I’ll say it: Richard E. Grant just pulled off the greatest con in reality television, and he did it by telling the truth. Season 2 of The Celebrity Traitors opened Thursday night on BBC One, Grant was picked as a Traitor alongside Maya Jama, and within minutes he told Joe Lycett exactly what he was. Nobody believed him. The Celebrity Traitors memes were instant.


Richard E. Grant Told the Truth and Got Away With It
Here’s what happened. Lycett asked him what he was, and Grant, a man who has never whispered in his life, answered that he was a Traitor. Rob Beckett called it a bold strategy. Grant reportedly called it maybe the biggest mistake of his life, which is exactly what a mastermind would say. You can read about Richard E Grant’s Traitor reveal and decide for yourself, but I’ve been to enough dinner parties to know the loudest person in the room is never the one people suspect.



The comparisons to last series’ famously jittery Traitor Alan Carr arrived within the hour, and @shrinepod had the cleanest version. Other people just went with Sideshow Bob, which, if you’ve ever seen Grant laugh, is less a joke than a casting note.




Who Gave Ross Kemp That Hat?
Meanwhile, on the other side of the castle, Ross Kemp was solving murders that hadn’t happened yet. After the first challenge, Bella Ramsey gave him a hat as a nice little team moment, and Kemp decided he might have just been killed in plain sight. The Traitors hadn’t even had their first meeting. Then Leigh-Anne Pinnock touched his arm, and we were off again.



I respect it, frankly. I also think someone is poisoning me every time a waiter refills my water without asking. Ross Kemp celebrity traitors energy is just the correct amount of suspicion for a castle full of actors, and the timeline treated it like a public service announcement.




Tom Jamieson gave him until episode three before a cup of tea finishes him off, and @dande_only drew up the full enemies list.


The Rest of the Celebrity Traitors Memes Belong to Claudia
Claudia Winkleman arrived in a coffin, stepped out, and reportedly told everyone that was quite the nap. Myha’la reacted the way we all did. The whole UK showed up online at once, and the 21 celebrities did plenty of other strange things in between.



Romesh Ranganathan asked a room full of strangers whether there was anybody there he didn’t like, which is a team-building question I plan to steal, and Julie Hesmondhalgh accepted a biscuit faster than anyone has ever accepted anything. The episode also ended on a cliffhanger over James Acaster and Amol Rajan, so fans of Acaster are already bracing.




Under all the screaming, this is why the show works: a bunch of famous people who should know better, sitting around a fire, desperately trying to figure out who they can trust. That’s every family holiday I’ve ever been to. At least here someone hands you a hat.
25 The Traitors UK Memes That Ate Season 4 Alive covers the regular series. British Memes With Tea, Sass, And Peak Dry Humor explains why the whole nation reacts like this. And TV Memes: 30 Laughs For The Television Obsessed fills the gap until Friday’s episode.