It was inevitable that during the course of The Celebrity Traitors, the biggest show on TV, there would be certain contestants who would dominate both the roundtable discussions inside the Scottish castle, and the headlines out here in the real world. Jonathan Ross, Alan Carr, Celia Imrie, Kate Garraway – a lot of screen time and column inches have been dedicated to these players. But one man who has not been front and centre, and instead left to be consumed by the garish wallpaper, is 55-year-old historian David Olusoga.
This might be because, on the face of it, Olusoga does not make for thrilling, spiky reality TV. With his gentle nature, small smiles and soothing timbre, he seems more suited to a meditative podcast or, indeed, BBC programmes about the history of art (Civilisations) or residential buildings (A House Through Time).
Olusoga, a Faithful, hasn’t had the most eventful time on the show: he hasn’t been as vocal as the other contestants in hunting down the Traitors, and while he has come under suspicion – he narrowly avoided banishment in a face-off against actor Mark Bonnar – he has largely managed to shake that off.
That said, when all the celebrities got together for a candle-lit dinner in last week’s penultimate episode, Olusoga earnestly told his fellow contestants: “The thing I really didn’t expect from this series was the idea I’d be changed by it. But I do feel changed by it, and that’s a real surprise.” This does make you wonder whether he has actually been having some meaningful and impactful moments throughout the game, which just haven’t made it into the final edit.
One exchange that did make it into the edit, though, is that awkward locking of horns between Olusoga and Garraway, which came later in the eighth episode. As Olusoga called out Garraway for pointing the finger at him, it became so tense that fellow celebrities Joe Marler and Cat Burns were left visibly wincing. Olusoga might have been playing it safe for the majority of the competition, but it seems the claws are out now.
His game play overall has been very thoughtful and considered – but perhaps to his detriment. As we know, the Faithfuls have a habit of overthinking things and losing the scent, and Olusoga is definitely prone to this – mid-series, he got very stuck on the theory of Nick Mohammed being a Traitor because of how the actor helped sabotage the chess game. But as we know, Mohammed is one of the loveliest Faithfuls to have ever graced the Highlands.
Could Olusoga be overthinking things because of his years of experience in TV? It’s possible. Before he entered the competition, he told The Observer: “Of course, when I watch these programmes, I’m thinking: ‘Well, what would I do as a producer?’ And that’s just not going to get me anywhere. So I’ve got to stop. I’ve got to unlearn thinking that way.”
As for how Olusoga will fare in final, it remains to be seen. But perhaps he can use his knowledge of history, of past conflicts and espionage, to sniff out remaining Traitors Carr and Burns once and for all.
