Arts diary: The Traitors - why are successful TV programmes turned into theatre shows?

However, I still haven't forgiven my family for when, at the end of an insanely tiring week last year, they let me fall asleep on the sofa halfway through the Celebrity Traitors final, missing Alan Carr's victory. And no, I couldn't catch up on iPlayer, because when I woke up, I automatically checked my work email and saw the headline from the Press Association. An entire series ruined.

Yet even as a Traitors superfan (my daughter and I were obsessed with the conspiracy theories surrounding the rumoured relationships between the characters) I do not understand the need to turn it into a theatre performance - as planned by the production company behind hit film Hamnet.

It is an entertaining piece of television, fuelled by authentic relationships and real time events. Creating a story around it to dramatise something that is already highly dramatic, feels like madness.

Announcing the plans for the London run, the BBC pointed to other TV programmes which have been turned into plays, such as Stranger Things, which has a prequel in the West End. The difference is that that originally was a work of fiction. The beauty of The Traitors is that it is good reality television, just let it remain so.

Save Dumbarton Studios

It emerged this week that a bid to preserve Dumbarton Studios by the inimitable Maureen Hascoet, director of Firewalker Pictures, has a rival. An unknown cash buyer has stepped in at the eleventh hour to rival Ms Hascoet's fully funded bid.

With no rumours of a rival bid circulating in the Scottish film industry, it appears likely that the other party is a developer looking to do something entirely different with the site, where BBC soap River City has been filmed for the past 23 years.

If the rival bid is successful it could see the buildings bulldozed and replaced by offices, flats or retail.

“I am offering to keep the studios going, so how is this not protected?” she asks.

With only four full film studios in Scotland, Dumbarton would be a loss. The current owner, Westerwood Properties, tells me a decision is likely to be made in the coming week. Let's keep our fingers crossed for Ms Hascoet.

A Beacon of literary talent

In Greenock, the Beacon Arts Centre has announced its inaugural book festival, with Damien Barr and Christopher Brookmyre - as well as local authors Anne Pettigrew and Ken MacLeod - among the line up unveiled last week.

The brainchild of Beacon co-director Lesley Davidson, who has long wanted to curate a book festival at the centre, some of the events are offered on a pay-what-you-can basis in a bid to widen access.

Events will be held over three days, from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 February.