The Celebrity Traitors cast is genuinely unbelievable – but one star’s absence from the line-up left fans brokenhearted.
Sir Stephen Fry, Charlotte Church, Alan Carr, Paloma Faith, and Jonathan Ross are just some of the big names competing in television’s most deceptive game, set at Ardross Castle, Inverness, in what is easily the most anticipated TV moment of 2025.
The cast was leaked just weeks before the BBC confirmed the 18 stars taking part in the first-ever Celebrity Traitors. But even with such a blockbuster line-up, one man’s absence began trending on X.
That man was Bob Mortimer.
Bob recently won over a new generation of fans – while reaffirming his place as the nation’s most beloved oddball – in Amazon Prime’s Last One Laughing, the contest where comedians must make each other laugh without laughing themselves.
Unsurprisingly, Bob was the winner, effortlessly taking down the likes of Daisy May Cooper, Richard Ayoade, and Sara Pascoe with his wonderfully peculiar charm.
He is utterly captivating and consistently hilarious in everything he does, so the excitement surrounding rumours of his appearance on Celebrity Traitors was palpable.
‘Other people were speculated too, Courteney Cox was in the papers for a long time as well,’ executive producer Sarah Fay told Metro. ‘If Bob wanted to do it next year, we would absolutely love it.’
She added: ‘It’s not just a case of we want them to do it, there’s other things involved.’
‘A lot of people wanted to do it but they have other commitments,’ said fellow executive producer Mike Cotton.
During a tour around the grounds of The Traitors where Metro was able to snoop around every single inch of the castle, Mike said of the celebrity series: ‘I think it’s so exciting. It was such a privilege the people that came to play it and we loved watching them play the game. I’m hoping the viewers will love it as well.’
Sarah agreed: ‘I just couldn’t believe the rush when you’re watching it happening before you on the screen and the people we had agree to come here, it was just amazing.’
It’s been claimed every single Celebrity The Traitors contestant was paid a flat fee of £40,000 but Mike stressed: ‘Everyone who wanted to come and take part just wanted to come and play and be immersed in it.’
Some stars ave come forward to reveal they turned down Celebrity The Traitors. The Apprentice star Baroness Karren Brady told Metro: ‘I don’t have the time’.
Martin Lewis also admitted he was forced to reject the offer due to time restraints but regrets it now.
He wrote on Instagram: ‘I’m no Traitor, sadly. I’ve got FOMO looking at the Celebrity Traitors line-up. I was asked if I wanted to do it, but said no as I couldn’t commit the time.’
Still, the final cast list must be pretty close to their original dream line-up. Sir Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross, Clare Balding nor Paloma Faith are likely to have been Plan B.
This is a line-up with ambition, scope and belief that they really could get most of the names they initially drew up from the get-go.
‘We just thought the sky’s the limit. If we don’t ask we don’t know,’ says Sarah.
Mike shares with equal enthusiasm: ‘I can’t lie to you, we were very excited about the line-up. It was a real privilege that they came to do it.’
He confirmed there was a mix of outreach. ‘We asked some people if they would be interested in taking part and then there were obviously some people who came to us.’
Naturally, though, he wouldn’t share who that was.
As for what’s in store, Mike and Sarah are frustratingly tight-lipped.
We just thought the sky’s the limit. If we don’t ask we don’t know
‘We can say there are some amazing moments. I think there will definitely be water cooler moments where people will be talking about Celebrity Traitors,’ says Sarah.
‘It’s definitely different because everyone had pre-conceived notions of each other and some of them had relationships out of the game.
‘We’ve obviously had that before with family members in the show but when you’re playing the game everyone has some sort of knowledge [of each other] even if they’re not friends, they know what that public persona is. That then is obviously influential but you can use it in many different ways.
‘You could use your preconceived notions of who you think people are but that’s what makes it exciting because it makes it different.’
Celebrity The Traitors launches October 8 at 9pm on BBC One.
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