The 10 most iconic moments from The Traitors UK

Diane’s funeral

If you asked me to pick the best episode of the entire show, this is it. Pure cinema. No notes.  

Season 2’s peak begins the night after Miles murders Diane by handing her the poisoned chalice of sparkling rosé – with great difficulty. Rather than her dying as expected, the Traitor walks into breakfast, sees her sitting there and says “Hiiii!” with the most panicked, manic grin you’ve ever seen in your life.  

Ruby Naldrett – Twitter

What followed was a full-blown funeral march, with a haunting choir, a shrine dedicated to the murdered medium Tracey, and three players getting into coffins as everyone chose who they believed had been marked for death. Then poor Ross had to look on as his own mum was ‘buried’. Talk about morbid.  

After that, we had Traitors going at each other, with Paul and Miles arguing to the death … or banishment, I suppose. On the sidelines, Harry masterfully suggested that both could be Traitors – a move that would pay off for him later. 

Tom’s girlfriend reveal

The first ever secret partnership in The Traitors UK was between Tom and Alex, who decided to hide the fact that they were in a romantic relationship to get further in the competition … or at least, that was the plan. 

Unfortunately, pink-haired Tom lost his cool when accusations that Alex was a Traitor surfaced at breakfast after she was put on trial, leading to him exploding at the other contestants and exclaiming that she was “straight up” his girlfriend, instantly losing favour with practically everyone in the castle.  

He believed he was a genius, as his training as a magician allowed him to read people, especially those who were lying. But as the then ‘Mother’ of the series Amanda pointed out, he can’t have been very good at his job, because he didn’t manage to suss out one Traitor.  

Adding to all the drama is poor, handsome Matt, who was obliviously flirting with Alex as he believed she was single and ready to mingle. During Tom’s outburst, you can hear Maddy saying to him, “I thought you were going to get with Alex?”. You can’t write this. Extra points for Claudia’s humongous turtleneck.  

Linda doing the bare minimum

It’s no real secret that Linda was far from a mastermind Traitor this season. And yet, she somehow survived week after week, despite some terribly suss behaviour.  

As soon as Linda was picked, she turned to Claudia when she addressed the Traitors – something that didn’t go unnoticed by Jake. She would only accuse others if they went after her, not even bothering to try and keep up the pretence of hunting down evil players with logical reasoning.  

When she voted for Anna, she delivered the iconic line: “You don’t have to be a sailor to know how to tie a rope… sorry”, which is the most ridiculous reason to banish someone and yet again something that the Faithful failed to pick up on.  

Ironically, it was only after she decided to put in some effort with an Oscar-worthy performance at breakfast, fake-crying over Liv’s murder, that she appeared on everyone’s radars. But even then, it took two nights to catch her. Never change, Linda.  

“…but Ross is”

The twist to end all twists was masterfully delivered by Dianne in season 2, who bags two entries on this list.  

We’ve had a few secret pairings going into the castle, and while two of them became public knowledge and ultimately led to the contestants’ downfall, one was kept a secret in the castle, but cheekily revealed to us at home.

During a talking head interview, Dianne was laughing as the group speculated that she and Paul were mother and son as they both have red hair – but of course, hers is dyed, and he’s far too tall.  

She then drops the bombshell that her actual son is in the game, but it’s Ross. The reveal is masterfully woven in with true crime-esque family pictures of the pair as they have secret conversations in plain sight. 

They kept up the ruse right until the end, with Ross sadly squandering his chance at revenge for his poor murdered mum when he was unwillingly recruited as a Traitor by Harry and Andrew and fed to the wolves.  

Kieran’s parting gift

Whether you agree with this gameplay or not (and believe me, some of my friends still argue about it to this day), this was one of the pinnacles of season one, and it turned the competition upside down.

After betraying his fellow Traitors twice over, Wilf was seemingly closing in on stealing the entire prize pot for himself in season 1. He’d surrounded himself with people who trusted him, and was confident he could make it to the end.  

However, the rules dictated that he must recruit. He chose Kieran, with the plan to throw him under the bus, as he’d done with Alyssa and Amanda. Of course, he didn’t account for his fellow Traitor taking him down with him. As he was voted off, he wrote Wilfred on the board, saying the final cursed words, “parting gift”. 

Ultimately, the Faithful realised something was amiss and caught the final Traitor at the fire pit. 

Charlotte’s Welsh accent

This is one of those twists that made the UK collectively ask … but why, though? 

Original Faithful (and now Traitor) Charlotte decided, for no good reason whatsoever, that she was going to talk in a Welsh accent for the entirety of the game.  

According to her, it’s to make her appear more trustworthy. And fair play, because many contestants left at the time of writing are calling her their “100% Faithful” – what percentage her accent plays in this is another matter, but she’s keeping up the ruse.  

Perhaps one of the best bedroom edits from the producers was the clip of her reading a book to learn Welsh. Truly incredible. It’s just a shame we were robbed of the big reveal at the roundtable in the end.

Hannah Cowton-Barnes / Foundry

Maddy’s Eastenders saga

Maddy’s detective skills in season one were often questionable. That said, there’s no doubt that her reasoning and logic in the talking heads was the most entertaining.  

When she entered the castle, she opted only to disclose her role as a receptionist. However, she eventually revealed that she was also a working actress, with the role of a lifetime as a homeless woman on Eastenders.  

When this information was revealed, Welsh (actually Welsh, not fake) Queen Amanda managed to spin it to make Maddy seem untrustworthy in the group, which eventually led to her unfortunate banishment.  

Despite her seemingly ditsy nature, she was the only one who had Wilfred pegged from the beginning, so who’s laughing now? 

Paul’s downfall

While he didn’t make it to the end as a Traitor, Paul is still considered the biggest villain the show has ever seen.  

Prior to the competition, he admitted he read American Psycho to prepare himself for his new role, and it certainly showed. He managed to manipulate practically everyone around him, somehow weaselling his way out of suspicion every week, despite all signs pointing to him.  

It seemed like he had everyone fooled … except for two players. Jaz (or Jazatha Christie, as he was known) had Paul pegged from the start and wasn’t threatened by his strange intimidation tactics. Then, of course, there’s Harry.  

Harry had already seen Paul throw Ash and Miles under the bus and decided to take his fate into his own hands. He led the charge against Paul, who never saw it coming as he believed he was the true ringleader of the Traitors. He went out with a well-deserved bow as the players went nuts – infuriating as he was, he made excellent telly.  

The Death Match

There’s nothing quite like a surprise game in The Traitors, and after an awful day getting gunged while Claudia sat on the shoulders of two massive men in a showstopping fur coat, poor Alexander, Leon, Anna and Fozia had to play for their lives, under the cover of darkness. 

Each took turns drawing a card, and whoever got the life card managed to stay alive … but there was only one in the deck.  

The Death Match was a mix of luck and deception, with Claudia dealing the cards in some incredible skeleton-like make-up. After gracefully allowing Anna to walk free, Fozia pulled the wrong cards, and for the first time in the show came face-to-face with The Traitors to be murdered. 

While Minah delivered the sentence menacingly, the funniest thing about this clip is that Fozia didn’t really seem to know what the heck was going on. After she finally accepted her fate, she passed on the curse of banishment to Linda, who responded with an incredible “get over it”, certifying her status as a legend.  

Harry’s ultimate betrayal

If you want to play the game as a successful Traitor, you just need to look at how Harry won the £95,000 prize pot in season 2. 

After unmasking the dastardly evil Paul and cementing his false identity as a Faithful by pretending to get the shield, Harry managed to go practically undetected. Only Jazatha Christie was on the case. Unfortunately for him, Harry had kept his support network closer than ever. 

I will never forget the moment that the nation collectively screamed at Mollie as she wrote down Harry’s name, before rubbing it out and writing poor Jaz’s instead. Ultimately, she so deeply trusted her friend and couldn’t believe he would lie to her like that.  

It made the shot of him telling her, over the burning pit of fire, that he’d always been a Traitor all the more bitter … yet brilliant.