From the moment series two of The Traitors began, Diane Carson, the 63-year-old retired teacher from Lancashire, quickly established herself as a fan favourite. Between her keep-fit lunges in her bedroom to her eagle-eyed insight into the other players, and her take-no-prisoners attitude (her breakfast-time quip, ‘Oh my god, we don’t all have to hug!’ was iconic), by the time she was ‘murdered’ in episode seven – sipping from a poisoned chalice of fizzy rosé, no less – she had gained legend status.
‘That was definitely my worst hangover to date and I've had some pretty horrendous hangovers,’ Diane says, reflecting on her downfall. ‘It's always been a weak point of mine. I'm always saying to the girls, “Let's have a nightcap,” and then they tell me off the next day. You’d think I would've learned my lesson before now.’
Her elimination from the show (following a super-camp ‘funeral’ complete with horse-drawn carriage and Winkleman in a black veil) spawned a million memes, with one fan quipping they ‘did not expect to be mourning the loss of Lady Di twice in my lifetime’. Is she pleased by social media’s reaction to her? ‘I'm not actually on TikTok and Twitter, but my kids tell me stuff and they're helping me with this Instagram account. It's not my way of life really. I'm very flattered, don't get me wrong, but it's not what I do.’
What surprised her most about being on the show? ‘To find such a nice group of people. Sometimes, these reality shows have nutters to make good TV, but I don't think that's what makes good TV; watching humanity makes it good. And the fact we are put into these tense situations.’ Diane seemed to excel at the round table scenes – where players can accuse one another of being traitors – but she revealed, ‘You never see me picking up my glass of water with one hand. It was shaking so much.’
Aside from Diane, there’s only one other player who has caused so much buzz among viewers: Paul, who become something of a ‘Nasty Nick’ figure. ‘All these shows need a pantomime villain and he's the man for it. It's a game. But he is a good guy and he's very funny.’ There are no hard feelings between traitors and faithfuls, she says. ‘All 22 of us are in a WhatsApp group. We are so supportive of each other, so anybody that's been getting bad press, we're all on it.’ And one cheerleader who made herself heard throughout the show was host Claudia Winkleman. ‘She's very invested in all the players doing well and she's there yelling and shouting for you during the challenges, and complimenting you.’
One of the biggest twists this series was the revelation that Diane’s son Ross was also on the show – unbeknown to their fellow players. ‘I knew I wanted to keep Ross and myself hidden. I thought that'd be a laugh. We would have done better if we'd had a game plan from the beginning,’ she says. It will come as a shock to her fans, who believed her to be a cool mastermind. ‘I hadn't even watched The Traitors [before], to have got as far as I did was just amusing me. The whole way I was thinking, “What in the name of god is going on?” Just keeping my head above water was a big enough game plan for me.’