An unassuming street corner in Manchester’s Northern Quarter has become a pilgrimage site for Traitors fans, accompanied by the rumble of ominous drumbeats and large floral letters depicting ‘RIP VIP’.
A procession of sixteen masked druids are slowly making a pilgrimage to a brand-new mural as the ultimate game of deceit and betrayal returns to BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the second series of The Celebrity Traitors made by Studio Lambert Scotland.
In a first for BBC Creative, a gigantic mural of over 250 square metres will be updated twice weekly to reflect the tense murders and banishments from the latest episodes of The Celebrity Traitors. Secret guests will paint red crosses over each celebrity portrait and there will be live tallies of the banished and recruited players from inside the Castle.
Spoilers will be hard to avoid, but hyper-localised out-of-home ads and people in “spoiler alert” sandwich boards will warn Mancunians not to visit the mural if they’re not up to date with the series.
On the left, a hooded figure stands beneath a mural for The Celebrity Traitors series two, the letters RIP VIP laid in flowers behind them. On the right, portraits of The Celebrity Traitors series two contestants are depicted on the mural
Revealed on last week with an elaborate opening ceremony, the mural on the corner of Thomas Street and High Street was designed by BBC Creative and meticulously painted over a two-week period by Mural Republic. In true Traitors fashion, a creepy choir dressed for a funeral sung acapella renditions of songs featured in the series, including the iconic Traitors theme tune.
With anticipation for the second series of BBC’s The Celebrity Traitors reaching new heights, the ever-changing mural will become a destination for fans to capture content with a larger-than-life Claudia Winkleman and speculate on the twists, turns and potential outcomes of the game in front of the wall of portraits.
Richard Biggs, executive creative director of BBC Creative said “There’s not much that unites the UK like watching celebrities trying to murder each other. So, it felt right to celebrate this cultural phenomenon by bringing the show’s iconic portrait wall into the real world, for all to enjoy. Let the backstabbing begin.”
Watch The Celebrity Traitors on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from this Thursday (1st October).
