‘Toxically competitive’ Hannah Fry will use maths skills in Celebrity Traitors

Hannah Fry has said she will use her skills in mathematics to beat the competition in The Celebrity Traitors.The broadcaster and mathematician, who admitted she is “toxically competitive” is one of 21 stars taking part in the new series.She said: “I’m here to fulfil the nerd quota for the year, and I’m taking my responsibility extremely seriously.“Have I gone back through the data of all the previous games and tried to find statistically significant patterns? Yes. Are any of these going to help me? Honestly, who knows?”Hannah Fry said she was on the show to ‘fulfil the nerd quota for the year’ (Ian West/PA)PA ArchiveFry has noticed traitors often do a “burn vote” in the first few episodes as they are settling in to the game.She explained: “By that I mean they just vote for somebody that nobody else has voted for.“Cat (Burns) last year was a really good example of this, but across the board, the only problem with picking up on those signals is that the Faithfuls are such an absolute mess.“They are so all over the place that it’s really hard to pick out what the signal is. That’s just one example of a little bit of maths that I’ve got in my back pocket.“I am using the same bit of maths that Alan Turing used to crack the Enigma machine.Hannah Fry is one of 21 contestants in the new series (Yui Mok/PA)PA Archive“Whether it’s going to work or not, honestly, your guess is as good as mine. I’ve got spreadsheets coming out of my eyeballs.“I close my eyes and it’s like there are numbers tattooed on the inside of my eyelids at the moment for how much I’ve been looking at them.”Asked what her strategy will be, Fry replied: “Careful, analytical, and well, the other thing that I really want to be is just a little bit mischievous. I really want to enjoy the ride and have fun being playful.”The Celebrity Traitors starts on Thursday October 1 at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.