The BBC have received some criticism about the lack of Scotland-based talent in the production team for their hit show The Traitors, despite it being filmed there.
READ MORE: Casting for ‘The Traitors’ season four is open now
The Traitors is shot near Alness in the Scottish Highlands, and as such is classed as a Scottish production.
The BBC is required to spend at least 8% of their expenditure making shows in Scotland. This requirement, according to media regulator Ofcom, is in place to “support and strengthen the television production sector and creative economies of the UK’s nations and regions” outside of London.
But the show has come under fire this week after it was claimed that only around 6% of workers on the production team of the 2025 series are actually based in Scotland.
Claudia Winkleman with series three contestants of ‘The Traitors’ CREDIT: BBC / Studio Lambert
As reported by BBC Scotland News, factual TV producer and director Peter Strachan has spoken out about the issue, saying that The Traitors’ contribution to the Scottish TV economy should consist of more than “a pretty castle” and putting up contestants in hotels.
He said: “Is it acceptable that the BBC should be using money that’s earmarked to promote growth and jobs in Scotland and spending it on a series that is basically not doing that, a Scottish commission on which hardly anyone based in Scotland is working?”
BBC Scotland News spoke to two people based in Scotland who worked on previous series of The Traitors, both of whom had concerns about how few Scots are hired for the show.
One said: “As a Scottish freelancer in TV it was so frustrating… especially considering how much we are struggling for work up here.”
Another shared: “I quickly learned that many of my peers had never spent much time in Scotland outside of working on the show.”
‘The Traitors’ player Leanne, host Claudia Winkleman and Jake CREDIT: BBC/Studio Lambert
According to Stephen Lambert, chief executive of Studio Lambert who make the show, the number of Scots should increase as the talent pool in Scotland does too. The studio has hired more Scotland-based production crew for drama series like The Nest, but Lambert believes The Traitors is a show with different needs.
He said: “A very different set of specialised skills and experience are required to make reality shows on the scale of The Traitors.
“We are employing and training talented people based in Scotland to work on The Traitors. But one of the reasons why the show is so popular and acclaimed is because we employ the most experienced reality show production talent in the UK.”
He continued: “We’re confident that over the coming years the proportion of that talent who are based in Scotland will increase and it is great news for the industry as a whole that such a well-loved show is coming from this part of the UK.”
Season three of The Traitors aired earlier this month. The winners were revealed last week (January 24), though many fans weren’t happy about the final result. Despite that, the season finale was the most watched live episode in the show’s history.
A fourth season has been confirmed, as well as a celebrity edition.
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