Cut to the chase:
Ten ordinary people try to go off the radar for 28 days as the new season of Hunted starts on TVNZ 1. James Rampton reports.
Reality series in which contestants live out their spy fantasies.
In Hunted, a British reality TV show starting on TVNZ 1 this week, members of the public get to live out their finest Jack Bauer fantasies (as in the TV series 24).
These ordinary citizens have to escape surveillance and go off the radar for 28 days. All the while, they are being tracked by former police officers, ex-soldiers, profilers and professional investigators.
The winning pair stand to win £100,000. As they are being hunted, can these members of the public remain off the grid for a month?
The new series features Jeremy and Kirk, two limbless forces veterans. They team up in attempt to evade capture.
Kirk explains what made him want to be part of this show.
“I served for 16 years in the infantry in Northern Ireland, the Middle East and Iraq.
“I left the army in 2010 to continue a career as a bodyguard back in the Middle East. In the summer of 2013, I was injured when my vehicle was rolled in the desert, just outside Baghdad, in a serious incident. I lost my left arm.”
He continues that, “While I was recovering back in the UK, I was introduced to a charity called Blesma, the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen’s Association. “They helped me get back on my feet and introduced me to a network of like-minded people. It’s been vital to my recovery. They have made my situation so much easier. “So I saw an opportunity to give something back to the charity. There was the challenge of winning a share of the £100,000. And using our escape and evasion skills from the army, it was a chance to pit our wits against the hunters.” Kirk admits that on Hunted, he and Jeremy carry a big responsibility as representatives of the disabled and of the military. “We absolutely wanted to succeed, for both the veterans’ community and the disabled community. That was a big weight on our shoulders, to do well on the show. There was quite a lot at stake.” The military veteran thinks that army training gave him and Jeremy, a former Royal Marine who lost his right leg below the knee in a motorbike accident, some advantages in their mission to escape surveillance. “We were worried that they’d see our backgrounds and focus all their efforts on catching us. And with a
“Jez and I were trained for a physical enemy, a man with a gun coming at us. But the enemy we were up against here was the state – technology, people.”
– Kirk
few of the hunters being ex-military, they’d know how we would operate.
“But we used some of our old skills ... hiding in the woods, living off the land, catching rabbits, really getting into it. That was where we felt our safest, hiding in the forest. And we had everything planned down to a tee.”
Kirk confesses that he found it demanding being on Hunted.
“Psychologically it was a massive challenge because a lot of it was about psychologically outwitting your opponent. Jez and I were trained for a physical enemy, a man with a gun coming at us. But the enemy we were up against here was the state – technology, people.
“And one of our biggest enemies was people who were trying to help us out. People on the way could easily drop you in it inadvertently. The first thing they’d do would be grab their mobile phone, which doesn’t help you one bit.”
For all that, the former soldier clearly loved being part of Hunted.
“I would definitely recommend it to others. It’s a life-changing experience. If you’re at a point in your life where you want to test yourself, and you really want to push the boundaries of your own abilities, put yourself up for this. If you last one day or the whole time, it doesn’t matter. If you last a day, you’ve outwitted them for a day.”
Kirk goes on to outline what he learned from appearing on Hunted.
“It taught me to have the strength of my own convictions. If you know the answer to something, act on it. Don’t worry what anyone else says, use your instincts.”
But for Kirk perhaps the most important aspect was the opportunity to draw attention to the cause of limbless veterans.
“It’s been a few years since the end of the Iraq war and since the British Army left Afghanistan, and so this is a way of keeping the plight of veterans in the public eye. A lot of them feel very isolated.
“We also wanted to highlight disabled people’s abilities. This is a physical and mental challenge, and myself and Jez, who are both physically disabled, are not ready for the scrapheap. We have still got the skills.”