The Traitors: Trust, Lies & the Ultimate Betrayal

Who can your students trust—and how convincingly can they defend their suspicions? “The Traitors: Trust, Lies & the Ultimate Betrayal” is an Advanced (C1) ESL lesson pack exploring the language of trust, deception and loyalty through The Traitors UK. Combining BBC videos, reading comprehension, vocabulary practice and discussion, this resource gives learners compelling reasons to explain their opinions, question evidence and challenge one another’s assumptions.

This multi-skill resource includes:

• Reading & Comprehension: An adapted reading exploring the programme’s international success and explaining its secret roles, missions, murders, banishments and final prize. Paragraph-heading matching and comprehension questions develop reading skills, while concise definitions clarify programme-specific language.

• Vocabulary & Idioms: Contextualised practice with language for judging trustworthiness, including credible, above board, dodgy, fishy, shady and backstabbing. Students distinguish neutral language from informal expressions and explore idioms such as smell a rat, throw someone under a bus, trust your gut and a man or woman of their word. Matching tasks, key word transformations and one-word gaps reinforce meaning and usage.

• Listening & Video: Activities based on a BBC UK trailer and a dramatic UK finale clip. Comprehension questions develop listening skills, followed by a language focus on expressions including pull someone’s leg and go back on your word.

• Speaking: Discussion prompts about reality television, game-show participation, loyalty, betrayal and everyday trust. Students weigh evidence, debate difficult decisions and connect the programme’s dilemmas to relationships, promises and online behaviour.

• Teacher Materials: Google Slides teaching presentations with and without answers, British English throughout, and homework answers for straightforward checking.

Exclusive Premium Features:

• Interactive “Murder in the Castle” Mystery: An online ESL speaking game featuring six illustrated suspects and 16 numbered clues revealed in sequence. Students investigate motives, challenge alibis and practise deduction with might have, must have and can’t have before explaining their final accusation.

• Printable Classroom Murder Mystery: An A4 version with preparation instructions, cut-out suspect and clue cards, a final-verdict sheet and a teacher’s explanation. Groups investigate together, turning over one clue at a time and revising their theories as evidence emerges.

• Pictionary vs Charades—Three Games in One: Eighteen printable vocabulary and idiom cards support drawing, acting or a coin-toss combination. Bonus points reward correct sentences or meaningful contexts, turning vocabulary revision into communicative practice.

• Comprehensive Homework Pack: A crossword, idiom practice and vocabulary-in-context exercises consolidate the lesson. An original Traitors-themed C1 Advanced (CAE)-style multiple-choice cloze and fresh key word transformations extend practice with advanced tenses, passive forms, reported speech and inversion. Includes a complete answer key and completed crossword.

Bring this Advanced English lesson into online or face-to-face classes to develop vocabulary, listening, reading and confident discussion through a shared investigation of trust and betrayal.