The Celebrity Traitors: What does being faithful look like?

As The Celebrity Traitors returns to our screens, Dan Bate considers what it means to be 100 per cent faithful.

‘I am, and always have been…’ On Thursday this week, the nation will be sitting to start watching the second series of BBC One’s psychological reality TV series, The Celebrity Traitors.

Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, The Traitors sees a group of people head to a Scottish castle to complete challenges and hopefully win a cash prize. For the celebrity edition, the prize is up to £100,000 for a charity of their choice. The first celebrity series aired in October 2025 and became an instant success, with an average of 14.9 million viewers per episode.

It is hard to put a collective finger on why so many of us have fallen in love with the series. Maybe for you it is the stunning Scottish scenery, the fascinating round table dynamics as they vote people off for being suspected Traitors, or maybe it is just seeing your favourite Strictly Come Dancing star perform ridiculous parlour games to make money for a good cause.

For me, what piques my interest about The Celebrity Traitors is the opportunity to see what famous contestants are really like behind the camera. Removed from the spotlight, with nothing but their wits and charisma to protect them, they are then given a simple high-stakes task: work out who is not being authentic.

This year’s line-up includes James Acaster, Joe Lycett, Michael Sheen, Professor Hannah Fry, King Kenny and Miranda Hart. Last year, Alan Carr captivated my discussions more than any other contestant, playing the perfect Traitor’s game with a mixture of lovable charm, faux obliviousness and, in the end, cunning deception. What made Alan a brilliant Traitor is that his character and temperament made it impossible to consider him as anything but a Faithful. Only us as the viewers had a real insight into what was going on behind the scenes and what his true intentions were.

I think that plays into another of our fascinations with the format. Everybody around the famous round table professes to be a Faithful, but only the viewer – and Claudia – knows the truth. As Christians, we can fall into this trap ourselves. Believing we need to be infallible, flawless and perfect, we can sometimes even find ourselves weaving intricate deceptions and convincing ourselves we are faithful to be able to play the part.

God sees our every move, all our schemes and every thought and action. Jesus explained this to the Pharisees in Luke 16:15 when they challenged his teachings on power and wealth: ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.’

Yet we serve a merciful God, who has already paid the price for our human weaknesses and wants us to live lives that are richly blessed and sanctified to serve him. ‘For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago’ (Ephesians 2:10 New Living Translation).

The popularity of The Traitors has been seen across the Army in the UK and Ireland Territory, particularly in divisional and territorial summer schools and camps, where a quick Facebook search shows no fewer than seven summer schools used The Traitors as part of their teaching in 2026. I was blessed to be a part of several of these, and I experienced some profound conversations around the topics of faithfulness, authenticity, human weakness and God’s unfailing love.

This quote from a young person stuck with me: ‘I used to think that faithfulness was about me being faithful to God and to my promises to him. But now I realise it is about God always being faithful to me.’

We serve a God who protects and guides us, who makes our paths straight and renews his covenant with us daily. Our God is, and always has been, faithful.

Pause and respond

• How has God’s faithfulness been apparent in your life?
• Read Ephesians 2:10. What good things has God appointed you to do?
• Pray for the young people you know, that they may be aware of God’s faithfulness in their lives.