It seems to follow that each season of The Traitors births at least one new national treasure – two if we’re lucky. This year that honour has been bestowed upon Minah Shannon, the wronged Traitor who was cheated of a spot in the final by her own recruit, Charlotte Berman.
When the other icon of the series, Linda Rands, who is no doubt destined for a lucrative career on Cameo, was banished at the round table in episode seven, Minah was left alone with the weight of her oversized cloak on her shoulders, forced to lure a Faithful over to the dark side. She chose Charlotte, famed for her ‘trustworthy’ fake Welsh accent, to continue the ‘sisterhood’ of an all-female Traitors line-up, hoping that together they would deceive their way to victory and split the prize fund.
Unbeknownst to Minah, Charlotte accepted the offer with no intention of returning her trust. In fact, in episode ten, two days before the final, Charlotte voted to banish Minah at the round table. It was particularly painful to witness because Charlotte had been planting seeds of doubt in the days prior and Minah’s name wasn’t the only one in the firing line.
‘That was quite hard to watch to be honest,’ Minah tells Grazia. ‘Obviously it’s a game and I do fully understand that, but there was no point up until that round table where I suspected or thought for a second that she wasn’t in this with me. The fact she had been planting my name was a shock, but it just shows everyone’s playing their own game. You really can’t trust anyone.’
If that level of treachery took place during a family game of monopoly, you could well understand if someone were to dash the board across the floor and kick a chair over. In reality, Minah had to keep a straight face, dust herself off, reveal she was a Traitor and walk away.
‘One thing about me is I won’t take people down with me. Armani and Linda didn’t do that, so I’ve got no business doing that. I just thought, fair play to her. If that’s how she’s decided to play, then that’s how she’s decided to play.’
Given how much of The Traitors is left up to chance, from who's chosen as a Traitor to who gets targeted at the round table, it’s easy to envisage another version of the game where Minah chose someone else and went on to win. ‘I don’t know if I can say I regret choosing her,’ she ponders nobly. ‘I was the longest Traitor in the series, and leaving and having the reception I’ve had has meant more to me than winning.’
‘But if I could pick again,’ she finally admits, ‘I maybe would have picked somebody I was closer with just because we would have had more fun. Me and Leanne would have been such a crazy combination. I can’t imagine Leanne would have played it how Charlotte has.’
Minah maintains that she would have split the money with Charlotte if they had both made it to the final together, even if she is a famously good liar. ‘There was no part of me that was going to snake her. I wouldn’t have done it to Linda either. I am a team player, and I know if I got to the final, I wouldn’t have done it by myself.’
As for bad blood, there isn’t any. ‘I literally spoke to Charlotte this morning,’ Minah tells us. ‘All 25 of us are in one big WhatsApp group and we all support each other. She watched Uncloaked [the BBC2 spin-off hosted by Ed Gamble] last night and said it was great. There are genuinely no hard feelings.’
What, though, did she make of the dual betrayal of Charlotte’s fake Welsh accent when she was born and bred in London? ‘I thought it was strange,’ she laughs. ‘I don’t understand it, but also, I don’t know if her actual accent is that different to her Welsh accent. I’ll speak to Charlotte on a voice note and I don’t necessarily think it sounds different to what I remember, but yeah, it’s funny.’
She is still in touch with Linda, naturally, and remains the best of friends with Leanne. ‘The relationships I’ve made with people are stronger than what I thought they would be. It was mentally hard being away from my husband and my daughter and having to lie to people that I was growing relationships with, but it was so much fun.’
Our winner regardless, Minah will be tuning into the final with the entire cast – and she remains just as clueless about who wins as the rest of us. ‘It’ll be the first time that we’re all together since the cage mission. I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve seen so many Traitors events popping up in my hometown, it’s like the World Cup. It’s absolutely insane.’
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).