Julie Hesmondhalgh on Celebrity Traitors (BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry)

James Acaster has claimed Celebrity Traitors edited out a key exchange that he says explains why Julie Hesmondhalgh was banished, saying it was later treated as “evidence of lying”.

Last week’s episodes saw Coronation Street legend Hesmondhalgh voted out at the roundtable, only for her to reveal she was a Faithful.

Speaking to The Times, Acaster said the version viewers saw made it look as if singer James Blunt’s suspicion of Hesmondhalgh centred on the first immunity shield of the series.

Acaster said the real spark came much earlier, during the shoulder tap sequence for the Traitors’ pick at the beginning of the competition.

“What actually happened is that when they did the shoulder tap for the Traitors’ pick at the beginning, James told Julie who he thought was acting suspiciously around the table,” he said.

Acaster went on to describe speaking to Hesmondhalgh at an early stage of the game, when the Traitors had been selected but did not yet know one another’s identities. At that point, he said, a Traitor might avoid sharing theories in case they accidentally incriminated another Traitor.

He said Hesmondhalgh later challenged Blunt in front of the group for not sharing his theories, and Blunt privately felt that was unfair because he believed he already had.

Acaster added that, when it came to the roundtable, Blunt pointed to the contradiction as “evidence of lying”, and “that’s why Julie got voted off,” he said.

In the broadcast, Blunt suggested Hesmondhalgh receiving the first shield could have been part of a twist, after she was deemed the most trustworthy by the group.

Acaster was the first Traitor recruit of the series, after being brought in by Maya Jama and Richard E Grant. He also said he had been looking forward to playing as a Faithful: “I was looking forward to being a little detective, solving puzzles and looking for clues.”

Celebrity Traitors returns tonight at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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