Celebrity Traitors: why familiar faces could be the hardest to trust

Spoiler warning: This article discusses events from the first two episodes of The Celebrity Traitors.

Most contestants enter The Traitors needing to work out who everyone else is. In the celebrity version, some arrive with years of shared history — and that creates a different kind of problem.

How do you judge someone fairly when they are already your friend? And how convincing can a lie be when the person listening knows your habits?

Behind this year’s famous faces is a network of friendships, former colleagues and shared projects that could influence who gets believed, who gets defended and who attracts suspicion.

Knowing someone is not the same as knowing their role

Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan are an obvious example. Their friendship and work together on Rob & Romesh Vs give them a familiarity that most players cannot manufacture in a few days.

That could offer reassurance. It could also make unusual behaviour stand out.

The same tension runs through the comedy contingent. Joe Lycett and James Acaster are friends and have appeared together on Travel Man, while Lycett also has a friendship with Joanne McNally.

With Acaster recruited as a Traitor, those relationships carry an extra complication. People who understand his humour and how he normally responds may be especially difficult to mislead.

A familiar face across the table can be comforting — until they become the person most likely to notice that something has changed.

Old friendships can shape new suspicions

Jerry Hall’s connection with Richard E. Grant offers another example of how personal history enters the game.

The pair have known each other for decades, are neighbours and appeared together in the 2004 film Tooth. Hall’s confidence in Grant during the opening episode shows how an established relationship can influence a player’s judgement.

For viewers, that creates an intriguing question: is someone being assessed on what they have done inside the castle, or on the person a friend believes them to be outside it?

That distinction could matter at every round table.

Shared credits do not always mean close alliances

Elsewhere, the connections are professional rather than necessarily personal.

Bella Ramsey and Sebastian Croft both appeared in Game of Thrones. Julie Hesmondhalgh provides narration for The Weakest Link, which Ranganathan hosts. Maya Jama has crossed paths with several contestants through television, podcasts and public appearances.

But having worked with someone does not automatically mean knowing how they behave under pressure. A shared television credit may provide a conversation starter without offering much protection when accusations begin.

Being less familiar could bring freedom

Contestants with fewer established connections face their own challenge: building trust while others already have relationships to draw on.

Yet there may also be an advantage. Without a familiar version of their personality to compare against, fellow players have less basis for deciding that they are acting differently.

Leigh-Anne Pinnock has suggested that being recognised primarily through Little Mix could work in her favour, because recognition is not the same as knowing her personally.

That is what makes this celebrity line-up so compelling. Friendship may encourage trust, but it can also sharpen suspicion. The person who knows you best might defend you — or be the first to realise you are hiding something.

The cast connections discussed here draw on reporting by BBC culture correspondent Noor Nanji.

Read more: The Celebrity Traitors Returns Tonight: 21 Stars, £100,000 for Charity and Nobody to Trust