The moment Celebrity Traitors fans had been dreading finally happened last night – Ross Kemp was murdered by the Traitors.
After several anxious nights in the BBC show’s castle, Kemp was finally targeted by Maya Jama, King Kenny and James Acaster, who murdered him in plain sight with a dangerous yawn.
It’s a tremendous loss for the show, with the ex EastEnders star’s intense reactions, paranoia and general commitment to the game giving series two some of its best moments.
There are many versions of Kemp. While you might have have expected the lighthearted, Bridge of Lies gameshow host version to show up on Celebrity Traitors, instead we got the on-edge, dogged Kemp of his documentary shows, who confronts Somali pirates and accidentally inhales spice in a maximum security prison.
With Kemp becoming the latest victim of the Traitors, here’s a look at some of his best – and strangest – moments on the series.
Paranoid Kemp
Ross Kemp has met with Colombian gang members and faced down armed men in Papua New Guinea – and yet, the professional hardman was left quaking in his boots by the prospect of being murdered by The Traitors. He has gone down in history as one of the most paranoid contestants to ever walk through the castle doors on Celebrity Traitors, with Kemp wrongly suspecting that he’d been killed in plain sight multiple times in just the first episode.
Whether it was Bella Ramsey placing a cap on his head during a challenge or Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock innocently brushing his arm, the twitchy soap star was regularly convinced he’d been killed. Giving a speech to camera that any woman on a night out can relate to, Kemp said: “My guard is very much up. Anybody touching me, offering me a drink, talking to me in a slightly odd way. That could be me gone.”
Ironically, Kemp was murdered in plain sight during last night’s episode and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, despite Traitors Jama and Acaster repeatedly yawning in his face in an attempt to make him do the same. It’s probably for the best – certainly for his blood pressure anyway!
“Get in thereee!”
You’d be forgiven for thinking that producers had forgotten to tell Ross Kemp that celebrities weren’t actually being murdered on the show after seeing his reaction to the Traitors being caught.
The actor celebrated Richard E Grant’s banishment with an intense roundtable battlecry, clenching his fists and yelling at the top of his lungs: “Get in there!” Just a few episodes later, he marked recruited Traitor Hannah Fry’s exit by pulling King Kenny in for a forceful hug and adopting the stare of a rage-fuelled man who’d avenged the deaths of his fallen comrades.
The TV presenter (who also went viral for his mad World Cup celebrations this summer) clearly adopted the same soldierly attitude that usually takes over when he’s heading into dangerous territory – and to be honest, more celebs need to be treating the Celebrity Traitors castle like it’s HMP Belmarsh or a Taliban compound in Afghanistan. As passionate Faithfuls go, Ross Kemp is undoubtedly top of the all-time list.
Kemp the Mission King
There was only one thing that Ross Kemp loved more on the show than catching Traitors, and that was storming through the Celebrity Traitors missions.
Despite being in the castle with a former British Army captain (singer James Blunt), Kemp very much took charge during the money-raising challenges and in the process, gave us a goldmine of quotes. “I love smashing doors down,” he earnestly told his fellow contestants after one of the trials, having just spent an hour barking orders at them. “It’s just a little bit of poo, it’s not going to kill you,” he told Sebastian Croft during another challenge.
The cast have raised £46,000 so far through the missions and that’s mainly thanks to Kemp. With him now gone, it’s bound to be a struggle...
Yawn of death
After carrying a lot of the series with his intense reactions and strong mission performances, it was Ross Kemp’s tiredness that ultimately got him killed. Viewers will know that Thursday’s episode saw the Traitors take on the task of murdering someone in plain sight by making another contestant yawn. Unfortunately, Kemp fell into this sleepy trap – which he joked about in an unsettling Instagram post in which he lived up to his full-on Celebrity Traitors persona.
Repeatedly yawning into the camera, a gravelly-voiced Kemp told his fans: “Good night. Love you all. Thank you for watching.”
However, he came out swinging on the Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked episode after his exit, with host Ed Gamble revealing to him who the Traitors were. After discovering that King Kenny was one of them, he told Gamble: “Who killed Kenny? I’m going to kill Kenny. Want a fight, Kenny? You’re looking at the right guy.”
The Celebrity Traitors continues tonight at 8pm on BBC One.
Read MoreCelebrity Traitors live: Fans share theory on tonight’s murder after Kenny drops clue
The Traitors winner predicts Maya Jama could be ‘in trouble’ after latest cliffhanger
BBC ‘actively considering’ Vittorio Angelone row after sitcom star’s rape remark
Celebrity Traitors’ King Kenny sings about ‘killing in plain sight’ in new single
Every BBC show and channel cancelled as part of £500m cuts
Monty Don reveals reason he quit Gardener’s World after 23 years
