Hunted UK

(2015)

Reality

Britain is one of the most-watched nations on earth. It’s estimated we have close to 6 million CCTV cameras, 1 for every 11 people. Our country has the world’s largest DNA database per capita and GCHQ is one of the most powerful intelligence agencies on the planet; everything from cash withdrawals to supermarket shopping, telephone calls, our internet history, texts, and social media posts can be monitored. HUNTED asks the question: If you had to disappear tomorrow with some of the world’s best-missing persons experts looking for you and the most cutting edge technology keeping tabs on your electronic footprint, could you just vanish? To find out, 14 ordinary Brits from a cross-section of British society become fugitives and go on the run. With just £450 in the bank, they must evade capture for 28 days. Hunting them down are some of the world’s best investigators selected from law enforcement, military intelligence, cyber analysis, online profiling, and human tracking. In charge of them is Brett Lovegrove, former Head of Counter-Terrorism for the City of London Police who led the City of London Police response to the 7/7 bombings and the foiled attacks two weeks later. Not a moment will be missed as our fugitives try to exist below the radar in modern day Britain. How they do this is up to them. Some will head for the hills, others will lay low on the streets, but with limited funds they will all have to think of ingenious ways to survive and remain undetected. Yet survival is possibly their easiest challenge. Marooned in society, cut off from family, friends and all electronic devices, the psychological impact of their venture will play out over the weeks as their sense of loneliness and paranoia intensifies during the experiment. Meanwhile, the ruthless hunters will employ any means possible to find their prey. They will have replicated for them the investigatory powers of the state at their disposal, allowing them to break into the fugitives’ homes, data-mine their electronic equipment, interrogate their family and friends and have access to their bank accounts and phone records. HUNTED is a real manhunt, a game of cat-and-mouse, captured 24 hours a day over four weeks, with full access to both sides of the pursuit, in order to make the first ever factual-thriller on British television.

S01:E01 - Episode 1

In the first factual-thriller for British television, 14 British citizens are given fugitive status and go on the run. For up to 28 days they must evade capture from some of the world’s best investigators. As the fugitives’ soon find out hiding in the UK isn’t easy when everything they do leaves a trail. The UK has 1 CCTV camera for every 11 people, and we leave a vast electronic footprint from cash withdrawals, supermarket shopping, texts, calls and social media posts. Leading the hunt is Chief Brett Lovegrove, former Head of Counter Terrorism for City of London Police who led the City of London Police response to the 7/7 bombings. He runs a team of 30 hunters carefully selected from law enforcement, military intelligence, cyber analysis, online profiling and human tracking. Their first fugitive is Dr Ricky Allen, a GP living in Kent. Ricky has grave concerns about surveillance Britain and wants to prove he can still escape the all-seeing eye. Despite early success the Hunters quickly pick up his trail and relentlessly pursue Ricky as he flees north and goes off grid in the Scottish Highlands. In London, two old school friends, Emily Dredge and Lauren English, narrowly avoid capture when they use their bankcard at a cash machine. Escaping with their cash the pair devise an intriguing plan to avoid capture. But it’s not long before the stress of being on the run places a huge tension on their relationship - just as the Hunters discover Emily’s weakness, and direct all their resources on pinpointing the pair’s location.

S01:E02 - Episode 2

In this groundbreaking factual-thriller for British television, 14 British citizens are given fugitive status and go on the run. For up to 28 days they must evade capture from some of the world’s best investigators. Leading the hunt is Chief Brett Lovegrove, former Head of Counter Terrorism for City of London Police, who led their response to the 7/7 bombings. He runs a team of 30 hunters carefully selected from law enforcement, military intelligence, cyber analysis, online profiling and human tracking. In this second installment we meet two new fugitives, Harinder and Davinder Singh, two Sikh brothers from Leicester. Aware that Asian men with beards and backpacks are a terrorist stereotype, the brothers travel the UK staying mostly within their community of extended family and friends. But the pain of separation from their loved ones quickly starts to bite. Meanwhile Dr Ricky Allen continues to evade the hunters in Scotland, but psychological profiling expert Julie Clegg investigates his network of associates and unearths his plans to get cash. Upset by hunters’ attempts to shake up his friends, Dr Allen comes up with a daring plan to turn the tables on his pursuers..

S01:E03 - Episode 3

In this groundbreaking factual-thriller for British television, 14 British citizens are given fugitive status and go on the run. For up to 28 days they must evade capture from 30 of the world’s best investigators. They’re experts in everything from human tracking and cyber analysis, to covert surveillance and online profiling. In episode three, Dr Ricky Allen, a Kent GP, has been on the run for 15 days. After turning the tables on the hunters, Ricky now comes under extreme pressure from his adversaries. Former undercover detective Peter Bleksley launches a concerted media campaign to flush him out of the Scottish Highlands. Bleksley also puts a reward out on Ricky’s head. Now spooked, Ricky flees south on a train to London– with the hunters following him in a tense and gripping pursuit. Old school friends, Emily Dredge and Lauren English, are hunkered down in a Yorkshire Caravan site. They’ve evaded capture for 12 days by randomly hitchhiking across Britain. But the shadow of the hunters constantly hanging over them brings their relationship to breaking point. Lauren wants time on her own and lets her hair down at a village fete, while back in the caravan Emily becomes convinced she is about to be captured. She flees without her friend, and now has to survive on her own.

S01:E04 - Episode 4

S01:E05 - Episode 5

In this groundbreaking factual-thriller, 14 British citizens are given fugitive status and go on the run. For up to 28 days they must evade capture by a crack team of investigators, including experts in human tracking, cyber analysis, covert surveillance and psychological profiling. So far the hunters have tracked down 6 fugitives, leaving 8 still on the run. In this fifth episode we meet newlyweds Adam and Emma Channell who want one last adventure before they begin a family. Their plan is to head off grid in some of Britain’s most remote rural areas – the Yorkshire Dales and deepest Wales – but as paranoia kicks in and they start to jump at every car that passes, the married couple finds the pressure increasingly difficult to cope with. Also on the run is Freddie Young, a 21-yr-old teaching assistant from Essex, accompanied by his mother-in-law Jacqui Omer, who insisted on coming along as she’s convinced Freddie can’t cope on his own. Their plan is to stay fairly close to home and lay low in a caravan park on the coast. Meanwhile Emily Dredge is now finding the stress of being hunted and being apart from her baby Ernest almost unbearable. After a high speed getaway on the back of a motorbike she decides to chance a visit home to see her son, but as the hunters have her family under round the clock surveillance, will this be her final mistake?

S01:E06 - Episode 6

In this groundbreaking factual-thriller, 14 British citizens are given fugitive status and go on the run. For up to 28 days they must evade capture by a crack team of investigators, including experts in human tracking, cyber analysis, covert surveillance and psychological profiling. So far the hunters have tracked down 10 fugitives - only 4 remain at large. In this dramatic final episode the last remaining fugitives must reach a pre-arranged ‘extraction point’ from where they must flee the country to avoid capture and end their time on the run. But with 7 days to go the hunters are ramping up their efforts to find them. Stephen and Martin have so far avoided detection by travelling along the nation’s canal towpaths and communicating to their loved ones by cloaking their presence on the internet. They finally ping onto the hunters’ radar when they use a cashpoint. Following the CCTV trail from the cashpoint the hunters finally understand how the pair have evaded them for so long. But has this breakthrough come too late? Meanwhile school friends Emily and Lauren are still evading capture, despite getting spooked and going their separate ways. Lauren is hiding out in the remotest hills of North Wales, while Emily unwittingly gives the hunters a lead on the location of the extraction point by trusting newly made friends with valuable information. As the final hour approaches, the hunters focus all their attention on locating the extraction point. When they finally get the breakthrough they need, the race is on to get there before the fugitives make their bid for freedom!

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