Celebrity Traitors Proves Richard E. Grant Is Actually The Worst Loki

Posted in: BBC, Disney+, Marvel, TV | Tagged: Celebrity Traitors, richard e grant, traitors

Celebrity Traitors Proves Richard E. Grant Is Actually The Worst Loki

The new series of Celebrity Traitors on BBC 1 proves that Richard E. Grant is actually the very worst Loki of them all...

Published Sun, 04 Oct 2026 08:37:11 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary

• Celebrity Traitors throws Richard E. Grant into chaos after he appears to admit he is a Traitor in episode one.
• The Loki star wanted the Traitor role, then delivered the least convincing Faithful denial of Celebrity Traitors so far.
• Joe Lycett and James Blunt react in disbelief as Richard E. Grant turns a simple chat into TV’s wildest 2026 moment.
• With Faithfuls split over bluff or blunder, Celebrity Traitors ends episode two with Richard E. Grant under heavy suspicion.

Richard E. Grant is in the news. From the front page of today's London Times newspaper, across all British media, after his star turn in the first episode of the second series of Celebrity Traitors on BBC 1. The star-studded version of the popular reality TV parlour game began this week, in which contestants are split into Faithfuls, who have to identify Traitors among them and eliminate them before they get murdered. In the standard Traitors series, the audience knows nothing about the contestants, but in Celebrity Traitors, they know a lot more, especially given the prominence of those eager to play along.

But no one expected Richard E Grant to do what he did this week. A long-standing, award-winning actor, writer, and director, best known for movies such as Withnail And I, Spice World, Saltburn, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Star Wars, as well as TV shows such as Downton Abbey, Girls, and Game of Thrones. He also played a Ninth Doctor Who in both the animated Scream Of The Shalka and in Steven Moffat's Comic Relief: The Curse Of Fatal Death during the Wilderness Years. More recently, he was in the MCU TV series Loki, playing an older, classic-costume variant of Tom Hiddleston's character, and in the TV series The Franchise, which mercilessly parodied the making of the MCU. In the Loki TV series, there was much debate amongst the characters about which of the various Lokis shown was the best. Well, on Celebrity Traitors this week, he proved that he was the worst.

Loki, classically, is the god of tricks or mischief. He is the Great Deceiver. When Claudia Winkelman tapped him on the shoulder in the very first episode, he seemed built for the role and had expressed his desire to be a Traitor long before he was recruited by the producers. However, immediately after the Traitors and Faithfuls had been chosen, and everyone huddled in rooms, assuring each other that they were a Faithful, Richard E Grant did something very strange indeed. Seemingly thinking he was in some kind of green room backstage rather than in front of cameras and part of the game, when asked by comedian Joe Lycett if he was a Traitor or a Faithful, he replied "Traitor", to Joe's surprise, who responded, "You what?" Richard E Grant elaborated, "What's the point of being in the game if you're not?" Singer/soldier/songwriter James Blunt added, "It's an interesting angle… You need to be very clear that you're not." Joe Lycett, shellshocked, backed this up, saying, "I'm going to pretend that I didn't hear that. What are you? What are you, Richard? … faithful…" "Faithful. I'm a Faithful," added Richard E Grant, in the least convincing way possible.

In just a couple of days, it has seemingly become the television moment of 2026. Despite this, there are some members of the Faithfuls who are adamant that this is some kind of strange, weird double bluff, with model (and Richard E Grant's neighbour) Jerry Hall, comedian Miranda Hart, and actor Myha'la, seemingly believing that he has to be a Faithful, as no Traitor would ever say such a thing." But at the end of episode two, with the round table choosing a suspected Traitor to banish, and for the first time in the show, ending on a cliffhanger before the banishment decision is made, the consensus seems to be that if you say you are a Traitor, then maybe you should be believed…

Celebrity Traitors runs on BBC 1 on Thursday and Friday at 8 pm, as well as on the BBC iPlayer, and every reaction video going on YouTube right now. This year's contestants are Amol Rajan, Bella Ramsey, Hannah Fry, James Acaster, James Blunt, Jerry Hall, Joanne McNally, Joe Lycett, Julie Hesmondhalgh, King Kenny, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Maya Jama, Michael Sheen, Miranda Hart, Myha'la, Sharon Rooney, Richard E. Grant, Rob Beckett, Romesh Ranganathan, Ross Kemp, and Sebastian Croft. Amol Rajan was the first to be murdered, and this year's chosen Traitors are Richard E Grant and Maya Jama, who have also just recruited Joe Lycett…

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