Clare Balding finished her new novel in Celebrity Traitors
Clare Balding was allowed to take a word processor with her when she filmed BBC's Celebrity Traitors to finish writing her new novel, Pastures New.
Clare Balding finished writing her new novel in Celebrity Traitors.
The 54-year-old broadcasting legend took in the final edit of Pastures New - which comes out on September 11 - and asked the bosses of the BBC game show for a word processor to keep her occupied because she and her fellow show cast members are not allowed to interact with each other outside of filming and are not allowed on the internet.
Clare said on the latest episode of the Stick to Rugby podcast: "I was allowed a word processor, you're not allowed to access the internet or anything.
"I did the final edit on the book while I was there, thank God.
"I had something I could concentrate, so I had a little memory stick, I could put that in, I worked on that."
In October, viewers will see Clare and 18 other stars - including comedian Alan Carr, 49, and 73-year-old actress Celia Imrie - in Celebrity Traitors as they play the ultimate game of betrayal and deceit inside Ardross Castle, Scottish Highlands.
The programme - hosted by 53-year-old star Claudia Winkleman - follows the same format as the award-winning civilian series, called The Traitors, where a few members of a group are chosen as Traitors and the rest become Faithful.
It is the job of the Faithful to try to work out who the Traitors are without being "murdered" by their opponents.
Clare said she found the nine-part series - where the celebrities will compete for a cash prize of up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice - "intense".
She explained: "The whole experience is intense because they are really serious about the game.
"So you are not - most of the things we go to, right, if we're covering any big major event, we're all going to hang out together when we're not filming.
"We're going to eat together, we're going to drink together, we're going to chat - not allowed [on Celebrity Traitors]."
Clare also found Celebrity Traitors "brutal" because it forced her current friendships, including 31-year-old former Olympic diver Tom Daley - who is also taking part in the show - to fly "out of the window".
In May, she said at the Goodwoof event, where she promoted her new novel, Pastures New: "It is so intense, and you get completely obsessed with the game.
"Obviously, I knew quite a lot of them before I went in, but the friendships you had before go out the window!
“That, for me, is very challenging because I like to be friends with everybody!"
But the star is glad she did the BBC show.
She added: "It’s brutal, but I think I’m glad I did it. It will make good television, and there are some really strong moments.”
