Thank God for The Traitors. For the past two years, the BBC’s twistiest, turniest reality show has been a much-needed winter warmer for the long, dark evenings.
Taking the show as a tonic for the January blues at the beginning of 2024, we watched as 22 new players decamped to a mysterious castle in the Scottish Highlands, and Traitor Harry Clark snaked trusting Mollie Pearce at the very last minute to take home a hefty £95,000.
At a time when event TV barely exists thanks to streaming, The Traitors manages to be a proper old-school watercooler appointment. At the helm of the murder-mystery game, you’ll find Claudia Winkleman, the on-screen queen we could never betray.
Of course, the 52-year-old presenter is basically a national treasure at this point, stealing the show on Strictly Come Dancing each week with her cheeky comments and instantly recognisable look.
But The Traitors showcases Claudia at her most, well, Claudia-y. Impeccably dressed in the trademark chunky knits and long coats that had us all searching ‘vintage kilts’ on eBay, the Radio 2 presenter is the show’s on-screen mastermind – sharp, sarcastic and emotional. There’s a reason she won a Bafta for her role in season two – there would be no Traitors without Claud.
The show returns on New Year’s Day, with a new group of strangers preparing to play the game and be split by Claudia into Faithful and Traitor camps. Of course, details about the latest series were kept firmly under lock and key as heat went to press. ‘I’d love to tell you all about series three, but then I will get fired, so I can tell you absolutely nothing,’ Claudia said. ‘What I will tell you is that things are different this year. There are some really exciting things that have changed, which keeps everyone on their toes and feeds into the central premise of trust! I can’t wait for everyone to see.’
On The Traitors, you’ll find Claudia leaning into the character she’s been cultivating on our screens and airwaves for years. With her thick smudged eyeliner, long fringe and perma-tanned complexion, Claudia has always felt like the fun, relatable TV presenter. Listen to her insist that she never takes her make-up off and hates water (she once said that she doesn’t have sex with her husband if he’s drunk water), and we challenge you not to become obsessed.
It was Strictly, which Claudia initially joined as the host of sister show It Takes Two in 2005, that started to make her a household name. And after the late Bruce Forsyth stepped down from the show in 2014, she became Tess Daly’s fully-fledged co-host.
Claudia has always felt like the grungy Elphaba to Tess’ polished Glinda – and not just in looks. Just as Tess once had to wrangle the ageing Brucie on Strictly, she must still steer the ship, as Claudia is able to lark around with the contestants in her ‘Clauditorium’.
On The Traitors – which is inspired by party games like Werewolf and Mafia – Claudia has to take things a little more seriously. After all, there’s up to £120,000 on the table, and tensions run high as contestants deliberately sabotage and deceive each other in front of her very eyes.
But while Claudia can’t involve herself too heavily in the game, she clearly cares about the show. She shed tears in the series one finale, and called out the 2024 Traitors for being sexist after they only enlisted men, quipping, ‘It’s just like the olden days.’
Given the show’s success (the series two finale more than doubled the viewing figures of series one), it’s surprising to hear that Claudia was reluctant to ever make more than one series of The Traitors.
‘I said, “That’s more than enough,”’ she previously admitted . ‘I said, “Let’s stop,” because the first series was overwhelming for us, the fact people liked it and wanted to talk about it. I thought it was just so perfect, let’s just leave it.’
Of course, series two was a smash, and the third outing promises to be just as exciting. Claudia has promised viewers that the show will be every bit as nail-biting, and that her wardrobe will remain every bit as iconic.
‘Expect more tweed and more big sweaters – at one point, I try and look like an actual yeti,’ she teased. If anyone can pull off a look like that, it’s Claud.
