The Traitors star Kieran pays tribute to Wilfred for ‘guilt burden’ he carried

The Traitors contestant Kieran Tompsett has applauded co-star Wilfred Webster for surviving the show posing as a faithful after exposing him in the 11th hour of the dramatic final.

An average of 3.3 million people tuned in to watch the showdown between Kieran and Wilfred which ultimately saw them both banished from the new reality show, a BBC spokesperson said.

The episode saw tensions rise after all the contestants voted to axe 42-year-old solutions consultant Kieran, while he voted for 28-year-old senior fundraiser Wilfred.

Before Kieran confirmed he was a traitor, he stirred up the drama to get back at Wilfred by saying his vote was a “parting gift”, causing the other contestants to start questioning if he too was a traitor.

Wilfred delivered a pleading speech to try to deceive his fellow competitors in a bid to steal the whole jackpot, but the last vote saw him banished from the game – meaning Hannah Byczkowski, Aaron Evans and Meryl Williams were crowned the winners, splitting the £100,000 prize.

Wilfred told the PA news agency: “When I got home, for about a month I felt guilty and paranoid. And then luckily, I flew off to Cyprus for a month to get married so that cleared my mind. It was perfect timing.

“You’re immersed in the game, it’s like if you’ve played Monopoly, you get so into it and you start shouting at your family and I’ve thrown the board a few times in my life.

“It’s like that but it’s heightened so much because you’re living inside a game so the paranoia kicks in, the guilt, the emotions. I struggled at times being a traitor, it was really mentally physically quite hard.”

Kieran told PA: “It’s a trauma bond we all call it, and that’s what made it quite hard because you can’t spend that amount of time with each other, bearing in mind no access to family, no mobile phones… we are fully immersed in the game.

“We’re locked in our rooms and then we’re straight back in the game so you think of nothing else and it takes over your life. Day by day you’re just thinking of survival.”

The programme, which began airing last month, saw 22 strangers play “the ultimate game of detection, backstabbing and trust” at a Highland castle in the hope of winning big.

Over the course of the series, four players were made secret traitors and were tasked with “murdering” the other faithful contestants, while the latter had to root out the traitors and “banish” them.

Despite the betrayals in the final episode, Kieran and Wilfred said there were no hard feelings and revealed that they texted each other the morning after the roundtable showdown.

Kieran told PA: “How can you have a problem with anyone? It’s a game. Everyone played such a key part and to hold that burden, respect to everyone.

“I think you saw the moment when he (Wilfred) broke down when he realised the burden of what he had to carry, so I think it is quite an emotional thing to do.

“So take your hat off to the man, not many could survive that amount of time.”

The show, based on a Dutch format called De Verraders, saw the contestants experience a rollercoaster of deceit, accusation, delusion and emotion amid brutal eliminations, lies and dramatic twists.

Kieran told PA: “I lost the plot, as you can imagine. You went to bed in game plan, you woke up in game plan, were you going to come down to breakfast, are you going to survive to eat, and that was every single day.

“It took me a couple of weeks to adjust when I got home, mentally. It was quite hard. I was still waking up thinking I was in the show.

“It’s a high level of of intelligence going on, if you were very vocal, you’d be taken out, if you’re too quiet, you’d be taken out. From the faithful’s point of view, it’s a minefield to say the right thing at the right time and just to survive day by day.”

Kieran said that he learnt “your head can overrule your heart but also your gut”.

He added: “Your gut feeling is so underrated sometimes, it’s there for a reason. It spins you off in all different angles, when you’re thinking or you hear someone say something, but your gut reaction nine times out of 10 is bang on.”

Speaking of the show’s host Claudia Winkleman, Kieran said she was a “diamond” while Wilfred revealed she was his “celebrity crush”.

He added: “I was just like, oh my god, I can’t believe it was her. And then we got so into it.

“It’s so weird because she gave nothing away ever, she was so neutral but at the same time, she was really supportive.”

All five finalists will appear on Winkleman’s Radio 2 show on Saturday December 24 at 10am.