Following Tuesday’s nail-biting finale of The Traitors, RTÉ’s Behind the Story podcast spoke with two of the people behind the hit show to find out how it all came together.

Katie, David and Fran – who are self-confessed fans – sat down with Darren Smith and Mairead Whelan of Kite Entertainment to uncover some of the secrets of the show.

From 24 hopefuls to five finalists, and three victors, The Traitors has had the Irish public hooked to see what came next – with 79% of 15 to 35-year-olds who watched TV watching the final.

“The figures are just so surreal,” Ms Whelan said.

“It’s like everywhere we went, everybody was watching”.

Finding contestants

Ms Whelan said there was a “huge response” when they were looking for contestants.

“We got about 4,000 applications,” she said. “But at the beginning a lot of the applications were huge fans of the series – but then we went back to old-fashioned casting as well.

“We pounded the pavements and are casting producers were at the Ploughing, they were at tattoo conventions, they were meeting people everywhere”.

Ms Whelan said all contestants would have gone through the same application process, but some were “approached on the street”.

Mr Smith said the casting process can take months, so they are already casting for the next series. “We’re casting now – we’ve got 5,5000 applications in since Friday,” he said.

Paudie and Andrew

Ms Whelan said the casting of Paudie and his son Andrew was done separately and carefully.

“We really loved Paudie and knew Paudie would be great – he happened to mention that other members of his family had applied,” she explained.

“So, we went trawling through the applications and found another Moloney: they really didn’t know, and we weren’t sure when we met Andrew that it was definitely him”.

Ms Whelan said they actually have very little involvement in the gameplay.

“You can decide who comes into breakfast and you can decide where they’re going on their mission, but you can’t get involved in anything that happened in terms of the game while they’re playing it in the castle”.

Mr Smith said there was such secrecy on-set that contestants have their ears covered when not on camera.

“In the castle when we’re not rolling the players have to wear ear defenders,” he said. “We don’t want them chatting to each other – we have to save all gameplay and all that stuff for camera”.

Cover stories

Contestants can have no contact with the outside world – but as Mr Martin explained, it does not always go as planned.

“There were allowed tell one person [they were taking part] in case of an emergency”, he said.

“As it happened one girl had a cover story was that she was going to a yoga retreat in Thailand, and then there was a tsunami near Thailand.

“Her father couldn’t contact her on the phone and her sister said, ‘I have to tell him because otherwise he was getting on a flight to Thailand’”.

With similar versions being produced all around the world, Ms Whelan said they made a conscious decision to give the show a unique Irish flavour.

“[Siobhán McSweeney] was our number one choice, we knew we really wanted an actor,” she said.

“We also knew we didn’t want a Claudia Winkleman comparison; we didn’t want somebody that was stepping in to be a version of Claudia Winkleman because that wasn’t going to work.

“So, we wanted it to feel very Irish and Siobhan just felt like the right [person]”.

You can listen to Behind the Story which is available on the RTÉ Radio Player.

You can also find episodes on Apple here, or on Spotify here.

Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has said he was “surprised” that the Irish Prison Service paid almost €25,000 to The 2 Johnnies to host a podcast focused on recruiting people to be prison officers.

The sponsored podcast featured prison staff speaking about life working in an Irish jail and the advantages of a job in the penal system.

The Irish Prison Service confirmed that a fee of €20,000, plus €4,600 in VAT, was agreed with the two Tipperary entertainers for the show.

Mr O’Callaghan said was “a lot of money to spend on a podcast”, adding that it did not appear to him to be “a necessary expenditure”.

He added that public money had to be spent “efficiently and carefully”.

Watch: O’Callghan ‘surprised’ the Irish Prison Service paid 2 Johnnies almost 25k for podcast

Speaking at the Garda Superintendents Conference, the minister said he launched a garda recruitment campaign at the National Ploughing Championships alongside Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly.

“We don’t get paid €25,000 for doing it, not that we should,” he added.

The commissioner said the gardaí “didn’t pay anything” for a podcast it participated in with The 2 Johnnies that was focused recruitment.

“It was really useful for us there last year,” Mr Kelly said.

He said: “We had two young guards. We had a male and female on it and they did really well.

“It was a really good audience for us.”

The IPS said its participation in a 2 Johnnies podcast allowed the service “to reach a broad national and international audience, highlighting the career opportunities available and the diverse roles the service can offer potential applicants”.

It said “editorial adjustments” were made after the podcast was recorded to ensure none of the content “could prejudice or impair the security of any prison, its staff, or prisoners”.

Internal emails describe how The 2 Johnnies were “very interested” in working with the prison service and offered a bespoke deal to promote careers in the service.

A message said the package would be a feature interview on the show involving one male and one female officer being asked about their roles – one of which would be a newly recruited officer and the other 10-15 years’ service.

The 2 Johnnies said the price for the podcast would be €20,000, before VAT, and it would reach an enormous audience.

Israeli forces have pushed towards the heart of Gaza City, placing at risk the lives of Palestinians who had stayed put in hopes that growing pressure on Israel for a ceasefire would mean they would not lose their homes.

US President Donald Trump met leaders of Muslim countries at the United Nations in New York yesterday for talks that the Emirati state news agency said had focused on a permanent ceasefire in the war as well as the release of Israeli hostages and ending the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Mr Trump, who also condemned moves by several Western allies to put pressure on Israel by recognising a Palestinian state, said a meeting with Israel would be next.

Israel has pressed on with its military campaign on Gaza City despite repeated calls for it to pull back, urging the population to move south.

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Hundreds of thousands have left the city in northern Gaza but many have hesitated because of security risks and widespread hunger.

“We moved to the western area near the beach, but many families didn’t have the time, tanks took them by surprise,” said Thaer, a 35-year-old father-of-one from Tel Al-Hawa.

Israeli forces began closing in on the city of more than a million in August, with Israel saying it aimed to destroy the last stronghold of Hamas militants who attacked Israel and seized hostages nearly two years ago.

Medics said at least 50 people were killed across Gaza, mostly in Gaza City, where Israeli airstrikes hit a shelter housing displaced families near a market in the middle of the city. Two others were killed in a house nearby, they said.

The Israeli military said the strike had targeted two Hamas militants and that its forces tried to reduce harm to civilians. Footage obtained by Reuters showed people sifting through the rubble.

“We were sleeping in God’s care, there was nothing – they did not inform us, or not even give us a sign – it was a surprise,” said Sami Hajjaj. “There are children and women, around 200 people maybe, six to seven families – this square is full of families.”

In the city’s Tel Al-Hawa suburb, tanks entered populated areas trapping people in their homes, while more tanks were seen stationed close to Al-Quds Hospital, witnesses said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said an oxygen station had been damaged.

Tanks have also advanced closer to Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, witnesses and Hamas media said. The Israeli military said the group’s militants had opened fire from within the hospital compound, which Hamas denied.

“We fear these lies may be a prelude to another raid on the hospital,” said Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, in reference to several previous raids by Israeli forces.

Israel’s military released grainy aerial footage, which appeared to show gunfire coming from two windows. The military did not immediately respond to Reuters queries about how it established it was Hamas militants who had opened fire and at whom.

A Hamas security official said “criminal gangs” had opened fire at the hospital from outside the complex.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the conflicting accounts.

Separately, two Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank over the past 24 hours, one during a raid by Israeli troops in Anza village outside Jenin, and another was shot in al-Mughayyir village, northeast of Ramallah, by an Israeli settler, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Violence in the West Bank has become more intense during the Gaza war, as Israel has stepped up raids across the territory. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the incidents.

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In southern Gaza, at least 13 people were killed in Nuseirat and near Rafah, medics said. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says its attacks are aimed at ending Hamas rule of the enclave.

Israel has drawn widespread condemnation over its military conduct in Gaza, where more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to local health authorities, and famine has spread.

International frustration over the war prompted some Israeli and US allies to recognise a Palestinian state this week.

Support for the war in Israel has also wavered, with 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive, still held by Hamas in Gaza and 465 soldiers killed in combat.

Hamas has acknowledged the death of some of its military leaders but has not disclosed the number of its fighters killed.