Tom Daley has said he tried to convince The Celebrity Traitors producers to bring him back as a resurrected player – but they said no.
The Olympic gold medallist, 31, appeared as a Faithful contestant on the programme but was “murdered” by Traitors Jonathan Ross, Cat Burns and Alan Carr during episode three.
Daley has said that he asked the producers to bring back the first four players who had been eliminated by the Traitors, but they weren’t on board with the idea.
“I think what they should have considered is a resurrection. Bringing someone back from the dead after, like, the first four murders,” he told The Guardian, adding: “They said no.”
The athlete admitted that he was frustrated that he wasn’t picked as a Traitor because of the lack of control he had over the game.
“Around that first round table, you’re either waiting to be touched or not wanting to be touched. It’s really intense,” he said. “When I wasn’t a traitor, I was annoyed. You can think, ‘Just play the game and have fun and see where we get.’ But as an athlete, I like to be in control.”
Daley revealed earlier this week that he was banned from wearing pieces from his own knitwear brand, Made With Love by Tom Daley, while on Celebrity Traitors due to rules around self-promotion.
Daley, a keen knitter and crocheter, told Radio Times that he was constantly knitting when they weren’t filming scenes for the show.
“Any time I was in the hotel, I was just knitting, knitting, knitting,” Daley said.
“You get your phone taken off you. You can’t talk to anyone. You’re just in your room, so I was very glad I had knitting because I think lots of people were bored.”
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Daley launched his brand in November 2021 based on his passion for knitting and crochet, which he took up during the Covid-19 lockdown.
He said that while his fellow Celebrity Traitors stars were keen to do a knitting lesson in their “downtime”, they “never quite got around to it”.
During the penultimate episode of the series, Faithful Joe Marler had a breakthrough when he sussed out that Cat Burns and Alan Carr are the remaining Traitors, after Jonathan Ross left during Wednesday night’s episode.
The episode also saw actor Celia Imrie get “murdered” in plain sight by Carr, while Kate Garraway was banished at the round table despite being a Faithful.
The episode ended with host Claudia Winkleman telling the contestants that there would be no “murder” overnight, meaning the final will be between Carr, Burns, David Olusoga, Joe Marler and Nick Mohammed.
The final of The Celebrity Traitors airs on Thursday 6 November at 9pm on BBC One.
