Irish actor Ruth Codd ‘murdered’ in Celebrity Traitors after taking aim at Jonathan Ross

She didn’t go quietly either, squaring up to the veteran broadcaster at the second round table

The Celebrity Traitors: Ruth Codd sniffed out Jonathan Ross's doubletalk. Photograph: Cody Burridge/BBC/PA Wire
The Celebrity Traitors: Ruth Codd sniffed out Jonathan Ross's doubletalk. Photograph: Cody Burridge/BBC/PA Wire

Forget the Paudfather – say hello to the Coddfather. BBC’s Celebrity Traitors has witnessed an explosive performance by Co Wexford actor Ruth Codd. Not since Paudie “Paudfather” Moloney on The Traitors Ireland – okay, that was just a few weeks ago – has a contestant captured the imagination, and all thanks to her steel-trap mind that allowed her to sniff out the doubletalk by traitor Jonathan Ross, the veteran broadcaster and talk show host.

“I was ready and determined to always voice my opinion. I knew it was probably going to get me murdered,” says The Fall of the House of Usher star in an interview published after Ross and his fellow Traitors murdered her – a hit job that followed Ross correctly discerning that Codd had him rumbled as a figurative snake in the grass.

Codd, who grew up on a farm near Ferrycarrig, is well aware that she is a relative newcomer to showbusiness – she was a make-up artist and barber before losing her job during the Covid pandemic, at which point she started posting videos to TikTok, where she gained 600,000 followers. But she felt that impresario Ross was misleading the other contestants by denying that he had offered to ally with Ruth and sports presenter Clare Balding when they were in a car together. She didn’t go quietly either – squaring up to Ross at the second round table.

She was aware there was an imbalance of power. She wasn’t simply confronting another contestant, but an icon of British light entertainment.

“It was scary, I knew nobody really in there knows who I am and everybody knows who he is,” she says in an interview on the BBC’s Celebrity Traitors Uncloaked broadcast. “I knew I wasn’t going to get that much back-up. On a scale of one to 10, how much of a Jonathan-shaped hill are we willing to die on here? ... It turns out it was a 10 ... a big fat 10.”

Codd’s no-nonsense performance has made her a hero among Traitors watchers, and the expectation is that her career will now move up several gears. “Ruth Codd should be the next Doctor Who,” declared one showbusiness social media account. Others suggested that she should be Ireland’s next president.

The Traitors may have made her famous, but Codd’s journey to the screen has had its challenges. Six years ago, she had her right leg amputated due to complications arising from a broken foot she sustained playing soccer at age 15.

“I literally just fell playing soccer,” she told the Sunday World in 2022. “It wasn’t treated correctly so I was just unlucky.

“It was never said, ‘Oh it’s not going to heal,’ so I was just kind of going through the motions and hoping that this would be the operation that works. So after about a year or two I was like, ‘I’m probably going to be using these crutches for a long time.’ It’s really hard to drag yourself around. I went to a convent school as well, so there was stairs everywhere. It was tough.

The Celebrity Traitors is clearly ripped off from Traitors Ireland: A Nation Once AgainOpens in new window ]

“I’m so stubborn I wouldn’t let anyone help me. It was just a little bit harder for me. But I still went to school, and went to college. I did as much as I could with what I had, type of thing.”

She had to adjust to her prosthetic leg and it wasn’t always easy, she said in the same interview.

“I’m positive about it now and I wouldn’t go back and change it. But when it first happened, I was not okay with it at all. When you are a teenager you kind of think you are unstoppable, and sometimes life could not work out the way you wanted to just because you want it to work that way, so I think I had to grow up very quickly and deal with a lot of things kids shouldn’t have to deal with.”

 The Celebrity Traitors: Tom Daley, Cat Burns, Ruth Codd, Claire Balding, Niko Omilana, David Olusoga, Jonathan Ross, Celia Imrie, Claudia Winkleman, Mark Bonnar, Nick Mohammed, Charlotte Church, Tameka Empson, Lucy Beaumont, Alan Carr, Joe Mahler, Stephen Fry and, in front, Paloma Faith, Joe Wilkinson and Kate Garraway. Photograph: Cody Burridge/BBC/PA Wire
The Celebrity Traitors: Tom Daley, Cat Burns, Ruth Codd, Claire Balding, Niko Omilana, David Olusoga, Jonathan Ross, Celia Imrie, Claudia Winkleman, Mark Bonnar, Nick Mohammed, Charlotte Church, Tameka Empson, Lucy Beaumont, Alan Carr, Joe Mahler, Stephen Fry and, in front, Paloma Faith, Joe Wilkinson and Kate Garraway. Photograph: Cody Burridge/BBC/PA Wire

She was delighted to have the opportunity to portray characters with a disability on screen.

“You don’t get a lot of disabled representation in media nowadays. A lot of times, we’re forgotten about,” she told Teen Vogue in 2022, after she was cast in Netflix horror series The Midnight Club, about a group of terminally ill teenagers who meet in a hospice. “A lot of times, we’re forgotten about. When we are represented, we’re either this kind of saintly little thing that didn’t deserve for this to happen to her, or you’re portrayed as bitter.”

She went into The Celebrity Traitors planning to stay below the radar and to let bigger personalities – such as Ross, Stephen Fry and Charlotte Church – take the spotlight and fall under suspicion. But when she felt that Ross was conspiring behind people’s backs, she spoke out. They went head-to-head at the second round table, which motivated Ross to ‘kill’.

RTÉ’s twisty new soap opera stars Ray D’Arcy and, now, Brendan CourtneyOpens in new window ]

“I had a plethora of tactics going in,” she says on Traitors Uncloaked. “I thought I’d play it quiet and then coast my way through and not get too mouthy. But again it’s me ... Round table number two: running my mouth off left, right and centre ...”

Did she learn anything from her time on The Celebrity Traitors?

“I think I learned maybe to be a bit easier on myself. I always thought I was quite unknowable and unpopular,” she says. “It was a really nice feeling to be part of a group. I went into it sort of expecting all different things. I thought the fitness thing might be a challenge, but I think that I mainly learned that – or confirmed that – I have my own mind, and I can stand my ground. When there are other people that are much further along in the business and much older than you, you do have to find your voice. It kind of bamboozled me a bit when some of them weren’t speaking up, but I’m glad I did.”

There is a long history of British reality television making stars out of Irish contestants – from Anna Nolan on Big Brother to Niall Horan with The X Factor. Codd’s situation is different because she already has a fan base due to her work with horror guru Mike Flanagan for Netflix. She is due to appear opposite Aisling Bea in the forthcoming Dublin-set Marian Keyes drama Grown Ups – and judging by the response to her appearance on The Celebrity Traitors, even bigger things surely lie ahead.

Ed Power

Ed Power

Ed Power, a contributor to The Irish Times, writes about television, music and other cultural topics