After months of complaining about the cold, Summer is finally here, and, naturally, it’s far too hot. If you’re already looking back on January with nostalgia, you might be missing The Traitors.
For those who are brought into this world without a long-lost rich aunt, Channel 4 has a show to level the playing field. The Inheritance provides players with someone to inherit from, aptly referred to as 'the Deceased.' Not only is this long-lost relative fabulously wealthy, she’s also portrayed by the impossibly glamorous British icon, Elizabeth Hurley.
Whereas international series such as Traitors Australia or Traitors US have always had a mix of reality TV stars, celebrities and the general public, the UK’s Traitors series has opted to keep celebs and civilians separate.
This Autumn, the first batch of celebrity contestants will be joining Claudia Winkleman (and her ever growing range of knitwear) in the Scottish castle.
And that’s probably about 99% of the population: the recent series of The Traitors, with all its bad actors and diplomatic bachelors, was certainly the talk of the town.
But a married couple of podcasters have proved themselves a cut above all of us amateur tattlers. Benedict and Hannah Townsend’s analysis in Talk of the Townsends was so enjoyable, and so thorough, that some of their listeners weren’t even watching The Traitors.
If you were sadly born without inheritance in your family tree, Studio Lambert and Channel 4 have a plan to rectify that. Named The Inheritance, the programme invites 12 strangers to an English country mansion to fight it out for a pot of cash, left behind by a figure aptly known as “The Deceased.” It’s easy to see why Studio Lambert described it as “part Knives Out, part Succession.”
Of course it was Fozia who was the only one to invite the ostracised Kasim to eat with her. Her time may have been brief, but she re-entered the castle like a Fairy God Mother floating benevolently above all the witch hunts below.
Leo Woodall (One Day) stars in an action show that combines two of the most exciting things in the world: a hidden conspiracy and maths.
The Traitors US is coming to BBC iPlayer, kicking off the same day the UK series ends. Hosted by Alan Cumming, the series differentiates itself from its British counterpart by featuring celebrity contestants, largely from reality TV.
The contestants are divided into ‘Traitors’ and ‘Faithfuls’, who will then compete to win $250,000. The Traitors will operate covertly, ‘murdering’ Faithfuls nightly, and try to avoid being discovered and banished at the round tables.
We should’ve known that a rail replacement bus wouldn’t just deliver its passengers to their destination, but suspend them in a deathly limbo between that destination and complete desolation.
Yes, The Traitors, that high camp masterpiece of reality TV, is back to release us from our January blues with more hilariously hubristic schemes, disturbingly primitive groupthink and luxury knitwear.
There have been several twists to the game this year: there are slightly more contestants (25, up from 22), and those who make it to the final will no longer have to reveal their allegiances when banished. Most welcome of all are the added incentives for Traitors to sabotage the missions, which many considered to be skippable interludes.
