“The whole concept shows that qualifications are a complete waste of time,” says the Cambridge-educated History of Art graduate about Traitors. “Which is a shame and please do not tell my kids. But I watched people charm their way into winning using street smarts — it is very different to the kind of smart where you have four degrees.
“And this is not a game of luck. It is a game unlike any other. This is a psychological battle. I saw all of the contestants’ CVs and thought that would give an idea of who was likely to win but it was totally unpredictable.”
Traitors is a remake of a Dutch show that has been a huge hit and an American version is also being made.
In the BBC version, 22 people from all walks of life, are dispatched to a stunning castle in the Highlands. During the day they compete in physical and mental challenges to raise a pot of money for the eventual winner or winners — up to £120,000.
Among the group are also a selection of “traitors” chosen by Winkleman. Each night, when everyone else has gone to bed, they choose which of their fellow contestants they would like to “murder” (this is done bloodlessly with an envelope through their door).
The other contestants, known as “the faithfuls”, have to try and work out who the “traitors” are. Each evening, after an afternoon of bonding games, they turn on each other over a round table, accusing their friends of being liars and murderers.
The group chooses one person who they believe to be the “traitor” and that person is forced to leave, whether they were a traitor or not.
It is important to find out who the traitors are because if they get to the end of the game without being discovered, they take home the prize money. So this is a game where contestants have several battles on their hands — not being murdered by the traitors and not coming under suspicion by their friends.
Winkleman says at first she considered saying no to the job because she does not like to leave her husband, producer Kris Thykier, and their three children — Jake, 19, Matilda, 16 and Arthur, 11 — for work and this meant three weeks in the Highlands. But then she started watching the original Dutch version of the show.
“I never leave home because I lick the children, which bothers them, especially the oldest one who is almost 20,” jokes Winkleman who is as hilarious, warm and charming as fans could hope, if not more so.
And boy, does she talk excitedly. “I’ve been to the countryside twice and I just never leave home. So I said, ‘No I can’t.’ But they said, ‘Just watch it.’ And then I pressed play on episode one and I didn’t sleep or eat for two days, as I became obsessed. Nobody in my house got fed and I didn’t even brush my teeth.
“I phoned the producer and said, ‘I am going to book the train to Scotland for tomorrow, please let me do this.’ She replied that filming didn’t start for a month, but apart from that I was in. And it is such a privilege. I feel so lucky.”
Once the show actually started Winkleman’s obsession continued — and it is easy to see why as it really does show us the absolute worst in human nature in a very funny and silly way.
“My husband would phone me and say, ‘Oh, the kid’s French test went well,’ and I just responded with things like, ‘You’ll never guess what this contestant got up to!’ My family totally lost me whilst I was away filming this.
“All of us behind the scenes were completely obsessed; we would watch the contestants constantly because there were hidden cameras everywhere. We didn’t discuss anything else and we maybe went a little bit mad. At one point I said, quite seriously, ‘I’d like my own falcon.’”
Winkleman clearly relished being a much stricter presenter than on her previous shows — even if she secretly did want to give some people a hug.
“I don’t want to be too cruel because I’m on their side, but the problem is I’m on all of their sides,’ she says. ‘I want the traitors to win and I also want the faithfuls to catch them. It’s confusing, it’s like having an affair or something.
"That’s why I had to be quite cold, especially at the round-table bit where they’re all barking up the wrong tree.
"I don’t want to give anything away, but there was one example when someone kept on going, ‘I know its you,’ and all the others just laughed at her and I had to keep my distance. It was really hard but I have to stay silent and let them hack each other to pieces.
“Normally when I am working, I do get quite close to people because I can talk — God knows I’m not in there for anything else because I can’t read out loud because my fringe is too long. So I was mainly there to make sure they got their snacks.”
To go with the stern attitude also came a gloriously eccentric new wardrobe. “I was channelling a mix of Princess Anne, Ronnie Corbett and Madonna when she met Guy Ritchie and was photographed wearing tweed and carrying the sheep,” she laughs.
“It was cold so I was also wearing long johns. And as the show went on things became ever madder. At one point I wore a cape and by the end of it all I was Lorraine Chase meets Adam Ant meets Meatloaf. I’ve got feathers coming out of me. I can’t tell you — we were just making it up because we didn’t sleep a lot.
"We were watching the live stream from breakfast until they went to bed — I think it’s fair to say I became obsessed. I think we all lost our minds.”
But some things didn’t change for the perma-tanned, kohl-eyed star. “The main thing was trying to get a spray tan in the Scottish Highlands — I can’t even tell you. I finally found somebody called Pat and she had some gravy granules and that was enough!”
Winkleman with her Strictly co-host Tess Daly
She is the only daughter from pioneering newspaper editor Eve Pollard’s first marriage to publisher Barry Winkleman — her Jewish parents split when she was just three and both went on to marry other people.
Her half-sister, Sophie Winkleman, is an actress who is married to Lord Frederick Windsor.
Winkleman grew up in Hampstead and went to the City of London School for Girls, and at first planned to follow her mother into journalism but then pivoted into television, starting as a presenter on the travel show Holiday.
Her presence should help make Traitors into an annual hit. She says she is desperate to do a celebrity version: “I’d need to have Victoria Coren, Kirsty Young, EastEnders star Adam Woodyatt because it’s not a celebrity version of anything without him, Stephen Fry and Alison Hammond. I would really like to do that. Now!”
But in the meantime, she can’t wait for the nation to see it. “This is a game but I felt so invested in it that at the end I was sobbing on the floor and they had to pick me up. I don’t mean to be bossy about it, but you have to watch it.”
The Traitors starts on 29th November at 9:30pm on BBC One and the first three episodes will then be available on BBC iPlayer
