PW_2_2021

Sports

Inside the Box: an insider’s view of reality TV Neil Hallam , Editor Peter Bleksley’s career at Scotland Yard was cut short 20 years ago, when an undercover assignment went badly wrong. The resulting mental heath crisis brought early retirement, and ignited a creative streak leading to his first book The Gangbuster . T he story of Peter’s undercover life was a success, and the media exposure brought Peter to the attention of Shine TV, He said, “it would be boring if they spent the whole 25 days in a cave.” Peter did not know exactly what those rules were because if they knew, they would have an unfair advantage. Fairness formed a thread throughout Peter’s explanation of the show. There were many checks

Peter on set

closely about how they were found. Ofcom also reviewed the show for honesty.There were lighter moments to the show. To make entertaining TV, hunters and contestants alike need to be interesting people, with a sense of humour. This came out during a celebrity edition of the show. Love Island contestant Kem Cetinay was a fugitive in 2018. Kem had a teddy bear, which the hunters kidnapped. Peter filmed a piece to camera, talking to the bear. When the clip was shown to Kem, he went into a rage, visiting a local radio station to goad Peter on air. This proved to be a mistake and Kem was caught soon afterwards. Another high spot was during Series Four, when all the fugitives were caught on the same day. The captures followed four days of intense investigation and Peter said, “it was one hell of a wrap party that night.” The Love Island show got its revenge at the BAFTA Awards, where Hunted had been nominated. Peter said “if you get chance to go to the BAFTAs, don’t bother, it’s ghastly. The food was awful, and the place was full of self important celebrity types.” His evening got even worse when their show was beaten by Love Island. Peter finished his talk with an update on his very real Manhunt, which you can read about in the last edition of Police World. When Peter left Hunted in 2019, he was offered another book deal and decided to set himself a real fugitive to catch. His chosen subject has spent 16 years on the run, following two murders in Liverpool. One good thing did come out of Peter’s BAFTA experience, when he met TV and radio producer Mark Sandell (Husband of Victoria Derbyshire). Mark suggested the Manhunt Podcast series, which has now run to 12 episodes and over 3 million downloads. Describing his current manhunt, without Police resources or a TV crew, Peter said, “I’ve been on one hell of a journey in the last 19 months. Highs and lows. It’s just me, with no police resources or TV crew.” He ended by adding “It’s not about me or my fugitive, it’s about his victims, Liam and Lucy.”

who were planning a new reality TV show. That show was Hunted and propelled Peter into a very different life to that of heroin dealers and secret identities. For anyone unfamiliar with Hunted, contestants spend 25 days trying to evade a team of Hunters. The Hunters use all the tactics which the Police can use in pursuit of a murder suspect. A studio based team use CCTV, mobile phone work and intelligence collation, to guide a team of Ground Hunters. In 2015 Peter took part in a trial for the show’s concept. For the first two days, Peter was a Ground Hunter. On his own admission, Peter is not in his first flush of youth, and he moved to the inside team. He proved adept at this role, getting the job of Deputy Chief Hunter. He was promoted to Chief after the first series, when the previous incumbent moved to the show’s directing staff. In December, Peter gave a Zoom talk to the Section UK Writers’ SIG. His lecture gave a fascinating insight into the behind the scenes side of a TV show. When watching the show, I always thought “there must be rules on what the contestants can do, as I would do a better job of hiding.” My insight proved correct when Peter explained there are contractual rules to keep fugitives on the move.

and balances to keep the hunt as realistic as possible. In fact, Peter said, “If we left the show with anything, it was our integrity.” Peter kept his eye on the news, looking for new tactics reaching the public domain. Once a tactic had been discussed in court, he could use it in the show. Everything was done in real time. If they wanted CCTV or Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) data, a Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIPA) application had to be submitted. The directing staff tried to be realistic about the time taken for return of the product. For example, if only a short CCTV clip was requested, it would come back quickly. But if multiple cameras and long time periods were requested, the return time would reflect real time preparation of the data. The CCTV they received was rarely real CCTV, but rather footage from each fugitive pair’s embedded Producer / Director. This team member followed the fugitives, shooting film for use in the show. Again, Peter stressed the integrity of the show’s rules, only the Referee and two Executive Directors saw both fugitives and hunters. For each of the show’s 25 filming days, the hunt is active for 12 hours. The directors rigidly enforced the 12 inactive hours. Fugitives could not move, access the internet, or do anything to advance their escape. Neither could the hunters work on their investigation. The contestants themselves

helped drive the show’s integrity. In series two, a £100,000 prize pot was introduced, split between any fugitives evading capture. With so much money at stake, any contestants who were caught, interrogated the hunters very

Peter leading his hunters

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POLICE WORLD Vol 66 No.2, 2021