Celebrity Traitors to ‘dial into established relationships' of famous cast

South Wales Guardian

7 days ago

Actor and broadcaster Sir Stephen Fry, Olympian Tom Daley, singer Charlotte Church and TV presenter Kate Garraway are among the names who have filmed the new series in the Scottish Highlands.
Hosted by Strictly Come Dancing co-presenter Claudia Winkleman, the nine-part series will give contestants the chance to win a cash prize of up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice by trying to find the 'traitors' or deceive their fellow stars.
Mike Cotton, creative director of unscripted shows at Studio Lambert and executive producer for The Traitors, was asked by online site The Playlist what lessons the team had learned working on the celebrity-focused series in the US.
He replied: 'I think it is quite tricky.
'Without giving away details of the celebrity season, it is going to be slightly different, I would say, to the US celebrity version.
'I think one of the really interesting things that Sam (Rees Jones) touched on earlier is the established relationships that cast members have.
'If you watch the British version of The Traitors, none of the cast know each other. They all come in.
'Some of them have lied about who they are or hid that their son or their sisters are in the show as well.
'And what we've learned to do more in the US version is to embrace… people's preconceived notions about one another, and embrace the different relationships that they have. And that's 100% a learning that we are taking through for that.'
The Traitors US is hosted by Scottish actor Alan Cumming, and has had Sam Asghari, the estranged husband of Britney Spears, former House of Commons speaker John Bercow and Love Island winner Ekin-Su Culculoglu among contestants.
Producer Sam Rees Jones said the team has tried to 'dial into previous relationships and dynamics'.
He said: 'And that was a really important reason for that twist because it helped us deep dive into those dynamics straight away.
'Was (Survivor star) Carolyn (Wiger) going to swap out (former Survivor contestant) Tony (Vlachos) because they had a previous history with (Big Brother American stars) Danielle (Reyes) and Britney (Haynes)? We were able to explore it and expand on it in a storytelling way.'
In Celebrity Traitors, due to air on the BBC in the autumn, Sir Stephen will appear with acclaimed actress Celia Imrie, who he starred with in legal show Kingdom and comedy film Thunderpants.
Other contestants include comedian Alan Carr, who has also been on episodes of Lucy Beaumont's comedy Meet The Richardsons, in which she played a fictional version of herself with former partner Jon Richardson, as well as broadcasters Jonathan Ross, Clare Balding and Garraway.
Other stars joining the group at Ardross Castle are former England rugby player Joe Marler, singers Paloma Faith and Cat Burns, comedians Nick Mohammed and Joe Wilkinson, who have been on comedy shows together, EastEnders star Tameka Empson, and Bafta-winning filmmaker and historian David Olusoga,
There will also be influencer Niko Omilana, who has more than seven million subscribers on YouTube and millions more followers across other platforms, Scottish actor and Shetland star Mark Bonnar, and Irish actress Ruth Codd.
Since the UK version began in 2022, millions of fans have watched The Traitors on the BBC and it has picked up a Bafta TV Award for best reality and constructed factual programme, and best entertainment performance for Winkleman.
The show follows contestants as they try to detect the traitors in the group while completing a series of challenges to win cash towards the prize pot.
If at the end of the series a traitor is among the finalists, the faithfuls lose out on the money and the traitor takes the full cash prize.
The third and most recent series saw project manager Jake Brown and former soldier Leanne Quigley share the prize pot of £94,600.