I’d make a terrible traitor, says TV historian – but is he bluffing?

But the backstabbing, swirling of hooded cloaks and general level of venal deception are to go up a gear from Wednesday night, when the first British celebrity version of the BBC’s hit format begins. Historian David Olusoga, for one, will bring his understanding of cold war espionage to the cut-throat contest.

Olusoga is wary, he has revealed, of being trapped in a “forest of mirrors”, a favourite KGB spy technique for confusing the enemy. The well-known columnist and television presenter will not disclose whether or not Claudia Winkleman, the show’s mistress of ceremonies, selects him as a traitor, but said he had originally hoped to remain a faithful.

“For the simple reason, I’d be a terrible traitor. That’s mainly because of my memory; my mind is always wandering off. There’s a terrible risk that I’d forget that I was in deep cover. That’s the reason why I’m not a spy. It would be an impossible task remembering that you’re not who you’re saying you are.”

Olusoga, 55, also reveals he has a discouraging record in poker with friends: “I always lost. They always knew whether I had a good hand or a bad hand. So I think if I am a traitor, this could be the first time a traitor is outed at the first-round table.”

Alongside him in the castle, competing for a charity prize pot of at least £100,000, will be household names, including Stephen Fry, Alan Carr, Clare Balding, Jonathan Ross, Celia Imrie, Paloma Faith, Mark Bonnar and Charlotte Church. “Even if some of those people are trying to kill you, at least they’re interesting people,” he said.

The Traitors topped 10 million viewers last season and relies on the hidden treachery of a few chosen murderers who must pick off their rivals without being detected. It is up to the remaining faithful to detect the traitors and banish them before they become the next victim.

The victorious celebrities are those who survive to the end, each winning money for the cause of their choice. If a traitor remains undetected, however, they can take it all for their own nominated charity.

The stars are also to be given challenges – physical and mental – to add to the prize pot. “I’m possibly going to discover I’m not as fit as I might think,” Olusoga said. “I exercise a lot, I do a lot of heavy weights, but I don’t do that much cardio.”

He is also wary of the way his TV production experience will affect the game. “Of course, when I watch these programmes, I’m thinking: ‘Well, what would I do as a producer?’ And that’s just not going to get me anywhere. So I’ve got to stop. I’ve got to unlearn thinking that way.”

The lesson of the former Soviet Union's bewildering forest of mirrors, he said, is to try not to anticipate: “You’ll get trapped if you think you can second-guess.”

Olusoga claims he has no strategy, but is confident about his ability to influence: “I’m quite persuasive, I can see logic, and I can build an argument and hopefully exert a strong influence at the round table,” he said.

The appeal of the BBC show is the nature of the game: “So many people I know love this show. People who wouldn’t normally watch anything else like this love The Traitors.”

It is also, according to the presenter of the forthcoming series Empire, the most British of pastimes: “The British love games. And then you add that it’s a murder mystery in a castle. What could be more British?”

The Celebrity Traitors launches on Wednesday 8 October at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. There will be two episodes a week on Wednesdays and Thursdays

Photographs by BBC, Studio Lambert, Cody Burridge, Matt Burlem