THE TRAITORS’ Ross Carson was likened to Shakespeare’s Hamlet when the villains unwittingly gave him a chance to avenge his mother Diane’s “death” in the TV reality show.
Viewers of the BBC mind-game’s current second run saw TraitorsHarry Clark and Andrew Jenkins recruit Ross to the dark side on Friday with neither of the pair knowing Diane, who they “killed” in an earlier episode, was his mum.
As Harry bragged, “Diane was getting too clever, she had to go”, Ross vowed vengeance and fans likened the plot to the Bard’s tragedy.
Ross, 28, a video director, has now broken his silence after losing his place in the game when his plot to overthrow Harry and Andrew failed.
After leaving the show, hosted by Claudia Winkleman at Scotland’s Ardross Castle, he said: “Being a Traitor is hard work, every day you’ve got to switch it on.
“The whole scenario is intense.
“I’m glad I got to play but I was a Traitor for a whole two minutes.
“I didn’t really have a game plan because I didn’t know what to expect.
“Once the game starts there are so many things going on and so many people trying to impose their strategy, your own goes out of the window.
“Even if I did have a strategy, your strategy goes out of the window.”
Diane, 63, was a fans’ favourite as they dedicated online memes to her death by “poison” chalice as part of the murder mystery game.
But none of the other players knew Ross was the retired teacher’s son, after the pair secretly agreed not to tell.
He said: “Going into the game, the only strategy I really had was with my mum.
“We said we would never reveal that we were mother and son, that we were going to try and link up as much as possible.
“We didn’t want to reveal that we were related because it would instantly sow a seed of mistrust.
“If we had said from the get-go that we were mother and son, other people would have thought that it put us at an advantage.
Online memes
“As soon as the competition mindset kicks in, it would have made us vulnerable.
“That was it, we just didn’t want to give anyone any opportunity to vote us out.”
Their plan did not pay off, though, with Ross stalling just two days before tomorrow night’s finale.
But he added: “We’re near to the end of the game now so leaving at this point feels pretty good, as I genuinely thought I wouldn’t make it past day two or three.
“I was hoping I wouldn’t be the first one to go so anything after day two, three or four felt like borrowed time.
“My mum being there at the start was comforting but also, everyone acts differently in front of their mum, don’t they?
“I act differently when I’m just with friends as opposed to how I would act if mum was there, so it felt a little bit like that.
“I knew my mum was keeping a watchful eye, I could feel her gaze on the side of my head every so often.”
Ross’s departure leaves just two Traitors in the game, and at this point their success seems assured.
Faithfuls including Jaz Singh, Zack Davies and Mollie Pearce appear to have no idea who is behind the dastardly plots to kill off players each night.
But Ross can now see where he went wrong.
He added: “There were so many moments where I made mistakes in terms of who I voted for.
“If I had a magic wand, every one of my votes would have been for a Traitor.
“My biggest takeaway is don’t trust anyone. Ha, just kidding.
“Never judge a book by its cover, be open-minded towards people, and that all conflict doesn’t necessarily need to end in tears.”
- The Traitors continues on BBC One tonight at 9pm.
Castle is place to love, honour and . . betray
Exclusive by Rod McPhee
THE Traitors’ third series could air this year – all thanks to the show’s venue proving hugely popular for weddings.
The fact Ardross Castle is so booked up in the latter half of this year means the BBC have to film this spring, so the new run could be ready to go in the autumn.
That also paves the way for the recently announced Celebrity version to air in 2025.
A TV insider said: “The castle has always been a big draw for couples looking to tie the knot but since The Traitors aired book-ings have gone through the roof.
“It proved a headache for producers but might be a bonus for fans as the Beeb contemplates putting out the third series before the end of the year. It will prevent addicts of the show having to go cold turkey for another year and maintain momentum.”
More than four million have been tuning in live each night to watch the game of skul-duggery and treachery.
With catch-up figures included, the first episode of series two drew an average of more than six million viewers.
And the climactic final week is set to drive many more to binge.
The Traitors’ creative director, Mike Cotton, of Studio Lambert, said: “After the runaway success of The Traitors series one last year, launching a second series was always going to be a challenge.
“The team were united in their ambition to elevate the existing game while also creating more surprising, and sometimes murderous, twists and turns.
“Claudia has again been the perfect host and the cast were brilliant, so we’re delighted viewers have loved watching.”
The Sun revealed this week that the BBC had put wheels in motion for the celebrity version. It has launched a “discrete recruitment drive” to see which of the show’s many famous fans may sign up.
But it now faces a logistical nightmare trying to film all the different shows, including the US version of The Traitors, around the many weddings booked for Ardross.