Hunted - Channel 4

[Gizmonster]

Anyone watch it??
I'll have to admit, I don't watch too much TV, but I watched every episode of this.
A different concept - maybe something similar done before .... I don't really know??
I thought some of them deserved to be caught, as their approach was a bit lax.
The guy whose wife was due to give birth whilst he was on the show .... well, that was always going to be his Achilles heel.
I did feel for the 2 girls that hitchhiked and were picked up by an outside agent, who took them straight to the hunters. It was unfortunate, but quite funny, when they were celebrating in the car, saying that they'd outwitted the hunters and they'd have no clue as to their whereabouts. The look on their faces when they were met by the hunters in the service station - priceless.
I'm glad the young lad with Aspergers won - this show certainly changed him. The difference in him, from when the show started to when it finished, was remarkable .... I was praying for him to make it at the end :)

[goodgoalie]

Having watched this and the previous two series, I'm afraid there's very little about it that I don't think is fake. The disclaimer at the start saying 'some powers of the state, including CCTV, ANPR and mobile phone tracking has been replicated' makes me wonder exactly how the hunters are managing to track down the hunted - replicated in what way, and to what extent? It looks like they have instant access to every CCTV camera in the country and info from every mobile phone mast; and there were far too many coincidences when the hunters on the ground just happened to be driving past the hunted going the other way.
And where do the camera people embedded with those being hunted sleep, when the hunted are camping in a tiny tent; what transport do they have to enable them to film? It's surely a bit of a giveaway to have one or two people walking along with someone beside them filming, no? Preposterous, and it must have cost a fortune.

[Gizmonster]

I kinda agree - probably beefed up a bit to make it more watchable for the viewers.

Copied from Wiki:

//// Where possible the Hunters try to use the same methods of surveillance employed by the state, including open source intelligence, cyber expertise and interrogating friends and family. When the Hunters did not legally have access to those powers, such as CCTV and ANPR, the powers have been replicated for the show. ////

and:

//// Each Fugitive was filmed by a dedicated camera person who followed the Fugitives wherever they went. While filming, the production team were split so that the team working with the Hunters were separate from the team working with the Fugitives to prevent information passing between the groups and to provide a more realistic experience. During production there were over 800 Freedom of Information requests submitted to find the location of state owned CCTV cameras positioned throughout the UK mainland. When real footage couldn’t be obtained, Channel 4 owned cameras captured footage which would have been available to the state and it was stored on a central database for the Hunters to access if they wished. However, they had to "officially" request the information as if it was a real fugitive hunt.[17] The Hunters were overseen by an independent adjudicator, former Head of Covert Operations for the Metropolitan Police, Kevin O’Leary, whose job was to make sure that the information requested and gathered by the Hunters reflected the information that would be available to them in real life and within the appropriate time frame. He was the only person who had the power to release information to the Hunters and would only do so when he considered that the Hunters had done sufficient detective work to justify the access to the information. ////

I can't find the info at the mo, but as I recall, they all start off with a bank account with £250 in and they have, at some point, to make a withdrawal. The rules also state that they have to keep moving, so they can't just set up camp in the middle of nowhere and hide for the full duration .... and I think that the rules also state that they have to make contact with a family member or a close friend.

[goodgoalie]

....and when they make a withdrawal of any of that £250 from an ATM, the hunters miraculously have immediate footage and a location.
How did the producers get the memory sticks with the extraction location to the hunted? I have plenty more questions, believe me!

[goodgoalie]

If I was being hunted by these people, my number one rule would be NEVER to contact any family members, or anyone that they could find out about through my social media, which the hunters seem to have permission to break into.

[Bazile]

There's a certain amount of ( creative license - i'm not sure if that's the right phrase here ) used in the making of these programmes - otherwise it would not be watchable .

Other examples are ' Ice Road Truckers' ' Airplane Repo '

[Gizmonster]

//// If I was being hunted by these people, my number one rule would be NEVER to contact any family members ////

I can't seen to find it now, but I'm sure one of the rules is that you have to try and make contact with a family member or close friend. You also have to make at least one withdrawal from an ATM. Also, you have to keep moving - you can't stay for too long in one place ..... it would be far too easy if you could just go and set up camp in a remote place and stay there 'til the end.

[Buenchico]

This might be of interest to some people:
https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/fugitive-sheffield-lord-mayor-blasts-hunted-producers-over-manipulation-1-8997850