Photo credit: Facebook

 

Channel 4 has released a new 'real life thriller' series that's aiming to show the public how easy they are to track in the 21st century; just by the constant digital footprint they are leaving. Everything we do nowadays is traced, from when we were last active on Facebook to the last cash withdrawal we made.

 

This six part series follows the 14 volunteer contestants as they try to, quite literally, vanish from the radar. The contestants are just regular, everyday Londoners, who are up against specially skilled professionals. The man leading the team of 'hunters' is the previous head of the City of London's Counter Terrorist Unit, Brett Lovegrove. The volunteers endeavour to elude capture for 28 days with no help from the outside world.

 

The series looks raw and gritty with a documentary style feel. This mixed with the tension and pace of a TV show like 24 where Brett Lovegrove is of course playing the character, Jack Bauer, makes for some brilliant and thought-provoking entertainment.

 

In addition to the entertainment value, Channel 4's award winning creative agency, 4Creative have devised a clever marketing scheme targeting those in and around London. They have bombarded streets, tubes and phone boxes with media messages such as "Leave town and never come back" and "Hide your face"- making sure that on average every Londoner see's the messages 33 times a day. The idea of all this is to promote the new show, but also to create awareness and answer the question 'is it possible to slip through the net in a nation you are always watched?' which is the whole point of the series, to engage people in the challenge of the show.

 

The hunter team front-man Brett Lovegrove said "What you’ll see in Hunted is very similar to an operation you would see run by a police or security service." So if you like a good chase thrillers, private life invasions, or just find the idea of it all intriguing, give it a watch!