Harry Clark - staying faithful 

Harry Clark is the winner of series 2 of The Traitors, and recently appeared on BBC2’s Pilgrimage, where he spoke openly about his Roman Catholic faith.

His new book Staying Faithful, published by independent Christian publisher SPCK, goes further, showing the role faith has played in his life. He shares more in this question and answer session 

 
 
How did you become a Christian - and how did it shape your early life?

Christianity was always involved in my family growing up - my granny was religious, my granddad was religious. Both my mum and dad were religious, so all of us kids, five brothers and sisters, we were all baptised and a few of us made confirmation. We would go to church every Sunday, even on holiday.

Our local church – Our Lady of Peace – made it so inclusive for all the kids as well. I really love church. I'd play the violin and my sister would play the guitar.

My mum’s faith really grew during the time my sister had an operation for a hole in her heart at Great Ormond Street.  She relied on God to keep her strong through that, not just her and her daughter, but for the rest of us.

And for me, and I think it's the same for everyone, my faith has always been a wave. It's been weaker and stronger at different points in my life.

When I was a kid, teenager, growing up through church, my faith was at one of the strongest points. I’d love the retreats. We’d wake up, do morning prayer, talk about the Bible for a bit, but then be off rock climbing or abseiling down the side of a cliff. And that was just amazing, because I had so much energy as a kid - learning and doing these activities. I loved talking about faith, having opinions about it. I still do now.
 

You joined the army aged 16. How did prayer and belief ground you during your army service?

In the book I explain I went into the darkest time in my life. I really fought demons, and I struggled with mental health and suicide, essentially. When you grow up as a kid, you're very protected from the problems of the world and the evil of the world. That's the best way to put it. As a 16 year old, I then joined a man's world, so I had to grow up quickly. But then you also saw very quickly the evils of the world, what man could do to man, and it just made me question my faith as a whole. It's that simple question: God loves us so much - then why does he let death happen? Why does he let all this illness happen?

There were multiple things. It started bad and was getting worse and worse. And it wasn't until my mum, the superwoman she is, asked me: ‘What's the one thing you know how to do?’ It was to pray. Just pray. That was the switch.

As a teenager I was always the kid who would pray for the newest bike on Christmas Day, or for God to make me a millionaire. But then when I was in the army and I was in these darkest times, my prayers switched to being angry at first, but then saying thank you a lot more.

I started saying thank you for even letting me have a bed to sit on to pray to you. Thank you for giving me clean water, because millions of people don't have that in the world. Thank you for letting me be under a roof right now. I was saying thanks for everything I had in my life. I really started to value the people I had and the things I had around me.

And there would be prayers for strength – and I started getting stronger. I pray like that today – lots of thanks, and give me strength. Nowadays I wear God as my armour. You know, it's my shield. My faith is my shield.
 

In the space of a few weeks in January 2024 you go from being a normal guy to a household name by starring in and winning The Traitors. What role has your faith played in in navigating this this sudden change in spotlight on you?

Quite easy - I think faith itself has kept me a normal guy. My faith hasn't changed, and I haven't changed.
Even with the money I won, it was all for my family. I haven't gone out and bought a flashy car. I still drive my seven year old Corsa. I still have the same loved ones around me. I still have my strong faith, because that's all I need.

I've loved every minute of this, and I'm always so grateful for it. But if I was under a bridge tomorrow, and I'd still have my faith and my loved ones around me, I'd be just as happy, because I was happy anyway, and I found that happiness through faith and through people I love.

I never see myself as a celebrity. I go from doing the coolest stuff, like being on the red carpets, but then I get an Uber home to my council house. I just see it as a job, which allows me to still be Harry, the kid from Slough, and hopefully people can resonate with me.  
 
 
You played a brilliant game to win The Traitors (at the time of writing Harry remains the only person in the UK version of the game to have won as a traitor). But to win, you needed to convince people you were something you were not, a faithful. In light of your own faith, how difficult was it to play this role of deception?
 
It's just a game. I've grown up with five brothers and sisters. They're all competitive. I've always wanted to win at any game, and if I've ever had a chance to be a bit cheeky to win at Monopoly, I've done it, but I haven't had to go and pray to God afterwards saying I'm so sorry, because God will know it's just a game and it's not that deep.
 
I was able to compartmentalise the fact I was there to play a game. These people don't actually get murdered in real life, everyone's there for the same reason, and 90 per cent of the people who play The Traitors want to be a traitor anyway.

In The Traitors, essentially, I was just a faithful anyway, I still believe I'm a faithful now! The only time I had to change was when I put a cloak on. When I didn't have the cloak, I was just myself, an open book. So it didn't really affect me morally, because I always knew it was a game, and that's what some people forget.
 

You believe authenticity and openness are vital to encouraging young Christians today – can you say more about this?

I never chose to or wanted to be a celeb, or a public figure. So afterwards, I only ever wanted to do things that are authentic to who I am, that means something and can hopefully resonate with people. So when it came to the book and talking about my my faith, it was always going to be open and honest, because then that's how people can trust you and know you're telling the truth. It’s what makes me me, and faith is a huge part of that. So why would I leave religion out? I'd be doing an injustice to myself and essentially lying again, which is quite ironic.

My hopes for the book essentially are for people to get a deeper understanding of who I am, because it's very easy to see the Harry from The Traitors and they think he’s a manipulator or a liar, and that's very far from the truth.

But the biggest thing for me (about the book) is the self help. I've had a lot of life experience already at 24. I've been in dark times, and it's hard to help someone through those dark times, because you can't see the light of day, you can't see past the foggy clouds. The book is about trying to help just that one person, because then it creates a beautiful chain effect. If someone's struggling and they read it, and if it helps them, then my job here is done. You know, that's all I want - for someone to be able to read my book and take something from that and maybe use it in their own life in a different way. The book couldn’t do that if I’m not completely honest.
 

There seems to be quite a growing interest in faith among your generation, Gen Z. What in your experience are people looking for in the church, and how can the church, best connect with this generation?

It’s 2025, there’s the cost-of-living crisis, everyone's struggling in life, and it's so much easier to be negative than positive. So that's why my book is trying to bring a bit of positivity to the world.

But essentially Gen Z are looking for someone or something to fill that gap. Personally, I think that without having faith or religion in your life, you have a hole in your heart – and you're trying to fill it with the drink and the smoking and the lust.

God for me, was the answer, and faith was the answer. And I think that's all it is. People feel lost easily nowadays, but actually religion itself is so accessible to everyone.

You have Tiktok: my Tiktok is mainly either weird Henry VIII facts, or it’s religion. It's the weirdest Tiktok page you'll see, but it's massively religion and explaining different scriptures and stories. So that's so accessible for everyone, which is great, but I think there is the gap between the Gen Z and the church, because there are always misconceptions of the church. The church for me needs to create that bridge for people to just give it a go. I have many gay friends who feel like they won't be loved by God. That's not true at all. Everyone's loved by God already, no matter where you start, no matter who you are.

Sometimes you want to give them that push to just try it. My book says: if you try it and it's not for you, then that's okay, but at least you tried it. Just like anything in life, if you don't jump in then you're going be sitting in the same place forever.
 
 
So is there any kind of message for the churches in this?

I think it’s modernizing how they present the message. If you want to reach Gen Z, make an Instagram or Tik Tok account because that's where you're going to find them. You can easily explain all of these misconceptions that people have of the church in one simple video. People feel like they can't come to the church, that they're not loved. But that’s completely wrong - for me one of the best things about churches is the community.

And this is what I talk about in my book. I feel like I can be as close to God sat on the end of my bed as I can be in church, because the church is within, but also in the church community. People like the Gen Z generation who are looking into faith but don't know whether to take that leap, need to learn about that. They need to have the chance to ask the questions they want to ask, and to find out the information they need. And one of the best ways for the church to do that would be to go on social media, because although it can be a scary place, it can also be a great place where people can learn. I learn from it.

Staying Faithful by Harry Clark is published by SPCK 

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