‘I always think my head will fall off when Traitors turn on each other’: the inside story of the world’s biggest TV show

Celia’s guffs, Richard’s gaffes, Claudia’s glorious knitwear – The Traitors has become the most successful show on the planet. The creators and the queen of the castle herself talk exploding pirate ships, becoming evil and Barry the owl It all began on a Dutch trading ship in 162

Celia’s guffs, Richard’s gaffes, Claudia’s glorious knitwear – The Traitors has become the most successful show on the planet. The creators and the queen of the castle herself talk exploding pirate ships, becoming evil and Barry the owl It all began on a Dutch trading ship in 1628. No, really.

When the Batavia set sail from Amsterdam, it crashed and the shipwrecked survivors were left stranded on a tiny island off the coast of Western Australia. As mutineers eyed the Batavia’s stash of silver, shipmates, friends and families turned on each other. About 100 people were brutally murdered, making it one of the most violent chapters in maritime history.

Nearly 400 years later, in 2015, creative entrepreneur Marc Pos had a lightbulb moment while reading about this “adult Lord of the Flies” atrocity. It gave him the idea for a reality TV show – the game of trust and treachery we now know as The Traitors. It was originally envisaged to take place on a boat, with banished players jumping overboard into the sea.

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