Everyone battling for £120,000 in a Cluedo meets Lord Of The Flies meets I’m A Celebrity game show?
It sounded bizarre, a complex murder mystery weekend, but BBC1’s latest reality show Traitors has become an end-of-year hit.
With secret hooded meetings, “killings”, banishments and tearful players, the show got four million in the ratings for its first episode.
In tonight’s final outing, the last three “faithfuls” will finally learn the identity of the remaining original “traitor” Wilfred Webster, 28.
And they'll discover the plight of Kieran Tompsett, 42, who viewers will know was forced to give up his role as a "faithful" in Wednesday's penultimate episode, or face being "murdered" at the last knockings.
But will the "faithfuls" find out before the game ends, earning them the prize pot to share between them?
Or will Wilf manage to deceive them and walk away with all the money?
After weeks of plotting “murders”, backstabbing and lying, it’s been a far tougher challenge than he expected.
The fundraiser, from London, said: “I really didn’t expect myself to be as emotional but you spend so many hours with these people and really get to know everything about them.
“It’s hard knowing that the people I really care about and get on with are going to have to find out who I am. I am going to have to try to backstab them.” Wilf had already played a part in the demise of traitors but says that he did it to open a gym and safe space for youngsters, as well as start a counselling and psychology degree.
But that does not ease the guilt. He added: “We can’t end this in good spirits for all five of us.
“That’s the struggle for me. Knowing that I have to do them over at some point.”
Among those he has deceived is his best pal on the show, comic Hannah Byczkowski. As a “faithful”, it was the Londoner’s job to identify the traitors but she failed to see the one closest to her.
She said: “To be in this situation ... It feels like I’m having this incredibly weird, deluded, fever dream.”
Newly made 'Traitor' Kieran, a solutions consultant from Hertfordshire, says his survival on the programme has been a “miracle” even before he was faced with the dramatic dilemma of whether to switch sides.
He was booted out along with fellow “faithful” Amos Ogunkoya in the first episode, only to be brought back. He added: “The twists and turns are ridiculous. Everyone’s journey is unique but mine is particularly unique.”
Kieran says the final mission in tonight’s show is “incredible”.
He recalled his first exit, saying: “I was absolutely devastated and I just wanted to get home.
“It was the most brutal twist in a game show and it set the tone of the show to perfection.”
Kieran returned during the riddle challenge in the church, where he was hidden as part of a masked congregation, until Claudia revealed his identity and sent him back into the game.
He said: “Going back into the church and having that opportunity to sit there for the entire mission and watch the cast was a mixed bag of feelings – one was excitement.”
After a laser challenge this week, tonight we will watch all five battle to win the money.
Call centre worker Meryl Williams, 25, from Edinburgh, says it would mean a change of career and travel.
Aaron Evans, 24, a property agent of Portsmouth, says the cash would let him change his mum’s life.
He added: “I’ll be able to put a deposit down on a house for her.”
To the relief of all five contestants, very soon keeping mum will be the name of the game no more.
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Traitors airs tonight (Thursday, December 22) at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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