‘F— off, Jonathan Ross is f—ing getting it’ – Joe Marler reveals the moment he decided to ‘go for’ TV legend
Former England star Joe Marler and TV legend Jonathan Ross.
England great Joe Marler has opened up on his time in Celebrity Traitors and how he grew in confidence as the show went on.
Despite being a well known in rugby circles, much of the general public were not familiar with the former front-rower when he entered the castle.
However, Marler became one of the breakout stars as he reached the final before being backstabbed by actor and comedian Nick Mohammed in the last round table.
Viewers enjoyed the humour the ex-loosehead prop brought to the show, but also his theories after playing a key role in getting the first traitor, TV legend Jonathan Ross, banished.
“I didn’t speak for the first two or three round tables, and then I mustered up the courage to just put my hand up at one point and had it up for like five minutes. And then I think it was Alan [Carr] who asked: ‘You alright, you got something to say’, and said: ‘Yeah, just wanting my turn’ and when I did was just ‘Hiii, I’m Joooe… umm, I’ve got a theory I’d like to present to the group’,” he told The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast.
“Then I tried every night to remember what had gone on during the day. I started writing it down.”
Almost quit the show
Marler revealed that he almost quit the show after the death of a family member, but was convinced to continue by his wife.
“I was really lucky in how it just played out with who got the shields and stuff like that, and then halfway through, a family member died, and I was leaving, I said: ‘I’ve got to go’,” he said.
“So I was meant to leave, but after a couple of hours, Daisy rang back and said: ‘Don’t worry about it, I’m fine here, just come home when you get kicked out.’ That was when I stepped up, and the shackles were off. It didn’t matter when I get kicked out now, I’m just going to have a bit of fun and see how it goes.
“That was when I went after Jonathan. No one had been listening to me beforehand, I thought, ‘F–k it, I’m going for him,’ and I remember Lucy Beaumont turning around and saying, ‘What’s got into you, what’s this all about?’
“I was like, ‘F— off Lucy, he is f—ing getting it.’
“It sort of backfired. I thought this is going to get me kicked out or murdered or banished.”
Marler discussed that he had tactics going into the show and that he wanted to be a traitor, but was ultimately pleased that presenter Claudia Winkleman did not give him the tap on the shoulder.
‘I’d just be too giddy’
“I didn’t watch it and study it; I watched it as a fan, and when I got booked to go on it, I rewatched it all,” he said.
“The plan was to go in there and react… I wanted to be a traitor because you’ve got the most control right from the off, but I’m so glad I wasn’t because I would have been f—ing dreadful, like awful.
“It was bad enough that they all thought I was weird and couldn’t read me when I was a faithful, imagine my behaviour when I was lying every f—ing five minutes. I’d just be too giddy.
“When Claudia was doing the walk around, she just kept leaning back just be like ‘go on then’, hoping that she’d just brush me. It was just sort of reacting to being in there.”
He added: “I was a fan of the show, I’d love to play, I’d even pay to play if that’s the craic. I didn’t realise the enormity of it off the back of it.
“I was just giddy with excitement to be able to just play the game and play alongside a cast that, like f—ing hell, Stephen Fry is here, how am I going to hold a conversation with this bloke here?”
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