I know I’m late to the party, but I very much enjoyed the BBC series The Traitors; far more in the end than I initially thought I would.

For those who haven’t seen it: from a group of players who undertake tasks to earn a large prize fund, a small number are selected as “traitors” who must “murder” the other contestants in secret. The whole group also eliminates contestants based on votes as to whom they believe to be a traitor. At the end of the series, the remaining players share the prize fund, although if any traitors remain, then only they share it.

The obvious gameshow structure from a gameplay perspective would have been to challenge the “traitors” to sabotage the prize fund tasks, in the manner of The Mole. When I read about the format, I thought missing this point was a considerable flaw in the show. However, from a television perspective, having the players work collaboratively while also scheming against each other makes for greatly heightened drama.

It worked beautifully. The series also had a brilliant soundtrack and some stunning cinematography, plus a pitch-perfect host in Claudia Winkleman. It had twists that—at least to me—came as complete surprises.

I don’t think it’s a series that will run and run, if only because the novelty of the format is important to the gameplay. But we shall see.

‘The Traitors’ is available on BBC iPlayer until the end of the year… when maybe, hopefully, there will be a second series.