When I ask people if they’re watching The Traitors on BBC One, there are only ever two answers. I either get an unbothered, indifferent shrug. Or a fervent hand reaches out and grabs mine, the person’s eyes widen and they whisper, “I. Am. Addicted.”
The Beeb’s new game show, essentially a televised 12-part game of Wink Wink Murder, has been something of a sleeper hit, but those in the know agree that it’s delivered some of the best telly of the year. Fronted by Claudia Winkleman wearing knitwear so snug it increasingly looks like it might smother her entire face, it puts a group of strangers in a castle and divides them into “faithfuls” and “traitors”. No one knows who the traitors are; each night the motley crew collectively vote to “banish” the person they are suspicious of, before the traitors regroup at night to “murder” one of the gang. They play silly escape-room-type games in between, building a prize of pot of money for the eventual winner. So far the faithfuls have had a ‘mare, managing to root out only one of the three traitors.
