Incredible behind-the-scenes secrets and techniques of The Traitors revealed by TV insiders to GRANT TUCKER: Insane size spherical tables REALLY final, £54 place the place contestants truly sleep… and when the murders actually occur

It has become the most addictive show on TV, with record numbers tuning in each week to watch The Traitors – a gripping game of backstabbing, treachery and psychological warfare – fronted by Claudia Winkleman.

But behind the scenes even more cunning tactics are being deployed, including the use of armies of security guards and a carefully rationed drinks cabinet, to ensure the show’s myriad secrets are kept safe…

Keeping Schtum

The aim of the game is simple: there are 22 players in a Scottish castle, who all take part in various trials, but hidden among the group are ‘the Traitors’ whose job is to secretly ‘murder’ their fellow players without getting caught.

It’s up to the others, ‘the Faithfuls’, to try to detect who the Traitors are and banish them from the game – before they claim their next victim.

Those Faithfuls who survive to the end have the chance of sharing the £120,000 prize money.

But if a Traitor remains undetected, they take the lot – like last year’s winner, Harry Clark, 23, who successfully duped his castmates into thinking he was a Faithful and scooped a £95,150 prize pot.

It makes keeping everything secret the biggest challenge of the show.

No one actually stays at the castle – they are shepherded separately to a much less luxurious nearby hotel every evening, where security guards prowl to make sure there is no conferring or sneaking between rooms.

Contestants’ personal phones are confiscated immediately. Theo Mayne, 28, a Faithful on the first series in 2022, revealed how players are given a basic Nokia so that they can contact the production team if they need anything, but that’s it.

Once they’re back in the castle, even those are taken away, and each contestant is ‘man-marked’ by a security guard, who are like defenders in a game of football.

Traitors’ Lair

At the end of each day, the Traitors plot a murder in their turret lair and a note is delivered to the victim, telling them it’s game over.

But how do they gather without being spotted? They are driven away from the Highland estate at the end of the day, like everyone else, but they are later brought back to film that segment.

For added drama, viewers are led to believe the murders take place in the dead of the night when everyone is asleep. This is not true.

John McManus, 52, who was a Faithful in the first series, let slip that murders actually take place in broad daylight – minutes before everyone meets in the castle’s breakfast room in the morning.

He said: ‘Everybody goes to the castle at the same time in different Jeeps and then you’re all put into separate holding rooms. It’s like a Big Brother diary room with the letter sat on the chair in front of you, and it just says, ‘The Traitors have murdered you’.’

A chilly vote

Every evening, contestants gather at the round table, where they try to work out who’s a Traitor based on performances in the trials and all the gossip shared throughout the day. They each then vote to banish someone at the table. This ‘banishment’ is the second way a contestant is evicted from the show, along with the daily ‘murder’, meaning two players are culled most days.

Viewers have been calling this year’s round-table scenes the most brutal yet, with tears, tantrums and treachery – including sister-on-sister warfare when Faithful Maia, 25, turned on her sibling, 27-year-old Traitor Armani, resulting in her getting the boot.

Faithful Elen, a 24-year-old translator from Cardiff, was constantly in floods of tears, and viewers were horrified at the way 33-year-old Kasim, a doctor from Cambridge, was ‘bullied’ and ostracised by the rest of the group, after – falsely, it turned out – falling under a cloud of suspicion.

All of that drama is carefully planned. Producers deliberately crank up the air conditioning in the room, making sure everyone is cold, uncomfortable and tense. That’s why viewers see contestants wrapped in layers and scarves.

While the audience get to see an edited debate segment lasting around 15 minutes, it’s actually whittled down from a two or three-hour-long marathon slanging match – at the end of an exhausting, 15-hour day. No wonder people end up in tears.

The anxiety police

With so many theatrics, it is little wonder that viewers are so concerned about the weeping, persecuted contestants. Even this year’s player Francesca, 44, had to remind her fellow Faithful Freddie, a 20-year-old left sobbing after narrowly missing a banishment: ‘It’s just a game.’

But the welfare of the show’s stars is a huge priority for the production team.

Dr Howard Fine, a consultant clinical psychologist who has worked on The Traitors, said: ‘The amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to keep this safe is more than people expect. It really is quite demanding.’

Contestants are provided with one-to-one psychiatric support before, during and after filming. Alex Gray, a 29-year-old Faithful from series one, said: ‘You could speak to a psychologist to ground yourself again and bring you back to reality if you needed it. To say, ‘It’s OK, it’s not real life.’

The welfare support doesn’t end when the camera stops rolling, either. This year’s contestants are being briefed before each episode airs by a member of production, who updates them on how the show has been edited and how individual storylines will be portrayed.

Series one finalist, Traitor Wilf Webster, 31, praised presenter Claudia for her empathy, saying: ‘I just [broke] down to Claudia. She was really supportive as well because it’s a hard show.’

Iconic castle

Thanks to The Traitors, Ardross has become the most infamous castle since County Durham’s Barnard Castle, where former Tory svengali Dominic Cummings went on a drive to test his eyesight during the Covid lockdown.

Ardross’s dramatic lighting and sprawling rooms provide the perfect backdrop to the rather tense programme. The 1st Duke of Sutherland bought the Scottish estate in the late 1700s and built a hunting lodge. In 1845, the 2nd Duke sold the estate to Liberal MP Sir Alexander Matheson. In 1983, the castle was bought by the McTaggart family, although they don’t live there.

According to Companies House, the chatelaine of the castle is an 90-year-old called Evie McTaggart, who divides her time between Scotland and Greece.

While players may be tempted to explore the castle’s 40 or so rooms, contestants are actually confined to a small section of the sprawling property. They are allowed only in a bar, the library, the billiard room and the round-table room.

Nor is there a single room where the contestants line up to film their confessionals, where they reveal their thoughts and feelings on how the game is progressing. There are multiple identical rooms, ensuring time isn’t wasted by filming only one player at a time.

And the castle is not nearly as flash as it looks on screen. According to 45-year-old Claire Barratt, a Faithful from the first series, the castle is often covered in ‘gaffer tape and wires’, with ‘production staff, filming crew and sound crew all running around’.

Members of the public looking for a weekend away at the castle will be left disappointed, as it does not let individual rooms. But couples looking for the perfect wedding venue are able to hire the Great Hall, which can cater for up to 130 guests.

Casting checkmate

Casting is the most important part of the show, and The Traitors producers are on the hunt for the perfect contestants all year round.

While the BBC receives thousands of applications, some contestants are scouted by producers and asked to participate. Those who pique the interest of the programme makers are often members of chess clubs or people who enjoy games that involve strategy.

This year’s cast includes former British diplomat Alexander, 38; Anglican priest Lisa, 62; and 28-year-old Leanne, who is a soldier pretending to be a nail technician. Producers are said to be strongly against people who want to use the show as a stepping stone to fame, as they believe that can compromise its authenticity.

Yet the sibling double-act, full-time mum Maia and financial investigator Armani, had already attracted nearly 14million likes on TikTok between them before they stepped foot in the castle.

The application process involves a video submission, multiple rounds of interviews and a psychological assessment to make sure the contestants are sufficiently mentally robust.

But once the contestants learn they are going on the show, it is down to them to do their own preparation.

Alex Gray from the first series said: ‘I bought two books online about the psychology of lying, but essentially learned that it’s actually very hard to tell if someone’s lying to you or not.’

The cast do not get paid for appearing on the show, and only receive a measly £100 a day to cover lost earnings.

They’re also advised on what to wear, with a stylist sending them suggestions for ‘overall visuals’ and ‘colour palettes’ before helping them put a wardrobe together.

Breakfast lies

All of the episodes begin at breakfast, where contestants learn who survived the night (or, actually, the previous half an hour). Viewers have repeatedly pondered why no one seems to touch the sumptuous spread of croissants, smoothies and fresh fruit laid out for them.

The truth is, they’ve already had toast and porridge back at their hotel – the 130-room Courtyard by Marriott, at Inverness Airport, a 45-minute drive away, where rooms start at £48. The BBC and production company Studio Lambert booked the hotel for two months during the summer for filming.

Despite contestants being filmed relaxing with a drink at the end of the day, the bar is not well stocked. Alcohol is strictly rationed, with a rule limiting each person to no more than two drinks of either wine or beer – in case anyone gets tipsy and lets something slip.

Global sensation

The concept of the show was developed by Dutch entrepreneur Marc Pos, and based on a book about a 17th-century ship in the Netherlands which crashed into an island. All the marooned survivors started to distrust each other and even began to kill one another.

The programme launched in the Netherlands in 2021 and then premiered on the BBC in 2022.

More than five million viewers watched the opening episode of the new series.

The format has now been sold to 20 countries. An American version, also filmed at Ardross Castle, was launched in 2023, hosted by actor Alan Cumming.

A UK celebrity version is also in the pipeline, with stars such as Stephen Fry, Tom Daley and Clare Balding rumoured to be signed up.

But it hasn’t been a hit everywhere. The Australian version was canned because ratings were so bad.

The Claudia effect

One of the show’s most tense moments occurs when Claudia circles the blindfolded contestants at the start of the show and picks the Traitors with a subtle prod of her finger on their shoulder.

It’s not a random choice, however. Claudia, 52, is not just a presenter – she’s an integral member of the production team.

She has revealed how selecting the Traitors is an exhaustive process, involving her and five other casting people gathering in a room to decide who they should be. ‘We get through seven packets of biscuits. I’m the smallest voice in the room.’

She has her own dressing room at Ardross Castle, where her stylist, Sinead McKeefry, organises her wardrobe. Costing around £2,000 an episode, her clothes are worth a show of their own.

For this year’s opener, she wore an £875 Bella Freud tweed blazer teamed with knitted fingerless gloves, a black turtleneck and £800 Saint Laurent suede ankle boots.

The floor-length Saint Laurent fringed coat she wore in series two cost £4,750.

Although Claudia doesn’t have much to do with the contestants during filming, she does stay close to them once it’s over, with some even calling her Mum.

‘They’re like my children, who I am sometimes incredibly mean to,’ she said. ‘I love them, each and every one.’