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The Traitors bosses urged to make changes after ‘safety’ issues

The hit BBC reality series came to a close last week

Jabed Ahmed
Wednesday 31 January 2024 16:40 GMT
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The Traitors winner Harry Clark reveals winning strategy

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Road safety campaigners have urged the producers of The Traitors to make changes after several contestants were seen travelling without a seatbelt.

The hit BBC programme, in which contestants are divided into “Traitors” and “Faithfuls” and must attempt to win the trust of their fellow competitors, came to an end last Friday (26 January).

By the end of the 70-minute episode, 22-year-old British Army engineer Harry had been announced as the winner.

As the series ended, road safety charity, Brake, pointed out several scenes showing the contestants not wearing seatbelts while travelling in cars with their co-stars.

Lucy Straker, campaign manager at Brake, told The Sun: “It is important for any person in a position of influence to act responsibly when driving or travelling as a passenger, so that those who look up to them can follow their example.

“We are relieved that so far no one has been hurt or killed. We would encourage the producers of The Traitors to reach out to us and take a positive step towards making safety a priority when anyone on the show is travelling in a vehicle.”

‘Traitors’ stars Mollie and Harry
‘Traitors’ stars Mollie and Harry (BBC)

It is a legal requirement to wear a seatbelt while travelling on roads in the UK.

A spokesperson for The Traitors said the crew behind the show “take the health and safety of our contestants very seriously and understand the importance of road safety”.

“It has come to light that on a small number of occasions some of the cast have not worn their seatbelts correctly,” they added to The Sun.

“In future, we will employ stricter checks on all passengers to make sure they are adhering to road safety rules.”

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The Traitors has proved greatly successful with more than 6.9 million people tuning in to the finale on BBC One last week.

In a five-star review of the finaleThe Independent’s critic Nick Hilton wrote: “This year, now that the format is more established and scrutinised, it’s clear that The Traitors has mastered a form of perfect imperfection.

“The game itself makes little to no sense: the Faithfuls this year managed to correctly uncover four different Traitors at the evening roundtables, yet still had to face off against two Traitors in the final. It renders the first several rounds of the game essentially pointless. [...] And yet, The Traitors pulls off its tricks, in large part because it understands that the essence of any good reality TV is human psychodrama.”

Now the casting team is looking for its next group of contestants to join the 2025 series.

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