Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast past week that might welcome back
Speaker 1: guys to TV Reload. As you may know, my name
Speaker 1: is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast to get
Speaker 1: all the inside goss on the popular TV shows you
Speaker 1: may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our TV
Speaker 1: sets are a major part of our home entertainment, and
Speaker 1: yet very little is known about how our favorite shows
Speaker 1: get made. So each episode I've been finding guests that
Speaker 1: want to dive just that little bit deeper into those
Speaker 1: shows they currently making, so that you can hear all
Speaker 1: their exclusive stories and gain access to the biggest names
Speaker 1: in Australian television. I want to thank you for downloading
Speaker 1: or subscribing to this podcast however you found me. I
Speaker 1: love hearing your feedback, so make sure you leave a
Speaker 1: review or a comment on your chosen podcast platform. On
Speaker 1: today's podcast, I have Keith Banks here to talk about
Speaker 1: his time on The Traders, which has been a brilliantly
Speaker 1: cast season on Network ten and we'll have its finale
Speaker 1: on Sunday night. Keith Banks is one of Queensland's most
Speaker 1: decorated police officers. He was in the Queensland Police Force
Speaker 1: for twenty years from nineteen seventy five to ninety five.
Speaker 1: He was un to cover during the most notoriously corrupt
Speaker 1: period in Queensland's history, and has gone on to write
Speaker 1: two very successful books about his career of that time.
Speaker 1: As the best selling author, Keith has made a huge
Speaker 1: impact as a public speaker and life coach discussing mental health,
Speaker 1: and like myself, many people might not even know that
Speaker 1: they've come across his work over the years. We will
Speaker 1: mainly talk about The Traders, but I want you guys
Speaker 1: to know that there is so much more to Keith,
Speaker 1: and I suggest searching for his guest appearances on other
Speaker 1: podcasts because he has so much to offer, which would
Speaker 1: have been really hard to include. In this sort of
Speaker 1: exit interview like the ones I've been doing for The Traders,
Speaker 1: I will ask Keith about his casting on the show
Speaker 1: and if he applied or if the producers sought him
Speaker 1: out due to his backstory. We will unpack the first
Speaker 1: few weeks, the twists and the turns, what he thought
Speaker 1: of most of his competitors, and he will even reveal
Speaker 1: who he would like to win. Keith will also share
Speaker 1: what he learned about himself during the show, and we
Speaker 1: will also unpack the difficult nature of reality TV and
Speaker 1: how using his skill set didn't always translate to the
Speaker 1: type of people he was cast up against. Plus, we
Speaker 1: will get plenty of exclusives from behind the scenes of
Speaker 1: The Traders season two, which, as I mentioned, finishes this
Speaker 1: Sunday night at seven thirty on Network ten, and you
Speaker 1: can catch up on ten Play if you've fallen just
Speaker 1: that little bit behind. Anyway, let's bring Keith into the
Speaker 1: podcast and guys, I really hope you enjoy this very
Speaker 1: insightful episode of TV reload. Hi, Keith, how are you?
Speaker 2: I'm very well, Ben, very well, How are you?
Speaker 1: I'm very well. I also wanted to ask you straight away,
Speaker 1: where did you get the green like Hawaiian shirt that
Speaker 1: you're wearing. I'm curious to know.
Speaker 3: I have a number of floral shirts. Mate.
Speaker 1: When I think of a retired police officer, I think
Speaker 1: of them wearing a green shirt like that. So I
Speaker 1: don't really purely know if that's the right disguise.
Speaker 2: No, I don't think well, particularly in Queensland, there's not
Speaker 2: too many of them who do.
Speaker 3: So hints I'm copying a fear bit of friendly banter
Speaker 3: from my former colleagues.
Speaker 1: Well, is it wrong of me now to then start
Speaker 1: on my first question being how the hell are there
Speaker 1: three traders and two faithfuls left on this show?
Speaker 2: Well, that's a great question. I know what my strategy was,
Speaker 2: and we will have a chat about that. But I
Speaker 2: just think Sam's playing a very, very good game. I
Speaker 2: suspect he may be a little too clever for his
Speaker 2: own good. You know, when you've got someone like Blake
Speaker 2: who's just such an affable, lovable guy, it's He certainly
Speaker 2: was never a my radar, and I don't think he's
Speaker 2: on too many other people's either, because he just doesn't
Speaker 2: portray himself any other way than what he was when
Speaker 2: he first arrived.
Speaker 3: Like minute one.
Speaker 1: It's interesting for us as a viewer because the whole
Speaker 1: process of this show is that we are in on
Speaker 1: the joke. That's the way I like to see it.
Speaker 1: So for us it seems really obvious.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: Look I look back on it now myself and think, Wow,
Speaker 2: there's things like the nuances, the facial features, the tisi expressions,
Speaker 2: et cetera. But I think it's important for people to
Speaker 2: understand that or realize that in that banishment room a
Speaker 2: lot is going on and you're not actually staring at
Speaker 2: someone the whole whatever period of.
Speaker 3: Time it takes to get to the vote.
Speaker 2: So, and a lot of other people were shiftfty as well.
Speaker 2: I guess probably myself included. But yeah, it's one of
Speaker 2: those things that it looks easy from the outside, but
Speaker 2: when you're in the middle of that whole bubble, it's
Speaker 2: a different ballgame.
Speaker 1: The casting of the show is brilliant because when you
Speaker 1: look at the show all around the world, what we
Speaker 1: do notice is that they find people who come across
Speaker 1: a bit shifty.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, that's human nature though, you know, and my background,
Speaker 2: my background, particularly in policing, one of the unintended consequences
Speaker 2: was that I became quite jayed, not didn't trust anybody
Speaker 2: at all. And I think this is a great example
Speaker 2: as well of human nature. You know, everybody is capable
Speaker 2: of duplicity, regardless of how nice you are. We've all
Speaker 2: got it within us.
Speaker 1: Well, I want to get into all of this, So
Speaker 1: what an experience to do the traders, I think it's
Speaker 1: very exciting for you. Did you think when you signed
Speaker 1: up to it that you would get as fire in
Speaker 1: the competition as you did.
Speaker 3: That's a good question.
Speaker 2: I've said to all of my friends and family that, hey,
Speaker 2: I wanted to make one breakfast because that breakfast look
Speaker 2: damn good. And really it was something I'd never done before.
Speaker 2: You know, I've done a hell of a lot in
Speaker 2: my life on reflection, but this was something I'd never
Speaker 2: done before, which made me a bit nervous, which was
Speaker 2: why I was so keen to do it, if that
Speaker 2: makes sense, Because I was just getting into an area
Speaker 2: that i'd had reality television, never any exposure to apart
Speaker 2: from watching it, and I thought, yeah, I've got a
Speaker 2: bit of a plan. I think I can go a
Speaker 2: reasonable way. But being a realist, I never set my
Speaker 2: sights on completing it. I just took it literally day
Speaker 2: to day.
Speaker 1: How does the show like this come up for someone
Speaker 1: like you? I mean, I can't imagine you're applying for
Speaker 1: this show. I feel like they would have come for
Speaker 1: you to put you in this experience because of your experience,
Speaker 1: so to speak.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was approached. I was approached via one of
Speaker 2: Victoria's most well known crime journalists. After my two books
Speaker 2: were published, He's written a couple of articles about me.
Speaker 2: He interviewed me in his podcast, etc. And from what
Speaker 2: I understand, the producers came to him to look for
Speaker 2: someone that he thought would be a good fit for
Speaker 2: the show, and he said, I've got just the guy
Speaker 2: you need to talk to. So then he just he
Speaker 2: just rained me and said, hey, mate, what do you think.
Speaker 1: One of the producers had to have read your book, well,
Speaker 1: one of your books like drugs, guns and lies, and thought,
Speaker 1: this person's amazing for the traders. It's born for it.
Speaker 3: I was born to be a trader. And it was
Speaker 3: so disappointing. I wasn't tapped on the shoulder.
Speaker 2: Had I been, I can almost guarantee Ben I would
Speaker 2: have gotten right through to the end because I just lie.
Speaker 2: My wife tells me I have an unofficial master's degree
Speaker 2: in Lyne.
Speaker 1: How is she still with you? She knows this about you?
Speaker 1: What's going on?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's a good question again, obviously.
Speaker 1: Very good in the sack, because there you go, you're
Speaker 1: going to put up with a liar every day.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't lie every day.
Speaker 1: I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding. I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: I think it's hard as well doing a show like
Speaker 1: this because for you your gameplay was to keep a secret,
Speaker 1: and to keep a secret that you're a police officer
Speaker 1: for twenty years, and to keep so much of who
Speaker 1: you were and what you've done a secret. I'd give
Speaker 1: myself up straight away. I can't help myself. My partner
Speaker 1: tells me not to lie because he says, I'm the
Speaker 1: person who always jobs myself in.
Speaker 2: That was part of the rush, though, you know, it
Speaker 2: really did take me back to all those years ago
Speaker 2: where I couldn't have any police attitudes, behaviors, signs, all
Speaker 2: of that stuff. So I went in there with the
Speaker 2: approach that or the story that I was a retired
Speaker 2: corporate guy. And the secret to king a secret is
Speaker 2: that you as a backstory, you have little bits of
Speaker 2: truth in it. So I'd said to a couple of people,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm retired, but I do conversations with corporations
Speaker 2: around mental health, which I do because I've had some
Speaker 2: metal health challenges, which I have. I just didn't say
Speaker 2: it was postramatic stress disorder, so I was able.
Speaker 3: To carry that off.
Speaker 2: But really, really interestingly, Luke TOCKI the first minute I
Speaker 2: met him and the very first night, looked at me
Speaker 2: and said, have I seen you before, mate, Have you
Speaker 2: been on TV?
Speaker 3: And I said nah to me and.
Speaker 2: He said, oh, he said, have you been on a
Speaker 2: true crime podcast?
Speaker 3: Thought, oh, man, I'm blown.
Speaker 2: And I just know I just lied beautifully and convinced
Speaker 2: him that it was wrong.
Speaker 1: And I knew who you were. That was the weird thing.
Speaker 1: So when we first got the profile pictures of everyone
Speaker 1: that joined the cast, I saw all the photos and
Speaker 1: I looked at your photo and I was like, I
Speaker 1: know this person. And I don't want to deviate too
Speaker 1: far from where I'm going with this point, but my
Speaker 1: partner and I we listened to true crime podcasts to
Speaker 1: go to sleep at night every night, right, And that's
Speaker 1: I know, it was obviously something wrong with us, but
Speaker 1: we've become more and more obsessed with that true crime
Speaker 1: in Australia, and so we'd come across you a few times.
Speaker 1: I actually think you were probably more recognizable to my
Speaker 1: partner than Hannah and Luke. You know, my partner doesn't
Speaker 1: watch those shows, so you know, I'm surprised that they
Speaker 1: picked people. I felt like there might have been some
Speaker 1: questions to make sure that people didn't know that you
Speaker 1: were in there, and that have a media profile in
Speaker 1: a way.
Speaker 2: I don't know, because it's still it's still quite surreal
Speaker 2: to me, Ben that I do have a media profile.
Speaker 2: It's only in the last work three years. I suppose
Speaker 2: that since the publication on my first book that I've
Speaker 2: been interviewed, I've done promos.
Speaker 3: On Channel Team.
Speaker 1: The most curious question I had for you is because
Speaker 1: you've got Camille that's in there, and she also has
Speaker 1: a similar background to you, and so you know she
Speaker 1: didn't quite work you out and you didn't quite work
Speaker 1: her out. Is that the case or I know, no,
Speaker 1: I knew Camille.
Speaker 2: I knew there was something about Camille early.
Speaker 4: You did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So if you look at the waterboarding and electrocution
Speaker 2: torture game, the mission where I think the question Roger
Speaker 2: asked was you know, to me, who do you think
Speaker 2: is hiding something in this game? I immediately wrote down Camille,
Speaker 2: as did Blake from the other group, because I've said
Speaker 2: to them very early there's something about her, and I
Speaker 2: can't put my finger on it, but she's much more
Speaker 2: than a mother. And I saw her make a hand
Speaker 2: gesture which and you can't see it on the podcast,
Speaker 2: of course, but it's like a straight hand gesture with
Speaker 2: your fingers extended, et cetera. That's how soldiers and cops
Speaker 2: point to things, and she did, and I thought, Aha,
Speaker 2: So I knew there was something about it. But what
Speaker 2: I loved was she had no clue about my background.
Speaker 1: At all, so she didn't work you out, but you
Speaker 1: on to her.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I knew there was something different about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, just the way she carried herself and the
Speaker 2: way she spoke and the way she acted. I thought, yeah,
Speaker 2: there's much much more to this person thing she's leading on.
Speaker 1: It's such a strange experience because you're meeting all of
Speaker 1: these people and as you said sort of earlier, everyone's
Speaker 1: you're a little bit dubious of everybody. Who were the
Speaker 1: people that you immediately had thought were the traders.
Speaker 2: Initially I was suspicious of Peydon, but when I saw
Speaker 2: him completely almost over defend himself, I thought, yeah, this
Speaker 2: guy's not lying. He's just trying to come up for air.
Speaker 2: Liam was in my sights. I don't know why, I
Speaker 2: think because he sort of reminded me.
Speaker 3: Of what I was like when I was twenty one.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: He was just observing everything and mixing between groups and whatever,
Speaker 2: and I thought, yeah, that's a bit interesting. I was
Speaker 2: just trying to pick up on how people were reacting
Speaker 2: in different situations. And after Ash were banished, I looked
Speaker 2: at Sam and thought, you are absolutely suspect, which is
Speaker 2: why all through the game I coz it up to
Speaker 2: him and made him think I was one of his
Speaker 2: best friends and completely trusted him because I knew he
Speaker 2: wasn't quite right. Blake was never on my radar because
Speaker 2: he and I became really good friends really quickly, and
Speaker 2: we still are, and so in that friendship, I overlooked it,
Speaker 2: which is a good thing for my personal development now
Speaker 2: because I realized that I do trust people and I
Speaker 2: am able to befriend people, which is just such a
Speaker 2: huge realization. On the other side of you know, working
Speaker 2: through PDSD, which is a whole nother hour we could
Speaker 2: talk about.
Speaker 1: That's another podcast which I would listen to.
Speaker 2: H Yeah, I do talk the shameless marketing. I do
Speaker 2: talk about it on other podcasts True Crime particularly, but
Speaker 2: Hannah not at all.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I just clicked with Hannah and she didn't change her
Speaker 2: behavior one slightest bit. But certainly Sam suspect on Sam.
Speaker 1: For sure, He kind of makes the perfect cartoon villain
Speaker 1: for a TV so I just sort of thought he's
Speaker 1: a villain, you know, he's the trader.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I don't think he needed to have been shown those things.
Speaker 1: He leaned into his villainry too.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, but he what you're seeing, what I'm seeing
Speaker 2: now as the show progresses with the one on ones
Speaker 2: and the dancing down the steps of breakfast, didn't exhibit
Speaker 2: any of that.
Speaker 3: When he was in the group.
Speaker 2: You know, he was really playing the country boy approach.
Speaker 2: What set my antenna up was I can't remember what
Speaker 2: challenge we were going to, but he, Blake and I
Speaker 2: were in a car and he started talking about living
Speaker 2: in Michinos and doing marketing promos, and I thought, Pa,
Speaker 2: in a minute, I thought you were a country boy.
Speaker 2: So that was just another plus one to the DOSSI
Speaker 2: are as it were. But for the rest of it,
Speaker 2: I was just simply kicking back, staying in the middle
Speaker 2: of befriending everybody and just trying to just pick up
Speaker 2: on some signs. But you know, as you know, mate,
Speaker 2: you had four months in an environment that's just such
Speaker 2: a bubble, such an emotional challenge bubble that it is
Speaker 2: pretty tricky to pick up on things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not the real world, and I think I
Speaker 1: want to be able to highlight that, and we'll get
Speaker 1: into that in a second, because I think for you
Speaker 1: and Camille with your careers, you know, you could easily
Speaker 1: be like, you know, maybe we're not as skilled as
Speaker 1: we thought we were because we didn't detect or we
Speaker 1: didn't do this, you know, and maybe we should have
Speaker 1: had that skill set. I don't think that's a reality
Speaker 1: because the reality TV bubble that does get creative for
Speaker 1: these shows is not the real world. People aren't behaving
Speaker 1: in these scenarios like they do in the real world,
Speaker 1: like how you and Camille would have experienced criminals.
Speaker 2: You know, for an example, normal lines of inquiry that
Speaker 2: you do in an investigation to follow the evidence of
Speaker 2: fuying the offender just don't apply.
Speaker 3: And because normal lines of inquiry would.
Speaker 2: Be you'd sit down and talk to people and ask
Speaker 2: them particular questions and then compare their version to others,
Speaker 2: and then you'd come back to them with a with
Speaker 2: an anomaly. In this case, my main motivator was not
Speaker 2: to be murdered, and I'd said to I think I'd
Speaker 2: said in a couple of interviews with producers that unfortunately
Speaker 2: writ and see, I'm simply here to survive until a
Speaker 2: point in time where the pool of people is quite
Speaker 2: small and they'n I'll be making a move. So I was,
Speaker 2: you know, I was more not an investigator. I was
Speaker 2: an undercover guy, because I was just out there just
Speaker 2: lying to people about how wonderful they were and how
Speaker 2: boring I was, and how much of a threat I wasn't.
Speaker 1: But I think that the show sets up everyone to
Speaker 1: avoid their first instinct, which isn't what I believe criminals
Speaker 1: would be doing. So like in this particular show, everyone
Speaker 1: the whole time feels like they're under investigation, so whatever
Speaker 1: their first instinct is, they seem to lie to themselves
Speaker 1: about that to try and throw people off the sand,
Speaker 1: which means that you're an assessed pool of people who
Speaker 1: are impossible to read.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, spot on.
Speaker 2: It's you know, if the show had gone let's say
Speaker 2: for four months, then it would have been much easier
Speaker 2: to read people, I think, But you know, you're just
Speaker 2: You're right. People are a second guessing how they're reacting,
Speaker 2: particularly in the banishment room, and I'd sit there and
Speaker 2: watch people and you could see them holding down a
Speaker 2: smile or trying to look more serious. So there was
Speaker 2: a fair bit of overacting going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, that's so funny. Luke was saying that
Speaker 1: in the podcast. He said his favorite thing about the
Speaker 1: show was watching the reactions, watching the people's faces, because
Speaker 1: their faces would keep changing, like they'd be so dramatic
Speaker 1: and they would think that they were being really subtle,
Speaker 1: were an actual fact, it was so dramatic that it
Speaker 1: was comical that he was laughing, like, what is going
Speaker 1: on with that person's face over there? That ain't normal?
Speaker 2: Absolutely right, which makes it again and you feed the point.
Speaker 2: It makes it really hard to detect who's acting at
Speaker 2: normally when they're all almost vying for a try and
Speaker 2: buy for an oscar, but not doing a very good job.
Speaker 1: But doing terribly at it, because you know, most of
Speaker 1: the time you'll find people are on reality television because
Speaker 1: they were terrible actors. I found some way to get
Speaker 1: attention anyway one of them. I can't say anything, but
Speaker 1: I just wanted to highlight the point though in all
Speaker 1: of that, you know, Gleton said, Geiiton said that you
Speaker 1: know the faithfuls are dumb dumbs and that stuck for
Speaker 1: the whole series, and I can imagine that might have
Speaker 1: hit you and Kimille hard through watching it back.
Speaker 2: Interestingly, a lot of my friends and former colleagues have
Speaker 2: automatically cottoned on to what my gameplay was, and as
Speaker 2: the episodes have been shown, I've had dms and pms going,
Speaker 2: you're playing.
Speaker 3: The Gray Men, make nice work. I know exactly what
Speaker 3: you're up to. So they got it.
Speaker 2: But people, I think have probably an opinion about how
Speaker 2: police investigate, and we should have been able to find things.
Speaker 2: But the other thing to remember is, and this is
Speaker 2: going to sound harsh, I didn't really care that I
Speaker 2: was voting for Faithfuls. I was just happy to diminish
Speaker 2: the personnel pool and just stay there. So it didn't
Speaker 2: confront me at all. And I was you know, there
Speaker 2: were people I've voted for I knew that were Faithfuls
Speaker 2: when I thought, wow, I just go along with a
Speaker 2: bit of the group mentality here because I don't want
Speaker 2: to stand out and on a hit.
Speaker 1: When I spoke to Ash Pollard about it, she said,
Speaker 1: you know, the game kind of works, and she saw
Speaker 1: it working with people getting rid of the Faithfuls. You
Speaker 1: know an actual fact, quite a few people probably had
Speaker 1: that tactic. I know that Berth's a faithful, but I'm
Speaker 1: just going to eliminate them first. Yeah, I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: understand the mantra behind that, So can you explain that
Speaker 1: a little bit? I mean Ash's perspective, she was a trader,
Speaker 1: so maybe it works better. But for you, why are
Speaker 1: you eliminating faithfuls?
Speaker 2: Because I wanted to stay as long as I could,
Speaker 2: So it's a bit of a vex question. So say Sam,
Speaker 2: for instance, had I gone out early like Luke and said, yep,
Speaker 2: Sam's a trader, I'm going to vote for him, and
Speaker 2: it didn't work, I wouldn't have made it to breakfast,
Speaker 2: So I was happy to vote for other people who
Speaker 2: probably weren't contributing, who I thought either weren't contributing or
Speaker 2: could have been a threat. So Annabel, for instance, Annabel
Speaker 2: is incredibly knowledgeable about the game, and that's a huge
Speaker 2: mistake she made. She was in my view, she was
Speaker 2: so knowledgeable she would have been an excellent traitor. There
Speaker 2: was a real possibility that she would be recruited. Now
Speaker 2: if she were recruited, she's so good at this game.
Speaker 2: She could have easily convinced people all the way that
Speaker 2: she was a faithful and almost been untouchable. So I
Speaker 2: was happy to vote for her that night, knowing that
Speaker 2: she had to go. And when Luke was murdered the
Speaker 2: same night, I had the same feeling about Luke. He's
Speaker 2: such an awesome he's such again, he's like Blake. He's
Speaker 2: such a friendly, lovable, affable guy, but a very smart operator.
Speaker 2: So when the both of them went, my internal reaction
Speaker 2: was good because they're competition and I wanted to get
Speaker 2: to that stage and Sam beat me to it, damn it.
Speaker 2: But I wanted to get to that stage where there
Speaker 2: are only sort of eight people left and then start
Speaker 2: making a move for Sam, and unfortunately Liam. I think
Speaker 2: Liam started raising my name and by that time it
Speaker 2: was just too late.
Speaker 1: I think Sam has ended up from this conversation seeing
Speaker 1: even more clever, you know, doing the dancing and the
Speaker 1: tap dancing away from everyone, keeping it pretty serious there.
Speaker 1: Do you think that Sam would make a good criminal.
Speaker 2: Look, he probably if he wanted to go on to
Speaker 2: the dark side, he probably wouldn't be bad.
Speaker 3: But I and if Sam, if.
Speaker 2: You're going to be listening to this brother I think
Speaker 2: his ego would actually get a bit too much for him,
Speaker 2: which would bring him undone.
Speaker 1: I was sort of leading into that though. You know,
Speaker 1: I've met people who have gone to jail who are criminals,
Speaker 1: and I think something very interesting about those people is
Speaker 1: the people I met were always very disarming and very likable.
Speaker 2: Oh look, that's that's that's a bit, that's a conversation
Speaker 2: we could have for an hour or two or three.
Speaker 3: I've met a variety of them.
Speaker 2: I've actually met some crooks I didn't mind, you know,
Speaker 2: and I'm talking about good we call what we used
Speaker 2: to call good crooks robbers, safebreakers, who when you get
Speaker 2: them in an interview room, after you put a gun
Speaker 2: at them and dragged them into a car, you get
Speaker 2: them in an interview room, they can be quite personable
Speaker 2: because they know they know it's a game. As strange
Speaker 2: as it sounds, you know, hey, yeah, you got me
Speaker 2: this time.
Speaker 3: You haven't got me for something else, but you got
Speaker 3: me this time. But I've also met some psychopaths.
Speaker 2: And some very evil, dangerous, horrible human beings, and fortunately
Speaker 2: they're also in jail. So you know, the postcard bandit
Speaker 2: probably way before your time. And I'm Robert called Brandon Abbott,
Speaker 2: who is still in jail, was actually a very smart,
Speaker 2: likable guy. He just made his living by pointing guns
Speaker 2: of people and stealing the money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you think by doing a show like this
Speaker 1: you've made friends for life? For these people going to
Speaker 1: be in your life moving forward?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Hannah and Blake particularly absolutely, Hannah. I don't know
Speaker 2: why or how, but Hannah and I had an immediate connection.
Speaker 2: I've now met her family Blake similarly, which we actually
Speaker 2: chat quite a bit.
Speaker 3: And yeah, we will be.
Speaker 1: And you're not always going to meet everyone to be
Speaker 1: friends with everyone. But I could definitely see the way
Speaker 1: that Hannah spoke to you when you were eliminited in
Speaker 1: the banishment room. You could see that was a very
Speaker 1: genuine connection that she had with you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's lovely. She's a lovely human being.
Speaker 1: How is Sam and Blake going to keep the heat
Speaker 1: off them for this finale?
Speaker 2: I think the biggest battle that they have is the
Speaker 2: fact that they don't trust each other one bit. So
Speaker 2: it's your classic traitorous relationship where two people have a
Speaker 2: combined goal, but each of them is going to stab
Speaker 2: each other in the back when the first opportunity arises,
Speaker 2: so that's their biggest battle.
Speaker 3: Don't discount Camille.
Speaker 2: She is an incredibly sharp operator, and what I loved
Speaker 2: about her was that she in the first few episodes,
Speaker 2: particularly in the missions, portrayed herself as being a bit clueless,
Speaker 2: and as I said, I picked up on her that
Speaker 2: there was much more than what she was showing the
Speaker 2: rest of everyone, and I thought, well, you're pretty clever
Speaker 2: at this.
Speaker 3: So she's been recruited.
Speaker 2: I think that's a massive error of judgment on Sam
Speaker 2: and Blake's heart. I really think that she's got the
Speaker 2: potential to take everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the same thing because I think, what
Speaker 1: my prediction and I know nothing, So this is just
Speaker 1: my prediction, which is going to be hilarious because it's
Speaker 1: probably so far out there and so wrong. But I
Speaker 1: feel as though, for the first time in the Final
Speaker 1: Traders Banishment Room, I think those boys are going to
Speaker 1: rad each other out, and I wonder whether or not
Speaker 1: that cancels them out of being entitled to the money
Speaker 1: before we've even eliminated, say Liam and Sarah.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I really don't know, because I.
Speaker 1: Feel like watching Sam and Blake as much as I do,
Speaker 1: and seeing the tension, but that's been brewing for the
Speaker 1: two of them. I kind of feel like they're the
Speaker 1: sort of boys they're going to be like, don't you
Speaker 1: dare throw me under the bus that's close to the money,
Speaker 1: because I'm taking you with me, kind of like when
Speaker 1: you try and push someone in the pool and they
Speaker 1: drag you in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. What I would love to see, And
Speaker 2: like you, I don't know anything. I'm actually hanging out
Speaker 2: to see the finale. What I would love to see
Speaker 2: is Camille and Blake convince the other faithfuls for birth
Speaker 2: Sam out and then and then we'd see an interesting
Speaker 2: tussle between Blake and Camille. Could they trust each other
Speaker 2: to split the money? Would they not trust each other?
Speaker 2: That's going to be interesting. But I would really love
Speaker 2: to see Sam finally get a taste of.
Speaker 3: His own medicine.
Speaker 1: You made a comment once you know writing has helped
Speaker 1: you beat your nightmares, and I thought that stayed with
Speaker 1: me when I read that. Is there a book coming
Speaker 1: after this nightmare? Are you going to work your thoughts
Speaker 1: and feelings out and being in the trader in a book?
Speaker 1: Are we going to see that?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Look, I'd like to, but I know there are certain
Speaker 2: limitations to what I could write about and what I
Speaker 2: could say. I'm actually thinking about the next book being
Speaker 2: How to Survive in the Corporate Jungle No drugs, no guns,
Speaker 2: but lots of lives, because I had thirty plus years
Speaker 2: of working in the corporate world, and maybe I could
Speaker 2: weave something in there about, you know, the entire human
Speaker 2: relationship thing in an emotional bubble like a reality show.
Speaker 1: I think that would be fascinating. Why I'm in your audience,
Speaker 1: I will be buying any books. Let me tell you
Speaker 1: thank you before you go. I ask everyone who joins
Speaker 1: the podcast this question, what is something from behind the
Speaker 1: scenes of the Traders, something that we as an audience
Speaker 1: didn't see that we would love to know.
Speaker 3: My favorite story is about Roger.
Speaker 2: And just to digress slightly, When when I was accepted
Speaker 2: for the show and I told my wife and my
Speaker 2: two daughters, the first.
Speaker 4: Thing they said was, oh my god, can we meet Roger?
Speaker 4: We love him so much? And I've delighted in saying no,
Speaker 4: you can't outside the banishment room. So after the banishment's over,
Speaker 4: you really only have limited time before you go back
Speaker 4: to your room.
Speaker 2: And we weren't. We weren't permitted to mix with each
Speaker 2: other off camera, and that's okay. So we spent a
Speaker 2: lot of our time in our rooms. So I think
Speaker 2: the second banishment night, Hannah and I went straight to
Speaker 2: the bar.
Speaker 3: So you walk outside, there's.
Speaker 5: Red wine, white wine, bubbles, beer, and you really only
Speaker 5: have a chance to maybe have one maximum two drinks
Speaker 5: iFIT quick.
Speaker 3: Until they came back to your room.
Speaker 2: So the mission where the girls were chained up, Roger
Speaker 2: there was a you know, we're just waiting for the
Speaker 2: cameras set up, et cetera.
Speaker 3: And he's sipping on his scotch and he said.
Speaker 2: Keith, oh take great amusement for what you have to
Speaker 2: banishment And I said, what's that mean, Roger?
Speaker 3: He said, so, I just love the way that you
Speaker 3: go up.
Speaker 5: You grab one glass poor a rep so one glass
Speaker 5: of red, pour another one into it, then do the
Speaker 5: same with the second one, and then take them both
Speaker 5: to your room.
Speaker 3: So the double feasted drinking is awesome.
Speaker 1: You know he told me that story on the podcast,
Speaker 1: did he really? He didn't say a name because that's
Speaker 1: not Roger Corser, but he pointed out this has become
Speaker 1: this is a full circle moment for me, for the
Speaker 1: podcast and for the people who've come with me on
Speaker 1: the exit interviews of The Traders. We now know who
Speaker 1: he was talking about, but the production team did get
Speaker 1: a lot of pleasure and watching to see who. I
Speaker 1: think he said. Double fisting Is that the word for it. No,
Speaker 1: that sounds terrible, double fista drinking Just yeah, okay, great mate.
Speaker 1: I just want to say thank you so much for
Speaker 1: generosity with your time and being able to unpack your
Speaker 1: time on The Traders. I think you did a fantastic
Speaker 1: job and I don't think the series would have been
Speaker 1: the same without you.
Speaker 3: Thanks be that.
Speaker 2: That means a lot and I've loved it so thanks
Speaker 2: for the opportunity.