The Traitors: Who are Jaz and Paul the two Manchester contestants on series two of hit BBC reality show?

The cast has been revealed for the highly anticipated second series of the hit reality show The Traitors – and there are a couple of Mancunians set to compete. 

Season two of the show will begin on Wednesday 3 January, 9pm, on BBC One. Episodes two and three will also be available to stream immediately afterwards on BBC iPlayer. It will air on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. 

Hosted by Claudia Winkelman, the show involves 22 strangers living together in a Scottish castle, some of them have been assigned the title of ‘Faithfuls’ and the rest are the ‘Traitors'. Each night, the traitors must ‘murder’ one of the contestants, avoiding the detection of the faithful, who then have to try and figure out who the traitors are and banish them. 

At the end of the show, if the remaining faithful have successfully exposed the traitors then they get to share the £120,000 among themselves. If there is a traitor still standing, then they will steal all the money. 

The first season aired in November 2022, averaging 5.4 million viewers per episode. It received a number of awards, including best reality competition at the National Television Awards and best reality and constructed factual at the British Academy Television Awards. Since airing, it has also gone international with Australian, American, Canadian and New Zealand versions. 

Jaz and Paul - the Mancunians competing on The Traitors

One of the Manchester contestants taking part is 30-year-old account manager Jaz. He came across the show thanks to his in-laws who made him sit down and watch it. 

Jaz said: "I liked everything about it. Obviously, we then watched the whole series and it totally resonated with everything I’ve been through. After watching, I never thought there was going to be A) a second series, B) that I was going to apply, and C) I was going to be selected. It’s like the stars have aligned themselves. I’m a bit cheesy and I think everything happens for a reason but, genuinely, everything just feels right.”

He is already starting to think about the tactics needed to succeed among the traitors, but doesn’t have a specific game plan. He said: “I think if you go in with a game plan then you won’t last. If I’m a Traitor, I feel as though I’m going to go in with the mindset of a Faithful so people can see my body language, they can see my eye contact, they can see everything about me and go ‘This guy is a Faithful. So, there’s no point even questioning him.’ And that’s it, just take them out one by one.”

If he wins, he plans to take his family on a once in a lifetime trip on the Orient Express. He said: “After everything we’ve been through as a family, I feel like my Mum deserves it. My wife has also been such a pillar of strength and I feel like she definitely deserves to go. Also, my Mother and Father-in-Law have just been everything to me and it would be something that we could all do together to celebrate, it would be phenomenal. I couldn’t even put it into words how I’d feel.”

The other Mancunian in the running is 36-year-old business manager Paul. He was a latecomer to watching the first season, but caved in after all his friends and family said he would make a contestant on the show. 

He said: “After everything we’ve been through as a family, I feel like my mum deserves it. My wife has also been such a pillar of strength and I feel like she definitely deserves to go. Also, my mother and father-in-law have just been everything to me and it would be something that we could all do together to celebrate, it would be phenomenal. I couldn’t even put it into words how I’d feel.”

He is hoping to bring a bit of comic relief to the otherwise intense game show. He said: “I love comedy, if I could be a comedian that would be my dream job. I've done stand-up and did it down south at the Comedy Store in London and it’s just mind-blowing. If I can get comedy in there then I think it’s a really powerful tool to bond people and maybe diffuse situations when they get so tense. Maybe I can be a little bit of a comfort blanket and a distraction in that way.”