The Traitors: 'I'll act dumb, but not too dumb'

Maia says she was "a natural liar growing up" and is "kind of excited to be able to lie again"

A full-time mum bidding to win the third series of hit TV reality show The Traitors said her game plan was "to act dumb, but not too dumb".

Maia, 25, from Essex, is one of 22 participants in the latest series of the show, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, which pits "Traitors" against "Faithfuls" in what is billed as the ultimate game of detection, backstabbing and trust.

If chosen as a Traitor, she said, she was prepared to go "as far as I possibly can", but if selected as a Faithful, she "would try and sniff out who the Traitors are".

Other contestants bidding to win the £120,000 prize money include Freddie, 20, from Peterborough, and Linda, 70, from Hertfordshire, the series' youngest and oldest contestants respectively; and hospital doctor Kasim, 33, from Cambridge.

Freddie admits to being "a massive sore loser" and hopes being the youngest contestant will "make the ladies want to look after me"

In the show, the Traitors must secretly "murder" their fellow players, the Faithfuls, who aim to detect them and banish them from the game before they become their next victim.

Freddie, a politics student, said he would draw upon his "very competitive, driven mindset".

He said: "I used to be UK number one in the athletic sprint hurdles from the ages of 14 to 17.

"I don't do sport any more because I tore my hamstring in 2020, so I've sort of shifted that mindset into everyday life."

Linda "quite likes the idea of being a Traitor" and thinks she is "quite good at convincing people of things that aren't true"

Retired opera singer Linda applied to take part in the show "in a mad moment" and said she loved "the psychological game... the whole idea of fooling people".

She said: "I do have a game plan, and that's to be a little bit airheaded and to play on being older, and also to be a mother figure."

Kasim says he "can be quite ruthless, cunning and tactical" and admits he will "absolutely stab you in the back to get what I want"

It was second time lucky for Cambridge doctor Kasim, who never heard back when he applied to take part in last year's series.

He said he hoped his job may help him on the show.

"As a medic registrar, often you're the person who has to come up with the final plan for a patient," he said.

"You have to try to keep people happy but at the same time, what needs to happen is what's going to happen - that's quite a big part of my game plan as well."

The first two episodes of The Traitors are now on BBC iPlayer. The rest of the series will air on BBC One at 21:00 GMT on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights.