The new series starts tonight on BBC1
It’s the New Year treat fans have been waiting for – the fourth instalment of The Traitors returns to screens tonight, with 22 brabd new contestants – including hairstylist Jessie from Hull – gathering in a Scottish castle and vying for the chance to win up to £120,000.
Among the new contestants for the BBCshow are a best-selling crime writer, a retired police detective and a psychologist. They will be joined by a barrister, a poker-playing gardener, a cyber security consultant, a civil servant, a builder and a personal trainer as a new batch of faithfuls try to weed out the murderous traitors in the eagerly anticipated fourth series of the BBC hit show, hosted by Claudia Winkleman.
Jessie, 28, says she applied for the show to challenge herself. “I love meeting people,” she said. “I know it will test me, which is good and what I need.”
Asked what she will bring to the show, she said: “I don’t think there has been a previous player like me. I hope to inspire a lot of people. I love life and I feel more of us need that positivity.
“I feel like people will underestimate me just because of how I am and how I look with my orange hair and because I have a stammer. People might think that I don’t have it in in me to be brutal, but I do.”
On having a game plan, she said: “I have if I’m picked as a Traitor, which I’d prefer, but if I’m not, then I would just be me. I guess you don’t have to do that much as a Faithful, because you don’t have to lie.
“I would just try and work out how people are, and if people are acting differently and just build lots of bonds and hold back a bit, but not hold back too much. You need a good balance.”
She says when playing games with friends and family, she tends to be good at ‘holding it in a bit and just keeping watch’. “But I always know my next moves,” she added.
Jessie describes herself as competitive and thinks she will be good at missions. She would also much rather be a traitor than a faithful.
Asked how far she would go to win the game if she got her wish, she said: ” Well, the game is how it is, and all of us know what it is, and it can be harsh. If it means that I have to backstab people who I have built bonds with, that’s just how it is.
“It will be hard, but it isn’t like I’m at home. It is a game. All of us are in it, and all of us want to win. And if I don’t do it, they will.”
And if she does win, she has big plans for the money. “I’d love to pay off my mum’s house,” she said. “Just because my mum has brought me up and is my bestie, and I would just love to give back to her. If I have a bit left, I would put it into my business.”
The new series starts on BBC1 at 8pm tonight (New Year’s Day).