A Traitors star has lifted the lid on what it's really like behind the scenes on the hit BBC show, from the "tense" turret to the time-stretching roundtables
Olivia Wheeler Content Editor Screen Time
18:18, 15 Jan 2026
The Traitors has delivered drama in abundance throughout its fourth series, from castle confrontations to fiery clashes.
With the current run now down to just Rachel Duffy and Stephen Libby as the remaining Traitors, a previous participant has revealed what really goes on behind the scenes of the BBC One show.
Paul Gorton, chosen by host Claudia Winkleman as a Traitor during series two before his elimination ahead of the finale, has opened up about life on the acclaimed programme.
Speaking exclusively on behalf of WhichBingo, Paul disclosed everything from the atmosphere inside the notorious turret to the actual duration of those gripping roundtable sequences, reports the Daily Star.
1) Life inside the turret
Describing the experience, Paul explained: "It feels tense. It feels like the oxygen is a bit thicker in the room and it feels like everything you say kind of really matters. You have your endorphins firing at the start when you're all kind of laughing and like, 'Oh my God, what a day!' But then you're also just really conscious of like, 'Who do we kill tomorrow? Who are we sending home tomorrow?'
"I tried to blank out, you know, we're cutting someone out of the game, 'shall we feel sorry for them?' It worked to a certain degree. But yeah, it's really tense and then when that bit is done, I don't know how to explain it. It's almost like you've just finished an exam, where you don't realise that you were as stressed until afterwards, and then you're like, 'Oh God, that was quite taxing!'
"Because it's also just the three of you or the two of you that are shooting, you know, so it's a lot of conversation. It's a lot of effort. And you're firing because it's like, come up with a strategy over this bit of time at the end of the day. You're like, 'Okay, well, what about this? And what about that? And blah, blah, blah.' Yeah, it was stressful."
2) The actual duration of filming the roundtable
Paul revealed about the famous roundtables: "Well, do you know what? I was thinking about this the other day. You actually don't know. So it could be two hours. It could be five hours. It could be, there's no clocks... so time can sometimes feel like it goes quickly. Time can sometimes feel like it goes slowly.
"My brain keeps wondering whether it's just a set amount of time and it just feels longer and shorter because it's such a military operation. But I genuinely, genuinely do not know. Well, actually, no one knows. People will say four hours but I don't know. It might just feel like four hours because it was quite an intense round table. So you actually don't know how long anything lasts."
Paul added: "The one time that you actually wonder about time is the round table because as a Traitor, you are begging Claudia to say, 'That's it, time's up.' You're begging her. You're looking at her and you're like, 'Oh, I can see the corner of her face and there's no heat on me. Get through this, get through this.'
"And then all you're doing then is just monitoring what your face does. But to be honest, if you're so immersed in the game, you don't really have a Traitor face or a Faithful face. You're just being you reacting."
3) Time isn't a thing
Paul revealed that time isn't a thing in the castle, which is a "genius" element. He explained: "The only thing you know how long it lasts are the missions because Claudia literally says, 'It's an hour, it's 45!' And then you're like, 'Okay, well.' That is the only time that you're subjected to time.
"Outside of that, I used to split my day between we have the breakfast table going in. Then we have the mission and there's like lunch. Then you'd have a little bit of dinner and then you have the round table. Each one of them could be, whether there's allocated two hours for each one or whether it's three or whether they scatter it, I literally do not know.
"Yeah, time is, I think one of the most genius things they do in that game is remove it. Otherwise your brain will start going, 'Well, there's only half an hour left of doing this and then I'll go and do that.' The fact that it removes time away is just so, so bizarre."
4) What happens after the roundtable
Paul remembered: "When Claudia says it's all done, you've got that tricky bit of leaving the round table and going to the bar. That's always kind of like who you're walking next to and [saying] 'God, that was a shock. That wasn't a shock.'
You know, if they banished a Faithful, which happens more times than not, it's monitoring your behaviour then and then you're kind of like, 'Right, get me away now.'"
5) Life at the breakfast table
Discussing life at the breakfast table, Paul said: "It's tense. It's hilarious. It was one of my favourite bits because it's pure pantomime. It's pure acting.
"Now everyone in that castle, I don't think it's shown in the edit, but in the castle, I was really silly, really funny. I just want to make people laugh by doing anything, pulling a face or whatever it was. So me coming into breakfast, like genuinely me, that's how I would behave.
"The one that I found most exhilarating was coming back from the dungeon because I wasn't supposed to be in that dungeon, that I should have been saved, but I wasn't, whatever. But when I came back, it was so obvious that like, well, if Paul comes back, he's obviously a Traitor because why would they kill Meg and let Paul come back?
"Then the next minute, I'm walking in and I kind of like flop around and I'm like, 'Why am I here?' and then I tried to spin the narrative of kind of like, 'Well, obviously a Traitor likes me and they're keeping me here.'"
He added: "I thought that night, I'm going to go. That evening, I got zero votes. I was like: 'How on earth have I got away with this?' and then I got away with it again!"
The Traitors continues on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 8pm on BBC One.
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