The Traitors is must-watch TV - 6 crucial reasons to tune in

02 January 2024 , 18:07

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Claudia Winkleman and the contestants in series two of The Traitors (Image: PA)

Life's full of contradictions so get ready to start 2024 with a massive one: The Traitors is a TV show that will make you feel like you’re having a nervous breakdown, which you never want to end.

It’s a compelling, addictive, TENSE, surprising, edge-of-your-seat, unbearable, brilliant, agonising, incredible show – a gift at any time of the year, but airing from Wednesday in gloomy January is spoiling us more than Ferrero Rocher at the Ambassador’s reception. If you didn’t watch the first season, here are six reasons you should tune into the second (after binge-watching the first on iPlayer quickly beforehand)…

The Traitors has become an international sensation, with series' also in the US and Australia (BBC/Studio Lambert & All3Media International)

1 - First, the premise – 22 strangers (proper people, not reality show wannabes) spend three weeks together in a castle in Inverness. In the first scene that will make you feel like you might wet yourself, they are all together in a room when a few of them are alerted to the fact that they are Traitors. Whether they want to be or not. And obviously they can’t react to that news. ARRGGHHH. These Traitors then have to avoid being detected by the rest of the group, The Faithfuls. At the end, via a wonderfully camp ceremony involving fire turning different colours, if the Traitors are unmasked, however many good old Faithfuls are left divide the money between them. But if the Traitors aren’t discovered, they steal the lot. Mwah ha ha.

2 - Every day the whole group takes part in challenges – could be brainteasers, or physical activities – to build up the prize pot of money. This means they all work together, because whether they’re Traitors or Faithfuls, they all want the winner/s to get big bucks, but also, they can never really let their guards down. Might a Traitor, concentrating on the task in hand instead of the game itself, accidentally let slip something that arouses suspicion? Or might a Faithful accidentally let slip something entirely innocent that arouses suspicion anyway, because everyone’s so paranoid? The answer, magnificently, is BOTH.

3- You’ll see a new side to Claudia Winkleman, usually in the role of encouraging cheerleader on screen, but now trying to be aloof and nonchalant. Also: KNITWEAR. The fingerless gloves and enormous rollnecks she wore on series one instantly became iconic. Hoping for more of the same.

TOWIE's Chloe Brockett makes cheeky dig at Saffron Lempriere during filming

Claudia Winkleman's iconic rollneck jumpers took centre stage in season 1

4 - This show will make you look at everyone you come into contact with differently, as it takes over your brain and becomes the only thing you’re capable of thinking about. Would your husband be a good Traitor, and if so, does that mean you have to get divorced? If your boss was a Faithful would she go with her gut or be easily manipulated? Could your bus driver pull off statement knitwear?

5 - Of course, anything could happen in series 2, but the first season was ultimately extremely uplifting. It had one of those rare, perfect reality show endings that you can’t quite believe wasn’t written. Good fully triumphed over evil at the very last minute. (OK, maybe the person I’m talking about wasn’t strictly evil – no spoilers – but it’s hard not to come across that way when you’re playing a game that forces you to deceive people who have become good friends over the very intense weeks you’ve spent together, including lying directly to their faces.)

The Traitors Season 2 gets underway on Wednesday January 3 (BBC/Studio Lambert Associates/Llara Plaza)

6 - The Traitors is televisual tension on a level never experienced before. You won’t believe how invested you’ll get. I absolutely swear this is entirely true: during the last five minutes of series one, I suddenly realised I was standing right in front of the telly, screaming at the top of my voice, and then turned round to see how my husband was coping, to find him in tears. And these aren’t even the most extreme reactions I’ve heard about. WATCHITWATCHITWATCHITWATCHIT.

* The Traitors, BBC1, Wednesday January 3, 9pm

Polly Hudson