BBC ‘absolutely’ copied The Traitors concept from Agatha Christie says author’s great-grandson
Agatha Christie’s great-grandson has claimed that the BBC’s hit show The Traitors draws heavy inspiration from the legendary writer’s works.
James Prichard, who manages Christie’s literary and media rights, believes the reality programme hosted by Claudia Winkleman bears striking similarities to one of his great-grandmother’s famous murder mysteries, And Then There Were None.
“I think The Traitors is brilliant. It’s absolutely based on an Agatha Christie murder-mystery concept,” Prichard told Radio Times.
The show, filmed at Ardross Castle in the Scottish Highlands, has become a ratings sensation for the BBC since its launch in 2022 – even if some fans were disappointed by the most recent finale.
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Prichard highlighted several specific elements that echo Christie’s work.
“At the beginning of the series, they’re on the train. They’ve got the board with all the faces being picked off, one by one. They’ve got the library, it’s everything Agatha Christie,” he explained.
He directly compared the show’s format to And Then There Were None, noting the visual similarity of contestants being eliminated sequentially.
The ornate library setting and luxury train scenes particularly evoke Christie’s signature storytelling environments.
“There’s a recognition amongst a lot of the crime-writing fraternity that my great-grandmother is an inspiration,” Prichard added.
The Traitors sees 22 contestants arrive at a Scottish castle where they are secretly divided into “traitors” and “faithfuls”.
The traitors must “murder” faithfuls while keeping their identities hidden, as contestants work to identify and eliminate the deceivers.
This mirrors Christie’s novel where 10 strangers are invited to an isolated island with an unknown killer among them.
In both scenarios, individuals are eliminated one by one while survivors attempt to identify the killer.
The £120,000 prize awaits those who successfully navigate the game of deception.
Prichard expressed delight at the growing popularity of murder mysteries inspired by Christie’s work.
Despite Prichard’s claims, The Traitors actually originated from a Dutch format called De Verraders, which first aired in 2021.
The Dutch show was inspired by a real-life mutiny aboard the 17th-century ship Batavia, which was wrecked off Australia’s coast in 1629.
Jasper Hoogendoorn, the programme’s developer, explained at the 2023 Edinburgh TV festival: “It’s a story about people who murder each other, backstab each other, betray each other.”
The format was initially planned to be filmed on a large ship before producers settled on a castle setting.