An Irish edition of The Traitors is coming to RTÉ this year, hosted by Siobhán McSweeney. Having portrayed a Stasi-like mother superior in a 1990s convent school on Derry Girls, she will no doubt take to the role of manipulative reality television host like Ryan Tubridy to a books podcast.
Cameras have yet to roll on the Irish spin-off. But while we wait, there is no better time to dive headfirst into the UK version of this riotously addictive psychological gameshow (BBC One, Wednesday, 8pm), which is piled high with murder, mystery and statement capes.
As ever on The Traitors, the fun flows from the truths the series reveals about human nature – particularly how easily lying comes to some, even as mistruths curl up and die on the lips of others. We’re back in the familiar setting of Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands, where the rogues’ gallery includes 70-year-old Linda, a self-confessed former wild child and one of the three “traitors” chosen in secret by host Claudia Winkleman.
Linda twists the truth as though born with a forked tongue. Meanwhile, her partner-in-deception Armani is so obviously a traitor that you fully expect her to be eliminated in the “round table” at the end of the instalment. (The result won’t be revealed until the next episode.) Her personality changes the moment a covert tap on the shoulder from Winkleman makes her a traitor. Suddenly, she’s talking three times as fast as usual and sweating overtime while attempting to bond with the other 21 contestants (most of whom are “the faithful”).
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Coolest of the bunch is traitor number three, Minah. She keeps her head down and says nothing as everyone around her huffs and puffs. “I didn’t expect lying to come this easily to me,” she says with a shrug – which might be a fib, but how matter-of-factly she sells it.
Much of the fun with The Traitors is in how seriously it takes itself. Winkleman has swapped out her bantering persona from Strictly Come Dancing and spends the bulk of her screen time wafting around in a haze of Enya-like mysteriousness.
A creepy castle helps with the ambience, too. The BBC has selected the perfect backdrop – a haunted place on the fringes of civilisation, where the supernatural feels within reach. My guess is that the Irish version will be filmed either at Limerick Junction or the top floor of Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre.
The new series throws an early curveball after the contestants have boarded the Hogwarts Express-esque steam train conveying them to their new digs. Just as they’re about to leave the station, Winkleman zooms in over the tannoy to declare that one passenger must leave each of the three carriages.
To make things more interesting, she reveals that the prize fund has been raised by £10,000 – but that, for every minute the contestants delay deciding who should leave, £1,000 will be lopped off that total. As you’d expect, most stay put. They’ve come this far, so why walk away now?
Then three crack and volunteer to step out, reasoning that this could well be just another test and they might actually come out ahead. But no: they have thrown themselves on a figurative grenade and are out before the back-stabbing even begins. In the end, without any pressure from their peers, they betray themselves – a devastating insight into human nature with which to start the new season.
