The Traitors star spills on Minah's clever strategy which had Faithfuls fooled

Minah Shannon is the only remaining original Traitor on the latest series of the BBC show and her former co-star Dan Bird spoke to the Mirror about their friendship in the castle

Former the Traitors player Dan Bird has shared his thoughts on Minah Shannon after she voted to banish him.

Dan, 33, grew close to co-star Minah, 29, whilst competing on the third series of the BBC show together. He was then banished from Ardross Castle in Scotland on last Friday's episode and his pal Minah had contributed to his departure at the Round Table.

He spoke to the Mirror about his banishment this week and addressed his experience with Minah. Dan, who had been a Faithful, praised Minah - who's now the only original Traitor left on the latest series following the departures of Linda Rand and Armani Gouveia - during our recent interview.

Sharing his thoughts on pal Minah being a Traitor, he told us: "Really proud of the game that she's playing because she's balancing strategy and social excellently, in my opinion. I did have a suspicion in those last few days [that a Traitor would be someone I was really close to]." Dan noted that up until his banishment, he hadn't received a single vote and the bank risk manager said he suspected he would have been "taken out of the game unless there was a reason for it".

Dan - who also shared his thoughts on how Linda played the game in the interview - suggested that Minah had stayed under the radar through "acting like a team player" and "not bringing any attention to herself". He continued: "She's having lots of conversations with individuals across the whole castle. She's really building those social bonds."

Minah had been among those who voted to banish Dan despite their friendship. Her vote came after he had lied to her in a mission, with the Traitor having shared her update over his deception at the round table that led to his exit.

During the mission, in combinations of pairs, players were tasked with secretly marking a co-star who they didn't want to win immunity. The chosen co-star, then covered in gunk, had to guess who had targeted them. If they guessed incorrectly, they would lose their own chance at immunity, but if correct, the two players would lose theirs' instead.

Whilst paired up, Dan and Leanne Quigley, 28, who's also close to Minah, decided to mark her after he suggested she would never suspect them. Minah went on to ask the pair if they had done it, but both denied any involvement. It meant that she incorrectly guessed two other players and lost her chance at immunity in that mission.

Leanne later revealed the truth to Minah once back at the castle but Dan remained quiet until confronted by her at the subsequent round table. He also ended up admitting that he had marked Francesca Rowan-Plowden, who herself had been frustrated over him not disclosing that earlier.

Dan assured the group that it didn't mean he was a Traitor and that he "really wanted" to win immunity, with him saying in the episode: "I'm here to play a strategic game. I don't have to tell everybody every thought or every action that I make." Minah said that she could no longer trust him and voted for him to leave, saying she felt "betrayed" by him.

Asked if he regrets his actions towards Minah, given that she was deceiving him as a Traitor and later contributed to his banishment, he told us: "I completely stand by it because I had my reasons for doing what I did and for not revealing that information. My downfall was just not thinking deeply enough about what other player's intentions were in that challenge because we all had the right to make our own decisions about what we would do with that information. And I did think that more people would see it my way, but turns out I was playing the game a little differently."

He said: "My understanding was definitely that more people would keep [who they marked in the mission] to themselves. [...] It's everybody's decision to do what they want to do with that information and I just made a bit of a bad call in thinking that people would play it the same way as I did."

Whilst addressing his approach to the game, Dan said: "It didn't work out but I don't think I could have played it any other way." He added: "I think I was quite an obvious Faithful but I was playing the game differently in that I was being quite self-interested at times, which obviously isn't something that Faithfuls do very openly a lot of the time."

Discussing the state of his friendship with Minah now, he said: "There's no hard feelings whatsoever. Everything is fair game in the game, in my opinion. It was an excellent move on her part so I would never hold that against her."

The Traitors airs on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights from 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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