Entertainment
The Circle series 3: Tally defends Gladiators star for posing as fake NHS nurse in controversial game plan
The Circle’s Tally Brattle has defender Gladiators star Hunter after his controversial game plan attracted criticism.
The actor and former bodybuilder, real name James Crossley, has come in for negativity online for playing the game under the guise of a nurse named Gemma in a bid to win Channel 4’s £100,000 jackpot.
However, he’s promised to donate half of his winnings to the nurses in York, and recently blocked star Tally can’t understand the negativity towards him online.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Tally said: [The backlash] shocks me. I’ve seen that Hunter has had like a bit of a negative response.
‘Maybe I see the good in everyone too much, but I think if he’s going to potentially win and then give away a large amount of his winnings to the NHS, I just don’t understand how you can really bash it.’
The 23-year-old added: ‘I can’t understand how that can be negative. I’d love to be able to pay tribute to [NHS workers] and show how loved and popular they are. I just don’t think it’s bad. I think he’s good telly.’
Tally formed a bond with fellow player Manrika Khaira while on the show, and she’s revealed the ‘geezer girls’ are still friends – despite the fact she played a key role in Tally getting blocked.
‘When you get that blocked message on your screen, your heart drops,’ Tally said about leaving the show. ‘So I was gutted. My first reaction was “Oh, god, this is really early this is really too soon”.
‘When I met Manrika, I saw that she had a brilliantly strategic game plan. She had so many notes. I hadn’t made a single note. So when I went in, I was like: “You just deserve it.” She had a strategy and it was the right time for me. It felt like the perfect time as soon as I met her.’
Speaking about connecting with Manrika after leaving the programme, Tally said: ‘We have our birthdays two days apart. So we were really annoyed because obviously at time of filming we were like “we can have a joint birthday party”, not knowing that we couldn’t. But we had a FaceTime and both had a Corona to celebrate.’
Tally also revealed that she had received a positive reaction from viewers, and said that she first signed up to the show to ‘reassure’ herself.
‘The reason that I applied is genuinely because, normally, people don’t take to me very quickly,’ she said. ‘I don’t have a massive group of friends and people say I’m too deep and I’m overwhelming.
‘I bashed myself a little bit hard on not having people like me initially, and I wanted to go in for reassurance that people do like me, and that I can just completely be myself.’
Despite fearing the worst before taking part in the series, Tally only remembered receiving one negative comment from viewers.
‘There was such a good reaction. I didn’t expect it,’ she said. ‘I prepared myself for the worst as it’s what I do. I thought people were going to hate me, gonna say things about my looks. The worst in terms of looks I got was when someone said: “You look like a giraffe”.
Thankfully, though, Tally has been inundated with positive messages after leaving the show, and is grateful for the experience.
‘I was overwhelmed by the amount of positive DMs I got,’ Tally added. ‘I thought I could reply to all of them. I thought that’s what people did – I got blocked from Instagram, because I tried to reply to like 400 people!’
The Circle continues Sunday-Friday, 10pm on Channel 4 and All4.
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