James Blunt has described his time on The Traitors as a “traumatic experience”, revealing how desperately he wanted to leave the BBC reality show and return home to his family.
The singer appeared on Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden, where he reflected on his experience filming the celebrity edition and admitted he had been trying to get himself banished.
James explained that the atmosphere at the Scottish castle made the experience difficult, with contestants facing the constant threat of murder or banishment.
He said: “It is a fairly traumatic experience; you willingly head up to Inverness where they chain you to a radiator and threaten you with murder or banishment and it’s quite hard to not take seriously at that stage and we were all slightly traumatised.”
Amanda also recalled reading that James had expected to leave much earlier in the competition, prompting him to explain just how keen he had been to get home.
“I was trying to commit game suicide, but no one was killing me, no one was banishing me,” he said. “You know, I thought, we’re all paid the same!”
James revealed that his decision to take part came after an exhausting period of touring, with another lengthy run of live dates already planned.
He explained: “I’ve just been on tour for 21 months, and I’m about to go on tour for another 12 months and here I am voluntary up here.”
The singer added that he had reached a point where he simply wanted to return to his family and enjoy being at home, saying: “I need to go home and stay at home and say to my family ‘I’m sorry’.”
However, despite his attempts to leave, James found himself remaining in the competition far longer than he had expected.
He revealed that he made it to day 23 and regularly hoped to find an envelope telling him his time on the show was over.
James said: “I was down there until day 23, still there, and I would walk into the interview room and there’d be no envelope and I’d go, ‘where’s my envelope, when do I get out of here!’”
Richard E. Grant, meanwhile, was singled out as someone who managed to get exactly the outcome James had been hoping for, having spent just one day on The Traitors before going home.
There was also time for a little unfinished business with fellow contestant Romesh Ranganathan, with Jamie asking whether the pair were still in touch.
James revealed he had recently sent Romesh a rather unusual message: “Romesh, I know where you live!”
Jamie joked that it was probably the least frightening threat they had ever heard, while Amanda pointed out that the pair lived close to each other in Chiswick!
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Listen to Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden weekdays from 6.30am – 10am across the UK and on YouTube.