The Traitors star Anthony Mathurin has opened up about his time in the competition, admitting that the initial game plan that he had for the series was completely thrown off.

The chess coach also explained that if a certain moment on the show had gone in a different direction, then fans might have viewed him in a completely different light.

Tonight, fans of the BBC competition will discover what happened to Faithful Diane Carson after she was handed the poisoned chalice by Traitor Miles Asteri, after they had to wait almost a week to discover her fate.

The cliffhanger came shortly after Anthony, 45, was banished from the game – and he told Metro.co.uk that he was ‘really happy’ that he was able to go out ‘on his terms’.

‘I didn’t go out with a whimper. That’s certain. I gave it with both barrels. I can go out with my head held high, so I’m really happy about that,’ he told us.

Anthony certainly didn’t fade into the background, making his opinion heard loud and clear on several occasions, including when he and Zack Davies butted heads over their suspicions over one another.

Anthony had a game plan in mind that was based around being a Traitor (Picture: Mark Mainz/Studio Lambert/BBC/PA Wire)

However, his experience on The Traitors could have been drastically different if at the start of the game, host Claudia Winkleman had selected him to be one of The Traitors… as he had wished.

‘I initially wanted to be a Traitor, and that’s what my game plan was based around. However, I was given the Faithful card, and before I knew it, I was in the firing line. Even before I could even get around trying to be charismatic, I was really in the firing line,’ he recalled.

So, Anthony decided to change his tactics, aiming to come across as a ‘stand up guy’ from start to finish so that he could gain his fellow Faithfuls’ trust… before being ‘primed for a switch to become a Traitor’.

‘That would be a great blindside,’ he added.

While Anthony made it to the halfway point of the competition, he reckoned that if he had been a Traitor from the start, then ‘without a shadow of doubt’, viewers would have seen different sides of his personality in greater depth.

Anthony reckons he and Paul would have made a strong Traitor team (Picture: BBC)

The chess coach received the most votes during the roundtable, resulting in his banishment (Picture: BBC)

‘I can be two different types of people. One, completely engrossed in what I’m doing – if I’m playing a game of chess, I can play chess for maybe 24 hours straight, no problem, not have a drink, not have not eaten or food – you know, just play,’ he stated.

‘And somebody will say, Wow, he’s not a sociable person. But then I can walk into a room I come in, have fun, or get the party started to speak to everybody, smiles, beaming, you know, and everyone’s like, Oh, wow, what a charismatic guy, full of energy, full of vibrancy.

‘So it just depends which end of the spectrum I’m on, that’s it.’

He continued: ‘I believe if I was a Traitor, you would have seen both. You’d have seen the calculating, ruthless side and then you would have also seen the charismatic side.’

When Anthony discovered which of the contestants were Traitors, there was shock for the big reveal of Paul and Miles… but finding out that Harry Clark was among them brought him to his knees. Literally.

Going through his suspicions of the Traitors, Anthony explained that he nicknamed Paul ‘Uncle Paulie’ as a reference to Goodfellas, because ‘he’s a good fella, but he’ll knife you in the back’.

The chess coach disclosed that he was onto Paul at an early stage, after witnessing the smooth player throw Andrew Jenkins under the bus after a mission.

He found that banished Traitor Ash Bibi and Miles went under the radar, but Harry – nicknamed ‘H-bomb’ – was the biggest shock of all.

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Praising the Traitors on their performances, Anthony remarked that Paul was acting how he would have done if he had also been chosen by Claudia.

He theorised that if he had the chance to sneakily team up with Paul and Harry behind the scenes, ‘that would have been really dangerous’.

Nonetheless, he confessed who he views as the dark horses of the competition… revealing his suspicion that Evie Morrison and Mollie Pearce could be more of a threat than people realise.

The Traitors returns on Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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The Faithful has confessed he was ‘primed to become a Traitor’.