable.
Just ask the Brits. When The Celebrity Traitors premiered on the BBC a couple of weeks ago, it was to an astonishing audience of more than 11 million viewers. They were hooked on the roster of 19 big names, including Carr, Imrie, Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross, singers Cat Burns, Paloma Faith and Charlotte Church, actors Nick Mohammed and Mark Bonnar and Olympic diver Tom Daley.
