In a gripping finale, The Traitors delivered a jaw-dropping twist that left viewers stunned. Rachel and Stephen’s cunning strategy paid off, but at what cost?

Rachel and Stephen scooped the prize last night (Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Studio Lambert/Paul Chappells)

What an ending to The Traitors, and what a well-deserved result! The surviving traitors, Rachel and Stephen, beat the odds to reach the final three and triumphed, scooping £47,875 apiece. Yet there were moments when you felt either of them might throw their treacherous partner under a bus. Many critics thought last year’s Celebrity Traitors couldn’t be topped, but it has been.

This civilian series had more twists, more shocks, more stress, more paranoia, and more jeopardy than its all-star predecessor. And what a white-knuckle ride it was. At times it seemed the odds against the two traitors were insurmountable. They played it wrong on Wednesday by voting out Roxy, who loved them both, and skated close to disaster. Yet Rachel was smart, calculating and deceptively convincing. She kept a cool head even when the odds were stacked against her, and charmed Faraaz enough to leave him exposed. Her smart, sensitive oppo Stephen was as sweaty and jumpy as Celebrity winner Alan Carr and once again the faithful didn’t seem to notice.

The format works because it exposes human flaws, not least the worryingly easy descent into group-think. I particularly enjoyed nitwits talking about “evidence” and “proof” when they had neither. What they meant was gut feelings, which were often entirely wrong. Poor Jade… Critics of the series – like The Sun who absurdly dubbed it “Love Island done by Waitrose” – have been shown to be completely out of step with the viewers who made season four the most watched show of the year so far. And deservedly so. It has been an incredible series with traitor-on-traitor backstabbing, front-stabbing (Rachel Vs Fiona) and new ingredients – the secret traitor and the double vote dagger – which jacked up the tension.

The biggest losers were firstly barristers – both Hugo and Harriet over-estimated their own intelligence and arrogantly over-played their hands – and secondly, the faithful who just weren’t smart enough. Once Rachel had neutered Faraaz, the final three were her, Stephen and Jack, who was swiftly disposed of. They deserved their win.

The Traitors is by far the best reality show on TV. But is it enough to save the BBC in its current form as some proclaim? I think not and here’s why. It’s true the Beeb have been fielding a few decent shows of late. They have The Gladiators (nicked from ITV), Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, the lewd but brilliant Industry, and the evergreen Would I Lie To You?

But their fundamental flaws shine through constantly – the inescapable institutional political bias in their news and documentary output, not to mention Countryfile, apocalyptic weather reports, Call The Midwife’s unsubtle right-on agenda, and the endless sub-student propaganda that has nobbled Doctor Who for years. It is transparent, joyless, and clearly self-harming, and yet there is no end to it, and certainly no attempt at balance. There has been no The Other Way to challenge Michael Sheen’s ridiculous The Way, no Bjorn Lomborg to balance the constant net zero hysteria…

Stephen was the civilian version of Alan Carr for his transparency (Image: BBC)

Throw in other irritations – their anaemic sitcoms, cringeworthy moronic nobodies on Celebrity Mastermind, their strange drag queen obsession, the laziness of the Proms, the uselessness of Question Time – and you realise the problem is too big to solve without drastic restructuring and mass sackings.

The BBC’s top-down “we know best” agenda has been apparent for years. For example, in the run-up to the Brexit vote, our ‘unbiased’ national broadcaster had 4,275 guests on Radio 4’s Today programme to talk about the EU of whom just 132 (3.2%) were in favour of independence. Time after time, the Corporation have proved to be as even-handed as a squad of Saudi shoplifters. Much of their output seems designed to make the majority of people who pay for it ashamed of our own culture (there will be nothing for St George’s Day again this year). And yet we are compelled by law to pay for it. Even if we don’t watch it. A few good shows and Claudia’s wardrobe can’t compensate for that.