Historical events such as the Salem witch trials and the Spanish Inquisition can help explain why contestants on the BBC show The Traitors struggle to identify the real traitors, according to historian and broadcaster David Olusoga. Speaking at the Hay festival on Tuesday alongside fellow cast members Clare Balding and Harriet Tyce, Olusoga described the roundtable discussions on the show as “frightening” due to the speed at which suspicion turns into conviction.
Olusoga drew parallels between the show and historical witch hunts, noting that the process of denouncement—where a confident voice starts a rumour—is key. He cited the example of the Gestapo, where arrests often began with a tip-off from a neighbour or acquaintance rather than surveillance. “It was somebody saying, ‘I think it’s them, I heard them’,” he said. “It was setting up the rumour, and once that snowball is running, it passed seamlessly from rumour to official process in a way that’s absolutely terrifying.”
Balding agreed, describing how she could “feel the wave coming towards you, and you’re thinking, ‘I can’t fight this wave, I don’t know how to defend myself’.” Olusoga responded that this phenomenon is visible in footage of Russian show trials, where accused individuals “go silent, they shrink” rather than protesting their innocence. He noted that the Celebrity Traitors contestants, who were record-breakingly bad at the game, similarly failed to mount strong defences.
Balding reflected that she was “possibly too polite” at the roundtable and that “deflection is a really effective mechanism of defence, and it’s why politicians do it all the time”. She also noted that a group formed among herself, Charlotte Church, Ruth Codd, Paloma Faith and Olusoga, but a Traitor likely saw it and decided to break it up. “It goes back to people being identified as witches back in the day – women who know their own mind and will say it, and aren’t going to be swayed by groupthink,” she said.
