Strictly Come Dancing’s Claudia Winkleman is the host of BBC One’s show The Traitors, a new unscripted competition series built on strategy and suspicion which has started filming in a castle in the Scottish Highlands.

Claudia Winkleman says: “I’m obsessed by psychological games and I couldn’t stop watching the Dutch version of the show. The fact that the BBC version is set in a castle in Scotland and the producers want me to wear tweed meant I was all in.”

The Traitors, made by Studio Lambert Scotland, is an intense psychological game in which players must decide who they can trust. In each episode, the players work together to complete spectacular physical and mental missions. If they are successful, they add money to a prize pot, which is worth up to £120,000. But to win the prize pot, players must survive to the end of the game – they must avoid being ‘murdered’ or ‘banished’.

At the start of the game, a small number of players are secretly selected by Claudia to be The Traitors. The rest of the players are known as ‘The Faithful’ and none of The Faithful know who The Traitors are. Players are eliminated in one of two ways; each night, The Traitors meet in secret and decide to ‘murder’ one of The Faithful and next morning when the group meet for breakfast the ‘murdered’ player does not appear. Then, later in the day, all the players meet at the ‘Round Table’ and decide to ‘banish’ a player they suspect of being a Traitor. Whomever they pick will then reveal if they are indeed a Traitor or a Faithful. At the end of the game, the few remaining players will share the prize pot if they are all Faithful, but if there is still a Traitor among them, the Traitor takes all the prize money.

The Traitors (12 x 60’) was commissioned by Kate Phillips in her previous capacity as Director of Entertainment Commissioning with development from Syeda Irtizaali for BBC One. Neil McCallum, Commissioning Editor, Nations and regions lead, Entertainment is the commissioning editor for the BBC.

Mike Cotton, deputy creative director of Studio Lambert, says: “The series is a nail-biting psychological adventure game and Claudia is a huge fan of the format and is the perfect puppet master to oversee this dramatic game set in the heart of the Scottish Highlands.”

The executive producers for Studio Lambert Scotland are Mike Cotton, Sarah Fay and Toni Ireland. The Traitors is a Studio Lambert Scotland production for BBC One. The original (Dutch) version was created by Marc Pos, developed by All3Media’s IDTV & RTL Creative Unit and produced by IDTV. Studio Lambert is part of the All3Media group. All3Media International is distributing the format worldwide and will sell the tape for both UK and US versions.