Pussy in the well: What was Celia Imrie talking about on The Celebrity Traitors banshee task

Tonight’s episode of The Celebrity Traitors will go down in TV history and it was actress Celia Imrie who yet again stole the show. Host Claudia Winkleman did warn us that it was going to get “weird” during the banshee task but I don’t think even she imagined quite how weird.

The challenge on the hit BBC show saw half of the group head to the woods to find banshees before replicating the spirit’s wail by screaming it into a well. The other half of the group had to put their head into a pool of water - yes you read that correctly - to hear the sound made by their teammates and match that wail to a locket handing in the garden.

While the premise would of course lead to much hilarity, it was Celia’s shrieking into the void that had the nation rolling on the floor laughing. But even before that, The Thursday Murder Club star had everyone scratching their heads and laughing in hysterics in equal measure.

Before tonight’s well-wailing, upon arrival at the aforementioned well, comedian Lucy Beaumont said: “Well you know what you do in a well don’t you?” - while many of us were thinking ‘make a wish’ Celia replied: “Put the pussy in.”

However, she wasn’t confused or just being crude, she was, in fact referring to a popular nursery rhyme of bygone days, which might be why younger members of the cast were left bewildered.

Celia Imrie ‘pussy in the well’ comment explained

The words to old-fashioned rhyme, Ding Dong Bell, does indeed reference putting a ‘pussy in the well’ - here’s how it goes:

Ding Dong Bell, Pussy's in the well.

Who put her in? Little Johnny Flynn.

Who pulled her out? Little Tommy Stout.

What a naughty boy was that, To soak a Pussy cat,

Who never did him any harm, But scared all the mice in the farmer's barn.

For more hilarity from Celia and the rest of The Celebrity Traitors crew (but mostly from Celia I’m predicting), the programme airs on Wednesdays and Thursdays on BBC One.