Two Cambridgeshire locals have been announced for the third series of BBC’s The Traitors. Kasim, 33, a doctor from Cambridge, and Freddie, 20, a politics student from Peterborough, are joining 23 other contestants in a bid to win up to £120,000.
The award-winning reality series hosted by Claudia Winkleman sees 25 people from across the UK pitted against each other in a game of “detection, backstabbing and trust”. The Faithful have to work together to identify the Traitors, whose job it is to murder the other players without being caught.
This year, Kasim and Freddie are hoping their individual skills will help them win some money. Freddie decided to apply after watching the first two series while Kasim had applied for the second series and was turned down but was successful after reapplying.
(Image: Cody Burridge/BBC/PA Wire)
Freddie is planning to use his politics degree to his advantage. He said: “For stuff like the Round Table, I’ve studied politics for A-levels and at university now and I think I’m quite good at articulating points, bringing evidence to the table, being able to hold myself in arguments. I think they’re all pretty important strengths you need in the game.”
Freddie describes himself as “competitive” and a “massive sore loser” and hopes his background in athletics will help him during the missions. He already has a game plan set out for whether he is chosen as a Traitor or a Faithful.
In terms of how he would spend the money if he won, Freddie said: “I’d definitely help my mum. My mum has been a single parent since I was about five years old, she has three jobs and has always worked and hustled to make sure we’ve got a roof over our head and dinner on the table. She always puts me first, so I think it’s time for me to give back, pay off a bit of her debt, maybe take her on a holiday. I’m also thinking of doing a fourth-year conversion course in the law school at university. It doesn’t come under Student Finance, so I could put the money towards that. It depends how much I’d get, but I’d obviously also want to put some in some savings for a deposit for a house in the future.”
(Image: Cody Burridge/BBC/PA Wire)
Kasim describes himself as “a happy go lucky, bubbly person” who goes “with the flow”. However, when it comes to competitions, he said: “I can be quite ruthless, cunning and tactical. Generally, if I’m playing things like board games, I will absolutely stab you in the back to get what I want.”
Kasim has kept his game plan to himself but has said how he will play the game will depend on his roll in the series. When asked how he would feel about being chosen as a Traitor, Kasim said: “I’d be so hyped. Firstly at least then I don’t need to think about being murdered, that’s nice. Secondly let’s create some chaos!”
Kasim mentioned how winning the money would allow him to prioritise spending more time with his family. He said: “I’d like to spend more time with my daughter. And I’d try to think logically about long term security more than anything else. Obviously, the cost-of-living crisis has hit everyone bad. I tend to do an extra shift every other week to balance our books, but it means that I’m missing time at the weekend, and therefore I miss a lot of family time. It would be nice to have some financial security. I think my wife, Zara’s probably got plans for what she could do with the money! There are certain things we do need to get like a family car, because my car’s falling apart. But I want to be strategic with it.”
The programme first aired in 2022 and has drawn a huge audience with the second season’s viewing ratings climbing to over six million people watching in the first week alone. The first episode of the third series airs tonight (January 1) on BBC One at 8pm and is also available to watch on BBC iPlayer.