As the scheming show returns for a third series, its appeal to millions worldwide suggests everyone has a wicked side

For the benefit of the uninitiated, The Traitors is a BBC One game show involving 22 players, classed as either Traitors or Faithfuls. Staged at a Scottish castle (Ardross Castle in the Highlands, north of Inverness), it features a group of selected Traitors who must “murder” the Faithful, while the Faithful identify and banish Traitors. If a Traitor evades detection and makes it to the end, they swipe the entire prize pot, totalling as much as £120k.

So, yes, it’s a gameshow, but, as those in thrall to the cloaked global entertainment franchise could tell you, it’s also so much more than that. It’s a dark and terrible dance of back-stabbing and scheming. It’s the pungent base notes of human nature. It’s the cynical celebration of deceit as a life skill. It’s “Let’s turn calculated personal betrayal into a gameshow!”. Indeed, what does the full-hearted embrace of The Traitors say about the modern British psyche, and are we ready to hear it?