One celebrity murdered and one banished on The Celebrity Traitors

TV sports presenter Clare Balding has become the latest celebrity to be banished while Irish actress Ruth Codd has become the latest contestant to be “murdered” on The Celebrity Traitors.

Codd, 29, was “murdered” at the start of Thursday’s episode of the BBC One reality gameshow, following a discussion in the castle’s turret in which TV presenter Jonathan Ross told fellow traitors, singer Cat Burns and comedian Alan Carr, she was “the only sensible choice”.

After opening the letter telling her she had been murdered, Codd said: “I was murdered definitely because I was a threat to the traitors.

“I was one of the few people in the group that had my own mind that couldn’t be influenced. I’m mentally extremely strong and stubborn. I really do wish the faithfuls the best of luck.”

After being banished with seven votes from her fellow contestants, Balding, 54, revealed she was a faithful.

She said: “I came in with only one strategy, which was to be nice to absolutely everyone, and I have had the best time, and I love all of you.”

Codd’s murder comes after she raised her suspicions about Ross being a traitor during Wednesday’s episode.

Before the murder, Ross said: “Ruth, she’s not going to let it go with me, and I’m afraid this cloak is feeling a little bit like it might be pulled tighter around my neck.”

Burns warned that “it could backfire on you”, but Ross replied: “Look, if I was a traitor, I wouldn’t have done that.”

It follows former Olympic diver Tom Daley and Never Tear Us Apart singer Paloma Faith already being murdered by the traitors, while YouTube star Niko Omilana, known for his online prank videos, and EastEnders actress Tameka Empson have both been voted out at separate roundtable discussions.

For the episode’s challenge, the contestants were split into halves, one group who went into a forest and another who remained in the garden of the castle.

Those in the forest were tasked with asking a group of banshees to sing, before relaying their songs down a well to those in the garden.

The contestants in the garden then listened to the songs, by sticking their head down another well, and matched them to a locket giving out the same song in order to add cash to the prize pot.

The group raised £4,000 during the task, and the garden group were then told to find a shield in the garden, with one of the lockets hinting they should look in a watering can.

Ross found the shield but opted to give it to TV presenter Stephen Fry.

Afterwards, Ross said: “Stephen got the shield, in part because I let him have it, and afterwards that did worry me, is that suspicious?

“But no, it isn’t suspicious, because it’s the way the faithful are playing the game, whose turn is it for a shield? What is this nonsense?”

Traitor Cat Burns also acquired a shield as part of the forest team.

At the start of the roundtable, Fry suggested the contestants did not discuss their theories and instead simply voted without speaking, but he was overruled.

Actor Nick Mohammed and TV historian David Olusoga received accusations of being traitors during the roundtable, but most of the heat was on Ross and Balding.

Balding told Ross it would be a “classic traitor move” to kill Codd, to which Ross replied: “I’m going to remind you of what Niko said to us all and which we didn’t listen to, which was, ‘why would you put a target on your back when you don’t need to?’.”

After she was banished, Ross said: “How am I still here? I’ve got to be the luckiest traitor in the history of the game without even having to work at it, the faithfuls did our dirty work for us.”

Elsewhere during the start of the episode, Carr teased actress Celia Imrie about breaking wind during Wednesday’s episode.

While playing a game of badminton, he told her: “Celia, we need a bit of wind to get it over there.”

She replied: “Oh, shut up.”

Imrie prompted further laughs when, before the challenge, comedian Lucy Beaumont said “you know what you do in a well don’t you?”, to which she replied: “Put the pussy in.”

Sports presenter Balding, who had a shield, was also left red-faced when she was asked by former rugby player Joe Marler whether she and actor Mark Bonnar had slept well, to which she replied: “We did, well, not together.”

At the end of the show, the traitors revealed in the turret that they would murder one of Welsh singer Charlotte Church, Olusoga or TV presenter Kate Garraway, with Carr remarking the murder will “rock the boat”.

The Celebrity Traitors, presented by Claudia Winkleman, continues next Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.