Romesh Ranganathan and Bash Croft Win Celebrity Traitors

Comedian Romesh Ranganathan and Heartstopper actor Sebastian "Bash" Croft won the second series of The Celebrity Traitors on BBC One on Friday. The faithful pair shared an £83,000 prize for their charities, the Refugee Council and Choose Love.

The final began with seven celebrities left from the original 21. The remaining traitors, Love Island host Maya Jama and YouTuber King Kenny, were banished before the end. Actor Michael Sheen was murdered in the first action of the episode.

The endgame

Kenny reached the endgame after turning on his fellow traitor Maya at the last round table. Little Mix singer Leigh-Anne Pinnock was swiftly banished after Kenny voted to remove her. "I was thinking me and him had a mutual understanding, and now I feel so stupid," she said.

Kenny, Romesh and Bash were joined at the fire pit by singer James Blunt. James and Kenny tied in a vote on who was a traitor. Bash persuaded Romesh to banish Kenny instead of James, which secured the win for the faithful.

"Absolutely devastated. Almost scraped it," Kenny said. "I was so close, I smelled the victory."

James then chose another round of voting and was evicted himself. He did not know that Romesh and Bash had both chosen to end the game, so he could also have been a winner. "I've loved trying to work it out, I've loved getting it wrong so often, I've loved the tiny moments when I've got it right," he said.

"This might actually be the best day of my life," said Bash, who is 24, through tears of joy. Romesh said he hoped his mum was proud, and added that his youngest son Charlie had wanted him to join the show: "dad won."

Earlier twists

Two contestants gave themselves away as traitors and were dispatched. Richard E Grant blurted out his secret status in episode two. Comedian James Acaster gave himself up under pressure at the round table in Thursday's penultimate episode.

There are reports that filming of that scene was paused and that Acaster was checked by welfare staff after he became anxious. A BBC spokesperson said on Friday that the safety and welfare of those taking part was the "highest priority". Acaster did not take part in Friday's edition of the spin-off Uncloaked.

Viewers noticed that a shot of Romesh looking shocked, seemingly at Acaster's confession, appeared to come from a later moment, once Romesh had already written Acaster's name on the blackboard as his vote. That fuelled speculation that the round table was heavily edited.

Live, the final averaged 11.2 million viewers, and catch-up will push that higher. Recent episodes have been watched by more than 15 million people once catch-up is included. The Hollywood Reporter noted on Thursday that the series had achieved record-breaking ratings, while much of the reaction on social media was that it had felt a bit dull.

Source: BBC News