James Acaster: Plan to reveal identity ‘got me through’ Celebrity Traitors

Comedian James Acaster has said his idea to reveal his identity as a traitor got him through his experience on The Celebrity Traitors.The 41-year-old was banished from the castle during Thursday’s episode of the BBC reality gameshow after he told his fellow contestants his identity at the roundtable, during a discussion about Ross Kemp’s plain sight murder.Speaking after leaving the show, Acaster said: “The idea of doing that got me through the whole experience because you feel as a traitor sometimes, when you see people have real-life reactions that are bigger than the game, you feel bad.“And I would have to remind myself they don’t have a game without you, literally, if no one’s doing this stuff, they can’t play, and they all want to play.The Celebrity Traitors final will take place on Friday (BBC/Studio Lambert)“So you are doing an important job here, so they all have something to do, and when they catch you, they’ll be really happy and they’ll like it, and it will feel good to just tell them and see that reaction.”Acaster went on to say that he was “glad they caught me” and said his exit made for a better final on Friday.He added: “I feel pretty good getting to episode nine, and now we’ve got a proper final on our hands.Acaster was banished after a discussion about Ross Kemp’s plain sight murder (BBC/Studio Lambert)“With three Traitors, it would have been a foregone conclusion that we were going to win. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was hilarious at one point that we were just going to walk our way to the final and win the whole thing, but this is much better, isn’t it?”Acaster added that while he had faith in his former fellow traitors, he said he felt that singer James Blunt may lead the faithfuls to victory, describing him as “a man possessed”.The Celebrity Traitors final airs on BBC One at 8pm on Friday.