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The Traitors viewers were left in shock after an unexpected moment that’s been called “the first TV moment” of 2025.
On Friday (3 January), the third instalment of the BBC’s twist-filled reality contest proved that the new series might be its most dramatic yet, with a tense roundtable showdown that saw several of this year’s contestants butting heads.
*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*
The latest episode saw Kasim targeted by both Jake and Joe, with the pair suggesting that Kasim’s profession as a life-saving doctor would provide the show with a good narrative if he was made a traitor and had to “kill” his fellow contestants after dark.
Kasim, who is a faithful, was left dumbfounded by the claim that it would “make sense” for him to be a traitor, stating: “The fact that I have a job is not a reason to vote for me.”
When Jake claimed he didn’t actually say that, Kasim replied: “Literally, you just said, ‘The doctor thing makes sense: you save lives during the day and you kill people by night.’ So you’re basically calling me Harold Shipman or something.”
Kasim’s unexpected mention of the British doctor, who was nicknamed “Dr Death” after being convicted of murdering his patients, drew gasps from his contestants, with Alex telling him: “That’s a bit loaded, mate.”
The reference to Shipman, Britain’s most prolific serial killer, left viewers equally as surprised. In fact, the unexpected nature of Kasim’s comment has many proclaiming it the first “classic” moment of TV in 2025.
“’You’re basically calling me Harold Shipman‘ has sent me west. I truly can’t breathe. Call off every other TV show this year because this will never be topped,” one fan wrote, with another stating: “We’re only three days into 2025 and we’ve already got the TV moment of the year. Absolute box office.”
An additional viewer chimed in: “Anyone have a Harold Shipman reference on Traitors on their bingo card?” with one more person calling it “the wildest thing I’ve heard in a while”.
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Shipman, a family GP working in Hyde, Manchester, is thought to have killed 218 patients with lethal injections of diamorphine between 1975 and 1998, when he was finally apprehended.
However, investigators believe the real total could be closer to 250.
Shipman was found guilty of 15 specimen murders by a jury at Preston Crown Court on 31 January 2000 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
He died by suicide at HM Prison Wakefield in Yorkshire on 13 January 2004, a day before his 58th birthday, allegedly so that his wife could cash in a £100,000 maximum pension payout.
