An Edinburgh woman with dwarfism is looking forward to taking part in a new BBC game show and is hoping her unique perspective on the world will help her win the huge £120,000 cash prize. Meryl Williams is one of the 22 contestants set to appear on The Traitors on Tuesday night, and is determined to make the most of the 'once in a lifetime' experience, Edinburgh Live reports.
The programme, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, will see the group of strangers compete in the ultimate game of trust, treachery and detection. Through a series of challenges, players will have to try and work out who is real - the Faithfulls - and who is secretly out to get them - the Traitors.
Call centre agent Meryl believes her big personality will help her conquer the tense physiological competition and secure the jackpot. Speaking to the Scottish Sun, she said: “I’ll bring a different insight because I see the world differently. I have dwarfism. So, in that sense, my different view of situations and a different perspective.
“And, I can bring my personality. I am a good liar, it's quite a bad habit. My gran tells me daily that it's a very bad habit but it’s only white lies and not serious deception.
“Especially with people I don’t know but it’s harder with my friends as they’ll always know when I'm lying because they know me so well. But the contestants don't know me at all so it should be easy to pull the wool over their eyes.
“I want to give it my all as it's a once in a lifetime experience. It will be hard because it may seem like you're backstabbing people and I am a nice person, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but everyone knows it's a game.
“I don’t want to make anyone cry but I I'll definitely try my hardest to go as far as I can.”
Another Edinburgh joining the show is spa therapist John. The 49-year-old believes his drama experience will play to his advantage if he is chosen to be a traitor. He said: “I come from a theatre background, which is another point where I would have the upper hand. I had gone to London and worked in musical theatre.
“I've been used to the situation where you’re not portraying yourself, you're playing a character. That’s what I found even more interesting, to see if I could challenge myself to be me, but not be me.
“If I am a Traitor and fool them into believing that I'm one of the team whilst I'm eliminating them one by one, I'd like to think I could do that in a really nice way. A smiling assassin. I might kill them with kindness.
“I'll be looking for people who are playing the game but not being themselves and I think I'm quite good at spotting that, so I'd be good at being a Traitor.
He continued: “If I'm Faithful, it’s all about reading people's reaction.
“It's about observing, acting and watching. I’ll be watching not only what's happening in front of me but what's happening beside me, and to the left, and to the right, because other people give away information.
“If you’re a Traitor, and you tell everyone you’re a Faithful and you're not showing any emotion whatsoever when people walk in at breakfast because you know you're the one who’s got rid of someone, then it’s going to show.”
The Traitors starts tonight at 9.30pm on BBC One.
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