Why Alan Carr almost didn't take part in Celebrity Traitors - but agreed with one key condition

Alan Carr almost didn’t take part in Celebrity Traitors but was eventually persuaded with a key ask, the BBC’s chief content officer Kate Phillips has revealed.

The comedian and TV presenter provided countless iconic moments during the BBC reality series, from his struggles to keep his identity under wraps and his murders in plain sight to his savage digs, and ultimately going on to win it.

But during a recent appearance on the podcast The Rest Is Entertainment with Marina Hyde and Richard Osman, Phillips revealed that Carr originally said no to joining the line-up.

"They came back to me and said, ‘Alan’s a no’," Phillips recalled. "So, I thought, 'Okay, what do I do to change his mind?', because I knew Alan would be good."

Phillips added that she took Alan and his agent out to dinner to convince him to sign up.

"I remember walking into the restaurant, and he just went, ‘I know why you’ve asked me for lunch, Kate. And I’m not doing it'," she revealed. "And I sort of said to Alan, 'Okay, this is why you should do it, Alan', and I just talked to him about what a great show it was, and how he’d be looked after..."

Phillips also revealed the impact of Stephen Fry joining the cast.

"Stephen signed up for it because he wanted to play the game, and he did say, 'Look, use me to get others'," she revealed.

Alan did have a key condition for signing up to the show, Phillips went on to reveal.

"He said, 'You’ve got to promise me I won’t be a “Traitor'. And I was like, 'Well, first of all, I can’t promise that 'cause it’s the format'," she explained.

Fortunately, Alan changed his mind once he arrived in the Scottish castle.

"And actually, if someone really doesn’t want to be a 'Traitor', we wouldn’t make them," Kate continued. "We do look after people on it. We don’t want them to have an awful experience."

Phillips also revealed during the interview that Claudia Winkleman was initially hesitant to host the show’s celebrity edition as she’s so "protective" of the format, but was eventually convinced to return.

Interestingly, Phillips also shared that Winkleman wasn't the BBC's first choice to be approached for the role of presenting the series in the UK.

The Celebrity Traitors is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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