IT was just a finger, but as Claudia Winkleman gently poked it into my shoulder and branded me a traitor, it felt like a thunderbolt.
Somehow, I knew it was coming, and this small gesture — carried out as I sat sweating under a blindfold — sealed my fate, just as it has for dozens of competitors on the TV show.
The Sun’s Rod McPhee with Traitors host Claudia WinklemanRuth Roxanne Board / Plank PR / Studio Lambert / BBC Ruth Roxanne Board / Plank PR / Studio Lambert / BBCRod says being considered traitor-worthy by Queen Claudia is like a badge of honour[/caption] Rod sitting at The Traitors’ famous round table inside Ardross CastleRuth Roxanne Board / Plank PR / Studio Lambert / BBCPerched around The Traitors’ famous round table inside Ardross Castle, we had assembled for a trial run of what it will be like for all the celebrities who will this week be seen playing telly’s most perilous game.
But far from feeling like I was cursed, it felt like a strange blessing.
After all, being considered traitor-worthy by Queen Claudia is like a badge of honour — and it turns out I wasn’t the only one who’d thought so since the show launched in 2022.
Claudia chuckles: “Sometimes when I’m walking around behind them they actually offer me a shoulder — though I go at least four or five times round as I’m so petrified that they would ever know who I’d chosen.”
Gibbering wreck
It was a moment of levity in an otherwise dark hour spent on the round table, and the treacherous tone was expertly set from the moment Claudia glided into the room.
“Players, this is where you do battle.” she said. “So I need you to really look at each other, because this is the last time you will sit here as equals.
“Once I have chosen my Traitors, the course of the game will be set. Are you ready?
“Players, please put on your blindfolds. If you feel me tap you on the shoulder that means that you are The Traitors and your task is simple: To murder the faithful.”
After making her selection, Claudia told us to remove our blindfolds and perform a simple task: Turn to the rest of the group and tell them “I am a faithful”, which I duly did.
But they took one look at me and said: “Oh no you’re not, mate!”
In the obviously dodgy delivery of those four words I had, somehow, instantly given away the fact I was lying.
And it didn’t take long before the faithfuls worked out the other traitors were too.
How had we been rumbled so quickly?
Well, the short answer is that inside this spooky castle, with bright lights shining on you and your opponents encircling you, the pressure is shockingly intense.
Then you have to add to that being blindfolded as Claudia circles around you with a strange walk to avoid her footsteps giving away who she’s close to and therefore who she might have chosen to be a traitor.
Rod reveals how the pressure is shockingly intenseRuth Roxanne Board / Plank PR / Studio Lambert / BBC PAHe believes even the seasoned TV stars among the celeb line-up will never be able to beat The Traitors at its own game[/caption]It’s a strange, clumpy, shuffly walk she must have perfected by studying the Hunchback of Notre Dame, although Claudia jokes she has a more surprising inspiration. “You know dressage?” she asks.
The whole point of it isn’t to spook a traitor into exposing themselves.
It is to turn every contestant — even the faithfuls — into a gibbering wreck who COULD be telling porkies.
So when we see all those actors and actresses, comedians and seasoned TV stars coming together for the celeb spin-off, it doesn’t matter how good they are at performing.
Believe me when I say they will never be able to beat The Traitors at its own game.
They certainly shouldn’t try and second guess who are likely Traitors, nor should they try to work out who Claudia will select either.
She explains: “I don’t do it alone. I have brilliant, brilliant bosses — the fantastic people who create it.
“I talk to them all (the contestants) and then we go off into a room.
‘False sense of security’
“There are some people where you think, oh please be a traitor. And they’re like, don’t be ridiculous.
“You just don’t know. Some of them convince you they want it so much that you go, OK, give it a go.”
Has she had any favourites over the years? “Oh no,” she says, “I couldn’t say — I love them all.”
All the contestants will, of course, be lulled into a false sense of security by their experiences in the rest of the castle, which really is like something out of a fairytale.
When you arrive through the gates, you glide along a drive nestled in the Scottish Highlands, which leads to the stunning stately home which is every bit as pristine and dazzling as it looks on screen.
My overriding feeling was that, as beautiful as Ardross Castle was, you were made to feel like you could never know what was real and what wasn’t.
Rod McPheeFrom the terrace outside you stare out at the fire pit and folly where so many key decisions are made by the competitors, and beyond to the woods and hills where the group tasks are carried out.
Those challenges are, in themselves, a red herring, because there really isn’t any true camaraderie or sense of community. Everyone who takes part is, essentially, out for themselves.
So it doesn’t matter how many times the Traitors’ celebrities have air kissed one another at premieres or green rooms or VIP parties.
They have to understand that the knives will be out for them from day one.
This peculiar sense of not knowing what is fake is typified in the treatment that’s given to Ardross Castle by the production team who expertly turn a bona fide stately home into the backdrop for a TV contest.
Hidden wires
Inside the house, so much of the beautiful panelling, bookcases and artworks are genuine, and remain in situ all year round.
But every now and again you will encounter pretend panelling behind which they’ve hidden wires and scaffolding leading to all the cameras that expertly hide away in the corners of rooms.
You might find yourself doing a double take at what looks like a century-old portrait which is actually a montage featuring our Claudia, probably made a couple of years ago.
Even inside the kitchen, where so many plans are hatched, the giant stone fireplace is, in reality, entirely artificial. A few taps reveal an echo betraying the fact it is probably made of fibreglass.
Outside, it’s hard to tell what stonework is ancient and what was manufactured months ago.
Similarly, with the plants, one moment you might be running your hand through a real shrub, while the next you pick up a strand of ivy placed over a stone seat only to discover that it is made of plastic.
Every outside space and room inside really does exist. They aren’t just sets.
That includes the breakfast room, where the contestants wait to see who pokes their head round the door so they can find out which unlucky individual has been murdered overnight, to the bar area and library.
My overriding feeling was that, as beautiful as Ardross Castle was, you were made to feel like you could never know what was real and what wasn’t.
All I knew was, as I stood there in my traitors cloak next to Claudia and that mountain of gold, it felt really, really good.
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