This article contains spoilers for The Celebrity Traitors
Of all the losses of The Celebrity Traitors so far, last night’s stings the most. Over the course of seven episodes, Miranda Hart has emerged as the warmest, kindest, funniest person on the show. Her murder was an astute choice by the Traitors – she was toeing the line with some of her hypotheses – but she will be as missed by the audience as she will be by her fellow players.
At the beginning, Miranda wasn’t the buzziest name going into the castle – but if social media and the general response is anything to go by, she is now having a resurgence. She has provided many of the most shareable viral moments from the show: her accidental Hitler moustache in the graves challenge; throwing up in the spooky hut; trying to hold off the Death Parade as though scaring a bear; galloping down the corridor after banishing a Traitor; and of course, the best moment of the series so far – being taught the dance move from Little Mix’s music video “Touch” by Leigh-Anne, and thus introducing the hot new girl group “Big Mix”.
Clips from her eponymous sitcom, which ran for three series between 2009 and 2015, have been doing the rounds, too. Miranda was always a bit Marmite: slapstick, silly and tongue-in-cheek, it could be described as lowest common denominator comedy if you were being unkind. Watching it, though, you’d be hard-pushed not to find something to make you laugh – Miranda, playing an exaggerated version of herself, excelled at physical comedy, winked to camera with self-aware playfulness, and came across underneath it all as warm and likeable. There was something pure about it that kept it going and made it a beloved British staple: namely, Miranda herself.
Miranda hasn’t been on TV much for the past few years. At the tail end of Miranda she took a role in Call the Midwife, also until 2015, and has made a smattering of appearances since – but, as she revealed in her 2024 memoir I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You, she has been privately struggling: having contracted Lyme disease as a teenager, she developed chronic fatigue syndrome, and was essentially bed-bound for years.
After she was murdered last night, she explained in the diary room why this had made the experience particularly special: the importance of laughing and connecting with people, and how “there were times when I didn’t think that would be possible again”. “In my little personal story this has been quite extraordinary,” she said. “I’ve been able to get back and do the thing I love professionally and the things I love to do personally.” It mirrors the emotional moment she had after her new friend Joe Lycett was banished, when she told James Acaster she was “close to proper tears”. “Connection and laughter and joy are bigger than this game,” she said later. “To laugh and to play – it’s all us humans need, you know?”
It was a genuinely moving moment in a series that is otherwise defined by memes, banter and backstabbing. And it’s the same reason she is a gifted comic: because she’s not afraid to lean into her vulnerability, to be genuine, and to fully accept who she is. There’s a reason people find her, and Miranda, such a comforting presence: despite her whole brand of comedy depending on self-deprecation, she seems totally secure in herself, and that helps other people feel secure, too.
In fact, Miranda seems so kind and self-effacing that her final act before she was murdered was to unintentionally sabotage the Faithfuls. Attempting to dispel tension, she “debunked” the Bouncing Floorboard Theory in order to absolve Joanne – it could have led her straight to the actual Traitor, Maya, if she had pursued it further.
It is very refreshing – particularly on the celebrity version of a show, which is bound to be full of ego and bluster – to watch someone who seems not to have any of it. Miranda is willing not only to not take herself too seriously, but in fact doesn’t seem to be thinking about herself very much at all – instead, she is simply enjoying the experience for what it is. It looks like we’ll be seeing a lot more of her on our screens, and I don’t know anyone who’s complaining.
The Celebrity Traitors continues on Thursday at 8pm on BBC One