Imagine, if you will, a gameshow where people risk all and be fugitives on the run in a gameshow with potentially the biggest cash prize on British TV (£56,000 if they stay out the whole series). Think The Running Man, think Interceptor, think Noel Edmonds' Number Cruncher, think Wanted
Here is a brief overview of the rules. Exactly one week before the beginning of the series, three sets of two runners are let off into Britain. They have but 12 hours before the Trackers (2 to each team, one on the road and one helping back at the organization) are let off to hunt them down.
The game is played in mainland Britain and is split up into grid squares of 10km by 10km as divided by the Ordinance Survey map. Whilst runners are on the loose, a single pair of runners must not go back into a grid square they have already been in so as to make the game harder as time goes on. Runners can only walk, run or use public transport. They cannot hitch private lifts. They must move at least one square a day. They are given £60 a day for living expenses but when money is taken out, the trackers are told where they took out the money.
Each day, the runners must perform a task as decided by the Wanted Organization. Every day they manage to perform that task, £1000 is added to the amount of money played for at the end of the week.
The game carries on like this until Sunday. Here, the Runners must stay in that square until 7:30pm when the live show finishes. That morning, the Runners must nominate a telephone box in which to stay in for the live show (which starts at 6:30). This location is secret to everybody except the Runner Managers and the technicians who set up the cameras before the show. NOBODY else knows, not even the producer. Although they do know which grid square they are in.
When the show starts, the Runners must be in their telephone boxes. The trackers then have between the start of the show and a couple of minutes before the end of the show to find those phone boxes. This is where the public become very useful as if anyone knows where they are (or if they are on the Runner's side they may lie) they can phone up the Wanted Hotline (0990 200 600) and grass them up. In series two, the first person who shops any of the three teams of Runners and the Runners get captured wins £1000. If the Trackers find them before the end of the show, that pair of Runners are eliminated from the game and forfeit all the money earned that week. THEY WIN NOTHING IF THIS WAS THEIR FIRST WEEK. There is no consolation prize. If the Runners escape, they get to keep all the money won regardless of what happens the next week. Surviving Runners get a new task and are sent off agin from the phonebox. If any were caught, a new pair of Runners were chosen from the studio to be sent off.
And that's it really. It may sound really complicated but I promise you it's not. It is possibly the most exciting gameshow on British television. There have been two series now, the first was fronted by journalist and talk show host Richard Littlejohn whilst the current series is hosted by the best thing to come out ofMTV Ray Cokes
The first series was set in a small studio whose main colours were black and silver. It was set in the Winter and was on at 8:30 to 9:30 in the evening so it was dark. This seemed to make the dark atmosphere that it the show had. Each pair of Runners had 1 tracker (and the back up team in the studio taking calls), and there was also a pair of experts in the field of being on the run and trying to be caught giving advice to the Trackers. These were the ex-leader of the Flying Squad and ex-double agent Oleg Can't-Remeber-His-Second Name.
The show's format was simple, at the beginning of the show, we would meet the teams and the trackers and we were told which grid square they were playing in so we could look out of our windows and then phone up. We would then see what team 1 got up to dyring the week. Then after that there would be an overview of the game where we'd find out how the trackers were getting on finding their particular pair of runners and if they've been to any leads or not. Then there would be a break and then we'd see the second team. Then another break and then the third team and then for the remaining 4 or 5 minutes of the game left we would follow the trackers around and talk to the Runners who if they haven't been caught already, were getting pretty nervous (the Runners can only hear what is going on via the phone; they cannot actually see what is going on in the studio or how far away the Tracker is). We could follow the action at home because they would show us a map with a GPS system so we knew where the trackers were and how far away they think the Runners are. It is all extremely exciting, especially in situations where in the closing minutes the Trackers follow a lead, get there, and is false so the Runners get away!
In series two the format is much the same as before except that the set is all red and yellow, different presenter and now each tracker has a teammate helping in the studio. If a Runner is caught, that Tracker's teammate becomes the Tracker to the next pair of runners.
The old presenter, Richard Littlejohn, was very competent at presenting. He got the message through and managed to hold the programme together. Ray Cokes however manages to hold the programme together and amuse the viewer at the same time. Since he joined the programme has got much more energy and more entertaining to watch. What's more, he does all this without detracting from the excitingness (made up word) of the programme. There is far more chat between Presenter, Trackers and Runners. The dark atmosphere of the first series has been lost slightly but it has become more underground with the cheering and booing audience and the small studio, if you see what I mean.
The reason the show works is because it is the general feeling of the programme. Here are six normal members of the public who aren't criminals and are let loose on the run with somebody after them. If you've seen the Running Man you get the same kind of thing here. It mixes action, adventure, excitement and tension without overpowering the viewer and in fact the viewer wants to get into it. You can tell how good a show is when you start to shout at the TV screen whenever a Tracker gets close to a pair of Runners! It's a sense of fun and excitement that sets it apart from other shows. It is also unique and original (which also sets it apart I suppose!).
It's psychology factor is great. As time goes on, it becomes increasingly more difficult for the Runners and it starts to show on them. Whilst the Trackers find their job becoming easier, you can tell the sense of depression if they don't eliminate a pair after ANOTHER week of being on the run. Last year, Tracker Paul Denchfield became almost suicidal (allegedlly) after chasing these two women (Lisa and Dawn) for several weeks who just wouldn't do what he expected them to do. This year he had two men (John and Oengus) who camped everywhere and he only filmed them once in two weeks! Depression alert! Then it works the other way as well, the two Runners couldn't do their task a certain day after doing it all week and were miserable for the rest of the day. But it's because of this that Wanted works because you get to know the people better and know whose side you are on. It's great.
The interactivity sets the game up. It just wouldn't work if the public weren't involved and the show wasn't live. It relies heavily on the public phoning up the organization and saying where a pair of Runners are during the week and especially on the night.
Despite several complaints last series that the phone box game was boring, they kept it for the second series and personally I like it. There is a bit more luck involved but a lot of strategy involved as well (i.e. trying to find a place where people won't recognize what you can see through the glass). In my own personal view, I can't see how the show would work if they fiddled about with too much without losing some it's interactivity, showing less of the weeks taped footage and becoming confusing to the viewer. becoming confusing to the viewer (there are three games to follow, remember)
Uppers:Tension, excitement, entertainment - Take Your Pick, it'll have it.
Downers: 8 weeks is just not enough.
VERDICT: 9/10 - Fantastic idea brilliantly executed but several months after the show (and now with a third series seeming unlikely) I'm not missing it quite as much as maybe I should.
Where to run to?
Nick's Gameshow Courtroom.
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