The BBC has refuted speculation that Richard E Grant’s already-infamous Celebrity Traitors blunder may have been “faked”.
Earlier this month, Richard got the latest season of the Bafta-winning reality show off to a jaw-dropping start when he outed himself as a Traitor only moments after being selected in a botched attempt at a double bluff.
On Monday evening, The Sun published a piece alleging that Richard could have “staged” the moment as a way of serving up TV gold without having to commit to a full season of Celebrity Traitors.
The tabloid cited an undisclosed “source” who claimed that many people behind the scenes were “convinced he staged it”.
BBC/Studio Lambert/Cody Burridge/BBC Creative
However, The Sun also wrote that the BBC had already “insisted it was an innocent mistake”.
A Celebrity Traitors had no further comment when contacted by HuffPost UK.
Following his elimination, Richard gave an interview with the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire where he claimed the gaffe was a “completely catastrophically idiotic thing to do”, quipping: “I can only imagine the faces of the producers looking at each other and mouthing ‘he said what?!’.”
Joe Lycett – to whom Richard made his initial admission about being a Traitor – also told The Mirror: “There’s no game around that, he absolutely meant it when he said it to me.
“God knows what was going through his head. It’s one of the most iconic performances I’ve ever seen on this series.”
The show’s executive producer Sarah Fay has also opened up about the team’s reaction to the Oscar nominee’s blunder behind the scenes.
BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry
At a press event to promote the show, she admitted that in all the time Traitors has been on air, she’d “never [seen] anything like that happen before”.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we think that we’d have a Traitor admit they were a Traitor five minutes after the Round Table!” she added.
Meanwhile, after becoming the first celebrity to be banished from season two of Celebrity Traitors, Richard admitted he hasn’t even seen the show for himself yet.
“I’m in a play every night, so I haven’t seen it,” he told Digital Spy, admitting he has “no idea” who will come out on top in the finale later in the season.
The Celebrity Traitors continues on Thursday and Friday night at 8pm on BBC One.
