In recent years, as the decline of the country formerly known as Great Britain has gone largely unchecked, there is one thing in which we remain pre-eminent. I refer, of course, to the creation of reality TV shows.

From Big Brother and Strictly to I’m a Celebrity and Race Around the World - and many, many more - we have demonstrated that when it comes to producing programmes that transcend international boundaries and keep viewers as hooked as if addicted to opioids we have no equal.

The latest example of the phenomenon is The Traitors, which is now in its third season. Hosted by Claudia Winkelman, with her helmet of jet black hair and witch’s cloak, its location is a castle in our own Highlands. Deposited there are 22 contestants hellbent on killing each other. Not, I hasten to add, literally, though from what some of those involved say I doubt it would take much to encourage them to plunge a dagger into the heart of a rival if it led to them winning the prize of £120,000.

Read more by Rosemary Goring:

Much ado has been made of the fact that the show, its setting apart, is not really Scottish in origin. Yet again, it seems, our blasted heath is, like deer stalking and salmon fishing, merely a backdrop for others on which to enact their fantasies. Try as I might, I cannot join those who are frothing over this. What The Traitors does show, to locals and foreigners, is what a gorgeous country this is. VisitScotland could not have portrayed it in a more beguiling light.

Ms Winkelman’s first job is to appointment three Traitors, who have the power to bump off Faithfuls pretty much as they please. For their........

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