Celebrity Traitors star Nick Mohammed's life – student sweetheart and alter-ego

Nick Mohammed is one of the famous faces currently keeping co-stars guessing on Celebrity Traitors, but he has quite the varied road into television stardom. The comedian, 45, has joined a star-studded line-up on the BBC show including Good Morning Britain's Kate Garraway, Stephen Fry, and Jonathan Ross.

He plays a key role in one of the challenges aired in tonight's episode, but things could have been very different for Nick had he followed his initial path.

Fans may be surprised to know that Nick, before finding fame on shows like The King Is Dead and Reggie Perrin, studied Geophysics at Durham University, having turned down the chance to attend the equally-as-prestigious Cambridge, and played violin in the orchestra. The funnyman doesn't say much about his private life, but it is known that he met his wife Becka, now a teacher, way back in his student days at Durham.

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They tied the knot in 2014, and Nick announced at the time: "Got married last weekend, this is my niece’s impression of the events." before adding: "WHAT IS GOING ON NEAR MY WIFE’S CROTCH?" Together, they have three children and their eldest, Finn, appeared with him on an episode of 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. During one interview with The Guardian, Nick was asked about the 'funniest person' he knows.

Sweetly, he responded: "My wife. Pretty much every day she’ll say something that makes me roar with laughter (which I’ll then secretly write down)."

During his Durham days, Nick and Becka played in the orchestra together, although he failed to get into the Durham Revue so found the comedy circuit and went on to study at Cambridge. There, he joined their famous Footlights troupe. It was here that he developed Mr. Swallow, and modelled the character after his English teacher in secondary school. Nick's alter-ego has brought him much success and he has developed it on stage and screen over the years. Further TV fame came with regular appearances in Sorry, I've Got No Head, Drifers and Cuckoo.

It was Ted Lasso that brought him global fame, though, and he starred alongside the likes of Hannah Waddingham, and Jason Sudeikis on the Apple+ sports comedy drama. When speaking about the idea of another season, he said: "Everyone has said if there's an idea that feels good, we would be all up for it. I would personally go back in a heartbeat!"

Despite not making music his entire career, he has still managed to dabble in his passion for it. Last year, he presented the BBC proms and fans of Ted Lasso will recall that, as his character Nathan Shelley, he played the violin for real as the scriptwriters wove his special skill into the storyline. At the time, he revealed that his wife also had a part to play in it, too.

He said: "OK so this ep of #TedLasso is special for lots of reasons… but mostly because it’s my *incredible* wife playing the piano to Arvo Pärt’s ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’ with me on my old violin from home. The piece was Jason’s idea: literally translates as ‘mirror in mirror."

The Slow Horses star is looking forward to taking part in Celebrity Traitors, but admitted that he doesn't have a strategy for success.

He said: "Not really. I think I’ll just try and be quite easy breezy in the first instance. Because, you know, people are going to go right from the off. A little further down the line you can maybe start considering strategy – and it also depends on whether I’m made a Traitor or a Faithful. There’s a certain thrill of being made a Traitor, of course.

Weighing up his options when chatting to BeyondTheJoke, he added: "If I'm a Faithful, I'll have that constant worry each night whether I’ll be murdered. You can of course be discovered and banished as a Traitor, but I feel that in the first instance, you're in a little bit more control.

"So, I would enjoy that element to a degree and I'd love to make the final. That said, I've got lovely family at home, so it's sort of a win, win. When my time is up, I get to go back home and see them!"

However, Nick does have one real 'worry' about the whole thing. He explained: "My problem is I do find things very funny, and a lot of people who I've worked with will testify that I do often get the giggles. My biggest worry is the moment when the blindfolds are taken off at the start. Because irrespective of whether I’ve been made a Traitor or a Faithful, I’ll struggle not to smile. So that is a real, genuine worry."

The Celebrity Traitors will launch on Wednesday 8th October at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

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