The biggest mystery of this season’s series of The Traitors is how retired opera singer Linda Rands – whose acting skills make Widow Twankey’s panto turn look nuanced – survived as long as she did before she was banished from the castle on Wednesday night.
Her co-conspirator, cool-headed call centre manager Minah, 29, had even had enough of her hammy performance and joined the pile-on to vote her off.
First there had been her ‘pointer dog’ reaction right at the start, after host Claudia Winkleman threw a ‘I’ll be seeing you Traitors later’ bone into the pack, causing Linda’s ears to literally prick up like an excited puppy.
The clip prompted a raft of hilarious memes on social media. Worse still were the no-hankie-required crocodile tears and fulsome protestations of friendship for a contestant she had murdered the night before.
The scene provoked such delight among viewers that it was celebrated by the BBC with a tongue-in-cheek West End hoarding. All agree – Linda included – that it was a minor miracle she lasted as long as she did.
Speaking to her the morning after we saw her leave the hugely popular show, Linda, 71, is in gloriously good humour, positively embracing her reputation as the stand-out melodrama queen.
Was she surprised she wasn’t rumbled sooner? ‘Yes! I think we all were, to be honest. I was like a cat with nine lives,’ she laughs.
Many were wondering whether this bumbling granny persona was a double bluff, or whether there was some brutal editing going on, making her look dippier than she actually was.
Retired opera singer Linda Rands was banished from the Traitors castle on Wednesday night
Not so, says Linda, a divorced grandmother of two. ‘My game plan was to play the “old” card and be a bit of an airhead, but then I realised that’s who I am. It wasn’t edited at all. That was me!’ she says.
For all her bad acting, Linda has proved to be one of the most popular contestants during the third run of the ultimate trust-and-treachery reality show, with fans lamenting her departure on social media platforms. ‘Not our Queen Linda!’ mourned one. Others dubbed her an ‘icon’.
I ask how she felt standing in front of that giant hoarding in Leicester Square, which proclaimed her mock ‘Golden Cloak Award’ and praised her ‘performance of a lifetime’.
‘Oh, it was brilliant! Surreal!’ she cries. ‘The only award I have got in my life – and it was for bad acting!’
There is something appealing about Linda’s bracing honesty and self-deprecating humour. In a ruthless psychological game that picks up on every minor gradation of facial expression, each hint of clue conferred by an unguarded comment or tiny gesticulation, Linda’s thought processes, virtually semaphored to the audience, were impossible to miss.
All the more confounding because, as she admits, acting was part of her training as an opera singer. ‘Yes, it was,’ she chuckles, ‘But it didn’t look like it, did it? I let the side down on that.’
But, as she goes on to explain, operatic acting is different from dissembling in front of the TV cameras. ‘Most of my acting has been on huge stages, but to be under the scrutiny of a camera, you have to be much more subtle, which isn’t in my vocabulary. To be honest, I just lost the plot and went with it.’
Bank risk manager Dan, who was banished during episode six, with ‘bumbling granny’ Linda
Linda with fellow traitor Minah on the third run of the ultimate trust-and-treachery reality show
Despite her daffiness, Linda actually has an illustrious musical pedigree. She trained at the elite Royal Academy of Music and then at London Opera Centre (which closed in 1978) and spent seven years performing with the English National Opera.
After that she moved to Amsterdam to sing with the Dutch National Opera for 13 years, moving from there to join the Netherlands Radio Chorus in Amsterdam, the Dutch equivalent of the BBC singers.
She is bilingual and has dual nationality – Dutch and British. Her 45-year-old son Paul was raised in Amsterdam and is the only child of her short-lived marriage to Paul Snr, a fireman. The union lasted just 18 months, but Linda and her ex remained great friends until his recent death.
‘Paul (Snr) remarried and we all always met up at Christmas and New Year, which was lovely,’ she says. ‘Our son Paul said, “Dad would have loved seeing you in Traitors.” ’ Sadly, he died before Linda applied for the show.
She never remarried, although she has had subsequent relationships, and now lives alone in Hertfordshire, having moved back to the UK in 2020. The move was partly to be nearer Paul, his wife Lauren, 43, and her two grandchildren, Everleigh, four, and six-month-old Lettie.
Everleigh was allowed to watch Linda on telly. ‘She said, “Oh, Nana, I want to be on the Traitors, too.” She’s a bit of a drama queen – like her grandma.’
Was her son Paul embarrassed by her ham acting? ‘He knows what I’m like. How I was on the show isn’t very different from how I am in life. He’d say, “Oh, Mum, why did you do that?” He thinks I’m an airhead. He was surprised I lasted as long as I did.’
There have been suggestions that the dramas this series have been exaggerated but Linda insists all passions are genuine.
‘It’s highly tense and you really get involved in the game. Don’t forget you’re together all day and you’re under pressure. I’m not surprised people break down. Everything you do or say is scrutinised and analysed.’
When I ask what the most tense moment was, she cites the time she was tasked with secretly writing on a painting the names of four Faithfuls who would face a Death Match, a card game that would eliminate one of them.
This covert operation was rendered ‘really stressful’ because her pen kept running out of ink. ‘If anyone had seen me writing the names I’d have been done for,’ she says.
Linda poses in front of a billboard in Leicester Square, poking fun at her over-the-top acting during her appearance on the show
‘It was hairy because, if you hold a pen upright it keeps running out so I had to stop and shake it so it worked again. It took ages!’
Wasn’t she worried that her handwriting might give her away? Fans pointed out that the distinctive flourish on the ‘z’ in Fozia – she’d written her name on her slate during the Round Table – might have incriminated her. Naively, Linda ‘hadn’t even thought of that’.
Her daughter-in-law Lauren describes her as ‘a bit eccentric’ which sounds like benign understatement. ‘Maybe that’s a prerequisite for being on the show,’ Linda says.
While some contestants are actively scouted by researchers, Linda had directly applied to take part, having been an avid watcher since the show began in 2022. ‘I loved the psychological side. I thought, “I can do that.” So I downloaded the form and started to fill it in.’
Typically, she almost did not complete the application, abandoning it in exasperation when she discovered she would have to send ‘photos and a little video’, something she couldn’t be bothered to do.
However, her partially completed application evidently caught the attention of someone, and the next day she was contacted by the show’s producers who asked her to complete the form. So she dashed off a video before going to the gym and was surprised to be picked.
Perhaps she was cast because ‘they thought I might be the comedy part of the show’, she says. She obviously was.
Keeping the whole thing secret – her participation and, crucially, who actually wins – must have been a challenge, especially for Linda. The show was actually filmed over the summer
‘My son knew,’ she admits. ‘And my daughter-in-law Lauren . .. and my sister Carol.’ A veritable roll call, I say.
‘Well, they’re all people I trusted. But it was so difficult and I was worried I would let something slip.’
The participants first met again, as a group, on December 12 to watch episode one of the 12-episode series, together. ‘Before that, I’d seen a couple of people, but only in my home. We didn’t want to go out and cause suspicion. We had to carry on the subterfuge, which was tricky.’
Are you good at keeping secrets? I ask. ‘Well, it was a long time to hold a secret and I only told people I trusted 100 per cent. But it wasn’t easy.’
Cliques form on the show, allegiances are made – and broken. I ask Linda if contestants do form genuine alliances.
She says they do: she struck up particular friendships with doctor Kasim, 33, and former British diplomat Alexander, 38. But her ‘bestie’ remains Anglican priest Lisa, 62.
‘We bonded because we’re a similar age,’ says Linda, who sports statement specs and a violet streak in her silvery hair. She favours hoodies and leather, while Lisa, more conservative in demeanour, has a tidy bob and a predilection for sensible jeans and gilets.
‘I remember seeing Lisa on the first day and thinking, thank God there’s someone here around my age. She’s delightful. I liked her from the start. We call each other nearly every day.’
Lisa had initially kept the fact she was a member of the clergy secret from the rest of the group, despite some early clues, such as wearing a cross necklace and using the phrase ‘As God is my witness’. Linda was, of course, gloriously oblivious.
‘I had no suspicions. No! I don’t think I twigged about most of it. I was walking around in a dream half the time.’
That she will remain lifelong friends with Lisa looks like a certainty. Will she go to her church to sing?
‘No!’ she says, emphatically. ‘I love Lisa to bits but I’m not terribly religious. So the fact we’ve become great friends is really weird actually.’
There are viewers who thought Linda was the dippy granny of the show; others who perceived her dottiness as a double bluff. Now we realise what you see is what you get.
But for all her idiosyncratic absurdities and over-the-top acting, there’s no doubt of one thing: Linda is a genuine star.
- The Traitors airs on BBC1, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 9pm.
