Celebrity Traitors Series 2 Episode 5: Rob Beckett Murdered and Hannah Fry Banished

The halfway point of The Celebrity Traitors is fast approaching, and Thursday night's episode showed exactly why this series has the nation hooked. Episode 5, which aired at 8pm on BBC One and iPlayer, delivered the two things the show does best: a cold-blooded murder and a round-table banishment that the Faithful may come to regret.

Twenty-one celebrities began the series holed up in a castle in the Scottish Highlands, greeted on day one by host Claudia Winkleman emerging from a coffin, all competing to win up to £100,000 for their chosen charities. With the Traitors secretly working against them, the Faithfuls' task is to root out the impostors before the prize pot — and their game — slips away. After five episodes, the Traitors are winning that battle.

The hide-and-seek twist claims Rob Beckett

Episode 4 had ended on a deliciously cruel cliffhanger: the Traitors selected four Faithfuls for a forced game of hide-and-seek, with Winkleman explaining that one of the four would be murdered face-to-face in the next episode. As Radio Times explained ahead of the broadcast, that twist carried directly into episode 5 — and the victim was comedian Rob Beckett, taken out after hiding out in the woods.

There was a tactical subplot to the woods game that spoke volumes about how the Faithfuls are playing. The male contestants gave fellow Faithful Leigh-Anne Pinnock a key — an act of chivalry that, as post-show reaction noted, turned out to be something of a mistake. In a game where every small decision is magnified, gallantry proved costly. The Traitors, by contrast, are outflanking the Faithfuls at every turn, converting their opportunities with ruthless efficiency while the good guys tie themselves in knots.

Beckett's departure continues a bruising run for the Faithfuls. Before episode 5, the celebrities already murdered or banished were Amol Rajan, Richard E. Grant, Myha'la, Bella Ramsey and Julie Hesmondhalgh — and Grant's exit carried particular sting, since the actor was secretly one of the three Traitors alongside Maya Jama and James Acaster.

Hannah Fry banished at the round table

If the murder was brutal, the banishment was agonising. Heading into the round table, the question on everyone's lips was whether Professor Hannah Fry's game was up. The mathematician and broadcaster had been mentioned as a possible Traitor, and the suspicion had been building.

The debate ranged across several names. Ross Kemp found himself under scrutiny — the man manages to be at the centre of so many twists and yet survives, and his name was floated at the table. James Blunt took heat for being wrong so many times in his accusations. But the attention kept swinging back to Fry, who argued with some justification that anyone who stands out in this game is automatically targeted for it.

Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands, filming location of The Celebrity Traitors Credit: valenta / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

She deflected reasonably well at first. But the moment that sealed it, as observers noted, was when Maya Jama voted to evict her at the round table. With a Traitor hiding in plain sight casting a vote against a Faithful, Fry's game was largely shot. There was also a deeper problem for Fry: the circumstances surrounding her recruitment during the series made her denials harder to sell. She was fun to watch, and one wonders how differently her game might have played out had she been a Faithful from the very start.

So the Faithfuls made another grave error — banishing one of their own while the real Traitors sat among them, voting with straight faces. It is becoming a pattern: last Friday's episode saw the Faithful make exactly the same kind of mistake, and the Traitors are capitalising on every misstep.

The Traitors tighten their grip

With Richard E. Grant gone, the Traitor operation now rests on Maya Jama and James Acaster, and both are playing superbly. Jama's vote against Fry was a masterstroke of misdirection — using the round table itself as a weapon — while Acaster's low profile keeps him clear of suspicion. The Faithfuls, meanwhile, are doing the Traitors' work for them, eliminating their own numbers and fracturing trust with every vote.

This is the structural genius of the format, and the reason the celebrity version has landed so well. The prize is real — up to £100,000 for charity, with last year's inaugural series won by comedian Alan Carr, who secured £87,500 for Neuroblastoma UK — but the game is psychological. Every banishment of a Faithful is a double victory for the Traitors: one fewer opponent, and one more crack in the group's confidence.

What happens next

The schedule from here is relentless. Episode 6 airs on Friday 16 October at 8pm, with episodes 7 and 8 following on Thursday 22 and Friday 23 October, and episodes 9 and 10 on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 October. The grand finale on 30 October — perfectly timed for Halloween — will run from 8pm to 9:20pm, making it an 80-minute epic: the longest episode in the international history of the format. The companion show Celebrity Traitors: Uncloaked, hosted by Ed Gamble, airs straight afterwards until 10pm, with the latest murdered and banished players unpacking the drama, as TVmaze's listings confirm.

For viewers outside the UK, the series remains tricky to watch legally without a VPN — episodes stream free on BBC One and iPlayer for licence-fee payers, with a BBC Three repeat on Sunday nights. But for those who can watch, the second half of the series promises escalating paranoia. The Faithfuls are running out of numbers and running out of trust. The Traitors, led by Jama and Acaster, have never looked more comfortable.

For more entertainment coverage, visit Verity's entertainment section, check the latest headlines on our homepage, or read about the Russell Brand trial at Southwark Crown Court and the debate over young people and the "snowflake" label. The full episode guide confirms the Thursday-and-Friday pattern continues through October. Learn more about our coverage on the about page.