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Most of the information that the state can gather is actually out there on social media anyway, it’s not secret. “I don’t care if people get angry so long as they’re discussing it. “We’re raising these issues in a thrilling but factual way,” he says. But if you have grounds, I don’t see a problem with it.”įor his part, Lovegrove is happy for Hunted to rub people up the wrong way. “You can’t go willy-nilly into people’s emails or bank accounts. But while being able to invade every aspect of someone’s life is a boon during a manhunt, what about personal privacy? “When I was a police officer, everything we did in terms of delving into someone’s background had to be justified,” says Thorn. So there was a real intensity.” Both radiate pride in their work, the sense of an unpredictable task handled professionally. “We’d be in Clacton-on-Sea and then have to head to Edinburgh. “We were working ridiculous hours, with the tiredness to go with it,” says Thorn. The month-long shoot was as stressful for the hunters as the fugitives. “We’ve both got tunnel vision so we would forget there was a camera on our shoulder.” “Nic and I are quite renowned for forgetting we’re wired up,” says Brooks. These comprise convict-collaring specialists such as Danni Brooks and Nicola Thorn, two former cops who first met during undercover training at the Met. From their command-and-control centre crammed with industrious analysts at computer terminals, Lovegrave and Bleksley have fed the most promising intel to on-the-ground teams of “hunters”. Hunted’s 14 fugitives – some alone, some in pairs – all fled simultaneously in May, producing a multiple manhunt against a ticking clock. I think that’s why, in real life, so few fugitives manage to go on the run, successfully, for ever.
“I had to adopt a false identity and then live in the witness protection programme, so I know what it is like to be hunted and it was a very unpleasant experience,” he says. They’re going to make contact with loved ones and we’ve got to identify that moment and exploit it.”īleksley speaks from experience, having worked deep undercover for years. At some point, somebody’s going to come up for air. “We have an expression in the cops, and I brought it to the show,” he says. Bleksley points out that while technology has revolutionised police work since he left the service in 1999, many more old-school methods are still effective. “I suppose you could say my life was a bit Life On Mars,” he says in a gravelly East End rumble. Lovegrove is poised and analytical, but his second-in-command, Peter Bleksley, is more avuncular, a classic Sweeney-style thief-taker. “And, as the days go by, we end up knowing more about them than their friends and family.” “A typical fugitive hunt will begin with some basic details, but within hours we know almost everything about the individual,” says Lovegrove. We live the bulk of our lives online, and it only takes a few keystrokes to unpeel the most private details, from nude selfies to suspicious bank transfers. If you’ve ever nurtured a fantasy of dropping off the grid or outwitting pursuers with the scowling ease of Jack Bauer, Hunted shows what happens when that idle daydream crashes into insidious reality. “What you’ll see in Hunted is very similar to an operation you would see run by a police or security service.” Previously head of counter-terrorism for the City of London police and a senior investigating officer in SCD5, a Met unit dedicated to tracking paedophiles, he’s proud of the show’s authenticity in emulating the powers of the state.
“I don’t want to open the present before Christmas,” he says. It looks raw, real and a little overwhelming, and Brett Lovegrove, the man in charge of the Hunted task force, is keen not to give too much away. Jittery fugitives film themselves hiding in cupboards or are glimpsed yomping out into the wilderness as they try to evade capture for 28 days, with limited funds and no outside help, just a single, silent cameraperson in tow.
#RUN BOY RUN THEY'RE TRYING TO CATCH YOU SERIES#
The six-part series is being edited right up until transmission, but early footage looks both intriguing and chaotic – as kinetic as the Bourne movies with a bit of Blair Witch thrown in. It’s TV’s Big Brother crossed with Orwell’s Big Brother by way of The Fugitive, a post-Snowden game of kiss-chase set in the vast playground of the UK’s surveillance state.
#RUN BOY RUN THEY'RE TRYING TO CATCH YOU PROFESSIONAL#
The 14 volunteer contestants are literally on the run, pursued by a dedicated team of professional trackers and hackers burrowing deep into their private lives. In Channel 4’s ambitious new series Hunted, the journey is rather more extreme, involving panicked scrambles over country stiles and ducking down secluded backstreets. W e’re now over-familiar with the concept of the reality show “journey”, where someone insists that they’ve become a better person through singing, dancing or playing the didgeridoo.