Celebrity Traitors episode two: Amol Rajan murdered as James Acaster joins the traitors

The Celebrity Traitors claimed its first victim on Friday night, and the player taken away in a coffin was Amol Rajan. BBC News reported that the second episode of the series opened with a new twist: traitors Richard E Grant and Maya Jama were allowed to invite James Acaster to join them in the turret and, at the same moment, murder a fellow contestant. The University Challenge host was their choice, and he left before taking part in a single banishment.

“It’s gutting to be the first out,” Rajan said afterwards, according to BBC News, suggesting he had perhaps been “a bit bullish with Richard” earlier in the day. “But you know what, games are games, and just as there are winners, so there have to be losers.” The next morning Claudia Winkleman confirmed the murder to the rest of the castle with a line BBC News quoted in full: “That’s what I call a starter for 10.”

Key facts from Celebrity Traitors episode two

Moment	What happened
First murder	Amol Rajan, taken out before the first banishment, BBC News reported
Recruitment	James Acaster accepted the traitors’ invitation to the turret
The mission	Players were buried alive in pairs; Ross Kemp and Romesh Ranganathan were protected
Safe word	Jerry Hall shouted “Haggis!” and was freed early with Hannah Fry
Cliffhanger	The episode ended as the first round table vote was about to begin
Next episode	Thursday at 20:00 BST on BBC One and iPlayer

Acaster accepts, and explains why

Acaster did not pretend to enjoy the promotion. “I’m gutted to not be a faithful anymore, I don’t like lying,” he said in footage reported by BBC News. “But if I don’t join them, they’ll kill me.” Variety reported that the traitors had called both Acaster and Rajan to the turret at the end of the opening episode, with each man arguing that he could deflect attention after Grant’s early slip. Friday’s episode revealed that only one of them walked out of the room as a traitor.

The comedian quickly showed why he was recruited. In a flashback reported by BBC News, Acaster persuaded his fellow traitors to shield Ross Kemp from the day’s mission, reasoning that Kemp would “overthink it, and behave in a way that would draw suspicion”. Grant’s verdict, as quoted by the BBC, was “You’re a wonderful traitor.”

Richard E Grant and the biggest mistake of his life

Grant’s problem began in the bar at the end of the first episode, when he announced to Joe Lycett, Rob Beckett and several others that he was a traitor. Variety reported that he later told the camera it “may have been the biggest mistake I’ve made in my life”, adding: “I was so thrilled to be chosen that in my excitement I said I was a Traitor. I need to defuse all of the heat coming in my direction.” Before being selected he had told Winkleman he would be “utterly ruthless” and that being a traitor would be “a dream come true”, according to Variety.

On Friday the 69-year-old was in damage-control mode. BBC News reported that many players assumed the admission had to be an elaborate double bluff, and Grant himself clung to what he called “a slight pinprick of advantage”: nobody, he reasoned, would believe anyone could be “so stupid as to come forward and say ‘I am a traitor’”. His new colleagues were less confident. Acaster described him as a “loose cannon”, while Jama said she wanted to save him “even though he’s dug himself the biggest hole imaginable”, according to BBC News.

Jama, by contrast, is thriving. “I am quite shocked at my ability to just lie to everyone,” the Love Island host said in the diary room, per BBC News. “I’m an all-or-nothing kind of honey.”

Buried alive, and a shout of Haggis

The mission saw the celebrities buried in pairs, with Kemp and Romesh Ranganathan pre-selected by the traitors to stay above ground. BBC News reported that the pair could either dig up gold to add to the prize pot or free their fellow players, and chose to free them. Everyone was released except Hannah Fry and Jerry Hall, who were let out early after Hall shouted the emergency word “Haggis!” because she was visibly uncomfortable underground. The consequence, as the BBC explained, is that one of the two now faces the next murder unless the traitors recruit again. “Just you and me up for murder,” Fry told Hall. “You’d better not be a traitor or I’m really screwed!”

Breakfast had already produced its share of theories. BBC News reported that Fry claimed to have seen Leigh-Anne Pinnock putting on make-up late in the evening, while Hall declared “I think it’s James” before clarifying that she meant James Blunt rather than Acaster. Grant, meanwhile, asked Beckett whether he had “more teeth than a normal person”.

The case against Grant, and the vote that never came

The pre-vote discussion took a surprisingly long time to reach Grant, according to BBC News, with suspicion first falling on Julie Hesmondhalgh because she had been handed the first shield of the series. When the conversation turned, Hesmondhalgh delivered what the BBC called one of the most convincing arguments of the night. “You came into the bar, and said you were a traitor,” she told him. “I think we are at risk of being the most idiotic group of faithfuls in the world, if we go for someone else tonight based on nothing at all.”

Not everyone agreed. Myha’la said Grant felt “a little too easy” and that anyone pushing him seemed suspicious, while Joanne McNally suggested some players were using him “as a fall guy and a decoy”, BBC News reported. The Guardian’s live coverage noted that Joe Lycett pointed out nobody has ever removed a traitor at the first attempt, and that the group appeared to have what he saw as an open goal.

The programme then ended before a single vote was cast. The Guardian called the finish anticlimactic and the hour “a bit of a damp squib”, while BBC News judged the cliffhanger less irritating than cutting away mid-round-table. Ranganathan summed up the mood: “You’ve given us all a problem,” he told Grant. “I feel like you forced our hand.” Grant’s reply, quoted by the BBC, was defiant: “I do not go down without a fight. I couldn’t have survived showbusiness for four decades without a fight.”

What happens next

Variety reported that the 21 celebrities are playing for a £100,000 prize for charity at Ardross Castle in the Highlands, and that the first series, broadcast in October 2025, later streamed in the United States on Peacock. The remaining cast includes Bella Ramsey, James Blunt, Julie Hesmondhalgh, King Kenny, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Michael Sheen, Myha’la, Hannah Fry, Ross Kemp, Sebastian Croft, Sharon Rooney, Joanne McNally, Miranda Hart, Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan. The first banishment, and the answer to whether Grant can talk his way out of the hole he dug, arrives on Thursday at 20:00 BST on BBC One and iPlayer.

Frequently asked questions

Who was murdered in Celebrity Traitors episode two?

Amol Rajan was the first victim of the series. BBC News reported that traitors Richard E Grant and Maya Jama murdered the University Challenge host at the same time as they recruited James Acaster.

Did James Acaster become a traitor?

Yes. According to BBC News, Acaster accepted the invitation to the turret, saying he did not like lying but that the traitors would kill him if he refused.

Why did Jerry Hall shout Haggis?

Haggis was the emergency word in the buried-alive mission. BBC News reported that Hall used it because she was visibly uncomfortable, which freed her and Hannah Fry early but left one of them exposed to the next murder.

When is the next episode of Celebrity Traitors?

The series continues on Thursday at 20:00 BST on BBC One and iPlayer, when the first round table vote will be shown.