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Joe Lycett has revealed the shockingly strict rules placed on the cast of Celebrity Traitors series two.
The stand-up comedian is among the 21 famous faces taking part in the second series of the BBC’s all-star spin-off, with musicians, Hollywood stars and plenty of comics all competing.
Filming took place in the spring with the series’ content being kept tightly under wraps; so much so that the cast are given explicit rules on how to avoid questioning about the show, Lycett has now revealed.
The Birmingham comedian shared these guidelines while appearing on Joe Marler Will See You Now, the podcast hosted by Celebrity Traitors series one star Marler.
“How was it?” asked Marler – who reached the final as a Faithful but missed out on the cash at the last minute to Traitor Alan Carr – with his co-host Jake Bhardwaj questioning: “What can you say? Are you allowed to say stuff?”
Lycett explained that he’d “signed NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) all over the place” so wasn’t allowed to discuss the show in any detail.
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” he said, pulling his phone from his pocket and finding an email sent by the show’s publicists about what he could and couldn’t say in interviews about the show.
Reading from his phone, Lycett repeated: “‘In an ideal world, nothing would be said at all, but of course this may not be realistic given how much attention there will inevitably be.’”
Joking that there was “an arrogance” to the message, Lycett continued to read: “‘If avoiding the question is not possible...’”, asking Marler: “Is it possible to avoid the question?”
“The question is: how did you find The Traitors?” Marler reiterated, with Lycett returning to the message: “‘The best response would be brief and simple. We’ve put together some suggestions of what could be said below.’”
The pair then “role-played” some of the suggested answers, with Marler asking him once again how The Traitors was.
“‘Well, as you can imagine, I can’t say anything, but I am excited,’” Lycett replied. “‘I loved the first series, so it’s the dream to be in that castle.’ This is what they’ve sent me that I can say… ‘Thrilled to be involved. Can’t tell you anything more at this stage.’”
Reading on, Lycett then came to the “do not mention” portion of the email, revealing that he’d been told not to “reference the rest of the line-up or other players, say whether you’d prefer to be a Traitor or a Faithful, describe how you would play the game, mention timelines of filming or locations, etc”.
“Were you allowed to wear watches?” Marler asked, with Lycett stammering before returning to his phone with the words: “As you can imagine, I can’t say anything but I am excited.”
”Did you do well at the challenges?” asked Bhardwaj. “I loved the first series,” replied Lycett, with a laugh.
Hosted by Claudia Winkleman once again, the second series of Celebrity Traitors will air later this year.
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