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'This game doesn’t care who you are,’ declares presenter Claudia Winkleman at the start of the new series of The Traitors, striding around the dark and gloomy Great Hall of Ardross Castle. ‘In here, your glamorous lives count for nothing.’
This time the nervous faces looking back at the host belong to some of the best-known people in Britain, from Sir Stephen Fry to Clare Balding and Jonathan Ross.
The Celebrity Traitors is a star-studded version of the nation’s favourite game of backstabbing and betrayal in which a small group of ‘Traitors’ must work together through a series of missions to eliminate the other contestants, the ‘Faithfuls’, in order to win.
If the Faithfuls discover and banish all the Traitors, they win.
The 19 celebrity competitors include comedians, actors, a rugby champion, soap stars and a YouTuber with eight million followers, but as Claudia says, the game doesn’t care about reputation: ‘Most of you will be murdered. Sorry about that.’
The BBC hopes this first celebrity edition will be as wildly popular as the regular version, which has topped the ratings and won many awards. But will it be as good?
We’re used to seeing desperate women and men lie through their teeth for the chance to win life-changing amounts of money, but this time they’re already wealthy and playing for charity. Will they care as much? Will we?
And how will these pampered people cope with the claustrophobia of the castle, the dramatic challenges and the pressure of having to decide which of their famous chums is a Faithful and which is blowing poisonous air kisses as a Traitor?
Weekend Magazine has talked exclusively to the show’s producers and three of the contestants before they entered the castle – Olympian Tom Daley, singer Charlotte Church and comedian Alan Carr – to uncover behind-the-scenes truths about the most secretive show on telly.
‘We were very clear with all of them,’ says executive producer Mike Cotton. ‘We said, “You’re coming in because you want to play the game. You’ll be treated exactly the same way as regular contestants".
'So that meant no different accommodation, no hair and make-up, nothing like that. You do it all yourself. You come as yourself.’
This series of The Traitors was filmed in April at Ardross, the 30-bedroom, 19th-century Scottish baronial home 30 miles north of Inverness that is such a striking feature of the show.
Photographers snapped the celebs arriving at Inverness airport, but after that there were no leaks or sightings, so how did they stop locals giving the game away? ‘With great difficulty,’ says Mike.
‘The castle is pretty remote. It’s got thousands of acres, which are like a playground for us to do the missions in. The locals are great, they know what’s going on but they don’t get involved. We’ve got really good bonds with them up in the Highlands.’
Secrecy is everything, Mike says. ‘The whole integrity of the game relies on no one finding out who the Traitors are while we’re filming.
'When they come into the castle in the morning it’s like a military operation and the same when they leave.’
Contestants are kept apart at all times. ‘When they’re not at the castle they’re on lockdown in individual lodgings. They don’t have access to the internet or telephones. They can’t communicate with one another or the outside world in any way.’
They filmed an episode a day, including breakfast, challenges out in the open air and secretive late night discussions about who had to go. That’s a lot of tension and uncertainty to deal with.
Mike added: ‘You go to bed at night not knowing whether you’re going to be murdered or not.’
The Traitors are trying to get rid of anyone who might guess their identities and those who have been eliminated are told in the morning.
‘If you survive when you turn up for breakfast then you’re fighting for your place, to make sure you don’t get banished that day,’ says Mike. ‘It’s an ongoing cycle, every single day. So we have a psychologist on hand doing regular check-ins.
'We have a team based at their accommodation, watching everything that’s filmed. Any concerns, they would step in.’
If any Faithfuls survive and banish all the Traitors they get to share the prize money of up to £100,000. That happened in series one and three.
But if a Traitor makes it all the way to the final they can take the whole pot home, as British soldier Harry Clark did in series two after lying to his friend Mollie.
Harry says the money and fame have changed his life, but the celebrities already have both, so they’re playing to win the cash for a charity of their choice.
They’re also being paid £40,000 each to take part, according to industry insiders.
Singer Charlotte Church, who now runs a retreat centre in the Welsh countryside, does not usually do this sort of thing.
‘I don’t watch or do much telly, but I have seen The Traitors and I think it’s a really interesting game,’ she told us before going in. ‘And I love the outdoors, so I really wanted to visit the castle and play in the Scottish Highlands.’
Does she have a good poker face? ‘I don’t think so. No, I think I run clear. Really, I’m a very open book. I’m really hoping to be a Faithful. I really don’t want to be a Traitor. Certainly not at the beginning. I don’t like the idea of deception or lying.’
She might not have been in the right place then. Or maybe it was all a bluff. But wasn’t it easier for the celebrities, as they’ve all been on TV before?
Sarah Fay, another executive producer, says, ‘I definitely don’t think it’s easier. They might be famous but they’re not used to being on camera 24/7, in this kind of environment.’
Mike says some contestants were thrown by the lack of direction. ‘Once they’re in the castle we say, “You play the game and we observe.” That’s quite a change to presenters, actors or comedians who are used to being told. “Go here, say this, do that.” We were the opposite. They had to be their real selves.’
Tom Daley has watched different international versions of the show on his travels. ‘I’m a huge fan, as are my friends and family,’ he said before filming.
‘We play The Traitors sometimes at games nights, so I can’t wait to be fully immersed.’ He was planning to take his knitting into the castle as a stress-buster, as seen between dives at the Olympics. ‘I’ve got a whole suitcase full of wool!’
Is he good at reading people? ‘I’d like to think so, but I’m also incredibly trusting. I hate conflict and I’m not very good at standing up for myself in that way. I’m a chronic people pleaser, so I don’t know how that’s going to be when I go into a situation like this.’
Tom did let slip one potential clue, though: ‘When I get put under pressure I get hot, which might be a tell… we’ll have to see.’
Comedian Alan Carr said he wouldn’t mind being a Traitor. ‘I’m not known for my poker face, but you’ve just got to adapt.’
What about spotting treachery among his fellow competitors? ‘These are celebrities. They’re sociopaths! I would not trust a celebrity as far as I could throw them!’
As for Claudia, the star of the show, surely she had friends among the cast? Wasn’t it harder for her to be as neutral, mysterious and intimidating as usual?
‘She established very early doors that this was her domain, what she says goes,’ says Sarah. ‘There was no easing-in period. I think they loved seeing Claudia keeping them in line.’
Mike reveals, ‘Claudia is in the castle all the time, watching like a hawk, but they don’t see her. She’s only present to the celebrities when we’re filming her with them.
'There are no off-camera moments when she’s hanging out with them, chatting. So there’s a separation, which gives her authority.’
Claudia is usually the most spectacularly dressed by far, he says, but this time there was competition.
‘The celebrities bring it with the fashion a bit this year, coming in to the castle with Highland outfits. They raised the game.’ Sarah adds, ‘We had to ensure Claudia could still command the space, as the puppet master overseeing the whole thing.
'I’d say Claudia looks a bit more punk rocky this year. She’s got some very killer boots in episode one that will be a talking point.’
These are well-known people, so did the producers decide in advance who would be Traitors? ‘No, we don’t make our minds up until they sit down in front of Claudia, that blazing fire and the pile of gold,’ insists Sarah.
‘And it’s thrilling for us because it’s only a short period of time before we record the picking of the Traitors. So we’re squirrelled away in our office all together going, “Right, who are we gonna have?” Claudia gets involved too. We have heated discussions!’
Then Claudia walks around the table where the celebrities are blindfolded and secretly taps the shoulders of those she wants to betray the others.
The music ramping up the tension is a rich mix of classical tunes like Ave Maria by Schubert, original doom-laden themes by the in-house composer Sam Watts and striking cover versions. ‘Dark. Cinematic. Camp,’ is how Sarah describes it, as the one who makes a Spotify playlist of potential tunes.
The trick seems to be to slow down the song, drench it in strings and sing in a breathy, sincere way, then explode.
Ruelle’s version of Walking On The Moon is an example, so is Chroma’s version of Wings’ Live And Let Die. ‘Some people love those cover versions and some people hate them,’ says Sarah. ‘They get a Marmite response, but they’re now known as Traitors Pop.’
The gothic style is reflected by the decor inside Ardross. ‘We enhance the castle,’ says Mike. ‘You will see lots of beautiful ornaments that when you look again have dark undertones.
'There’s a leopard table, or a glittery skull. We also put in objects that give a hint of a mission or a twist to come.’
Portraits of the contestants are painted by the art team and they build the huge round table. ‘We didn’t want it to feel like a television set, so things like that are built to seem as if they’ve been there for a hundred years,’ says Mike.
Then there are the daily challenges, for which contestants work together to boost the prize pot.
‘We will have brand-new missions this time and some old favourites but with a twist,’ says Sarah. These can get really dark, like the time Claudia dressed up as an undertaker in a veil and took the contestants on a slow walk to what would be a ‘final resting place’ for one of them.
‘We want to create a really rich world that spans from Harry Potter to gothic horror,’ says Mike. ‘We take inspiration from films, Shakespeare, Greek mythology. It’s mad in many ways.
'Sometimes we have a conversation like, “How could someone die in a really spectacular way and how could that become part of the show?”
'If someone looks at my search history they’ll think I’m a serial killer.’
The point is to pile on stress and drama and see what happens. ‘What’s exciting for the viewer is that you’re seeing these celebrities in pure, unfiltered versions of themselves, in an extremely pressurised game situation,’ says Sarah.
‘We didn’t want it to be a watered-down version. I guarantee, you’re definitely not going to get that.’
The Celebrity Traitors kicks off Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.