Jonathan Ross’s Celebrity Traitors outfits are the show’s biggest mystery

While Alan Carr has been dubbed the unrivalled highlight of the first ever British series of Celebrity Traitors, there’s another breakout star hot on his heels – Jonathan Ross’s selection of zany outfits.

The 64-year-old broadcaster started off the competition with supreme strength style-wise. The chat show host strode towards Scotland’s Ardross Castle wearing a pink checked blazer that sat aesthetically somewhere between Rupert Bear’s trousers and somebody’s bohemian grandmother.

Still, the fans on X/Twitter loved it; high camp, high reward. “Love Jonathan Ross’s outfit!” one viewer gushed, alongside a still image of the presenter lying flat on his back in his own fake grave in episode one.

For another challenge, Ross slipped into a pair of huge orange-lensed shades and a fighter pilot jumpsuit that fans initially thought was modelled on Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell from Top Gun.

It later emerged the unexplainable look was, in fact, a replica of those worn by the cast in Paul Anderson’s 1997 sci-fi horror film Event Horizon.

Why? Why not, apparently. Ross previously wore the eye-catching suit to a screening of Deadpool & Wolverine this July for seemingly absolutely no reason other than the love of cinema.

“That has absolutely blown my mind,” one viewer wrote on X/Twitter when they put two and two together. “Where do you even source that!!” they asked. From a prop restoration company, as it turns out.

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Come the morning after the competition’s first killing, Ross opted for a far more demure ensemble – a black roll neck and matching trousers.

But the neutrality didn’t last long as, after breakfast, the star shrugged on a surprising faux fur poncho that could have been pulled straight from Cosmo Lambino’s wardrobe for some drinks in a wild west saloon.

Yet, Ross’s final look for the Celebrity Traitors initial installments was, arguably, his best. A mob boss-inspired funeral fit, complete with a black fur-lined scarf, dark shades and a double breasted coat.

He looked like a villain from a Tim Burton film. Or, as another person put it, “a slightly more stylish Professor Snape” from the Harry Potter franchise. “You’ve got to respect the drip,” another fan said.

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Indeed, you do. For, although Claudia Winkleman’s Traitors wardrobe usually steals the show entirely, thanks to celebrities like Ross upping the outfit ante, the host’s wardrobe has been elevated, too.

“They raised the game,” producer Sarah Fay has said of the celebrity contestants. “We had to ensure Claudia could still command the space, as the puppet master… [She] looks a bit more punk-rocky this year.”

But, for fans online, it’s no match for Ross’s wardrobe, which has very much stolen the limelight in the show’s first two episodes – and impressed cast and crew while filming in Scotland, too.

“Ross’s Traitors looks are just fabulous,” a series insider told The Independent when asked about the furore around his looks. “We know he’s a huge movie fan and the wardrobe, well, it’s positively cinematic!”