GENRE REPORT


FACT ENT


THE TRAITORS


The Traitors launched on the BBC in January; by February it had over 30 million iPlayer views. The sleeper hit started life in the


Netherlands, created by Mark Pos at All3 Media-owned IDTV in 2014 and was finally picked up by RTL in 2021. The idea of taking a group of nice


people and watching them play a brutal game found a big audience. The BBC and NBCU then commissioned All3Media’s Studio Lambert for a UK series and a celebrity version for the US. Shooting one after the other, the production was based at Ardross Castle, 40 miles North of Inverness. “We wanted to create the world and make it feel big and immersive,” says Studio Lambert exec producer Mike Cotton. “It was a blend of reality with constructed, cinematic moments.” The production borrows tropes from classic murder mystery, such as Knives Out, Poirot or Cluedo. “It’s a game first and foremost,” says Cotton. Studio Lambert set up a Scottish office


and managed a team of 150 on location across eight weeks, shooting roughly one day per episode. The shoot included contestant challenges in various locations and there was a fixed rig in the castle, along with roving camera crews. “We took the entire Scottish production base and every single hire car,” says Cotton. The UK casting team weeded out any


applicants looking for TV fame, “we made sure we had people who were just there to play the game.” And, welfare front- of-mind, they were kept in the world of the game. “Security was of the utmost importance to keep the integrity of the format. It was like a military operation.” Production management was king, but “it was really hands off in terms of producing style. We did not want to burst their bubble, we wanted them to create this psychological pressure cooker of an environment, to go to bed not knowing if they were going to get murdered.” The production team was also on


tenterhooks. “It was terrifying, we didn’t know what was going to happen each day.”


DOGS BEHAVING VERY BADLY, AVALON, CHANNEL 5


Primetime doesn’t have to come “IT’S WARM


AND ENGAGING, IT GETS YOU


TRANSFORMATION”


INTO PEOPLE’S HOUSES AND IT SHOWS


CAMILLA LEWIS, CURVE MEDIA


with a huge price tag. At Channel 5 Seneviratne points to shows where access has been formatted into a different shape, such as Cause of Death and Critical Condition. While Air TV has done the same for Supercar Showroom for Warner Bros Discovery. “It might have been an obdoc, but we


started looking at formatting it,” says Air TV managing director Matt Richardson. “It’s another way of enhancing story-telling.” While the spotlight is always on


finding that show that works in peak time, formats have a home at most points in the schedule. For daytime, Channel 5 has recently


ordered 80 hours of Holiday Home Show from Raise the Roof and 80 hours of The Great Auction Showdown with Paul Martin from STV. Bargain Loving Brits, made by Red Sauce, has had a two- year, 136-hour order. “We find daytime formats need to offer the audience a gentle viewing experience, familiarity and a real sense of what they’re going to get at the end of the episode,” says Seneviratne. Watercolour Challenge with Fern Britton ticks all the boxes.


Summer 2023 televisual.com 45


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