Anticipation builds for Celebrity Traitors finale

• Spoiler warning: This article reveals details from episode nine of The Celebrity Traitors, series two.

Millions are expected to tune in to Friday's finale of The Celebrity Traitors, with a contestant from West Sussex still in contention to win.

Romesh Ranganathan, from Crawley, is one of the series' five remaining "faithfuls" who survived Thursday's bombshell roundtable banishment.

The former maths teacher-turned-comedian blamed his youngest son for his reluctant participation, saying he was "desperate for me to come on".

Amanda Collier, from Brighton, who appeared on the civilian series earlier this year, told BBC Radio Sussex: "Last night, I could not believe what happened."

The psychological reality game show, which saw a record of 15.7m viewers for the first episode of its second celebrity series, sees contestants face challenges and work together to unmask and banish hidden "traitors" from their midst at nightly roundtables.

The penultimate episode broadcast on Thursday saw vocal faithful Michael Sheen place heat on Maya Jama and James Acaster. Up until then, they had been unassuming traitors alongside King Kenny.

The pressure seemed to get too much for Acaster, who confessed he was a traitor at the roundtable - a series first.

Collier, a former Metropolitan Police senior detective, said the revelation had blown the game wide open: "There are so many permutations of what could happen."

"After episode eight, I said 'this is a traitors' win, it's going to be a slightly boring finale'," Collier added.

Now, she says she "cannot wait" for the finale: "It's going to be a fabulous final."

Ranganathan survived earlier elimination when his close friend and fellow comedian Rob Beckett was picked off by the traitors in a face-to-face murder.

After discovering his fate, Beckett said: "I know one thing - my boy Romesh will avenge my death and he will get them."

Joe Marler, a former England International rugby player from Heathfield, East Sussex, made it to the final of the first celebrity series before being pipped to the prize by traitor Alan Carr.

Marler previously told BBC South East the latest season was "carnage".

"Richard E Grant coming out like that, straight off the bat - I'm hooked."

Dr Gemma Grama, head of the psychology department at the University of Brighton, told BBC Radio Sussex the series is a "perfect game of deception".

"As the viewers, we know who the traitors are so we're screaming at the TV going what are you doing?", she added.

Collier agreed: "It's really easy from the sofa, so easy.

"Not so much when you're in there."

The 80-minute grand final of The Celebrity Traitors season two airs at 20:00 GMT on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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