Hunted: Series 6 – interview with fugitives Liam and Katie

20 May 2022

Liam (Plumber) 36, Sheffield
Katie (Art Tutor) 34, Sheffield
Couple

Katie and Liam have been together for thirteen years. Katie said his persistence at the beginning is what eventually swayed her to go on their first date. The couple share a love of urban exploring and plan to use old buildings, and underground tunnels whilst on the run to outfox the hunters. A few years ago, they visited Chernobyl as a surprise for Katie’s 30th birthday present, which she adored.

Liam is a plumber and describes himself as practical, hands on and can make or mend anything!

Katie, an art tutor, is very creative and super organised.

They are looking to move onto the next chapter of their life knowing that they’ve taken every opportunity and experienced a once in a lifetime challenge. They are not married yet, and don’t have kids – so this might be their final crazy adventure together before making big decisions about our future- if they win the money.

As well as urban exploring, they plan to utilise family whilst on the run. If the pair lose each other, they intend to try and meet back up at the nearest McDonald’s – because there’s always going to be a McDonald’s close by.

 

Why did you want to take part in Hunted?

Katie: We mainly love adventuring, exploring and doing cool things and I thought, well this will be cool! I applied, didn’t really give Liam much choice and just thought, why not? I genuinely didn’t think we’d get picked and now we’ve been given the opportunity to do something amazing that we’ll talk about forever and it’s an experience that both of us are just raring to do.

Liam: Katie said, “I’m going to apply for Hunted” so I said “ok”… Then we got through an audition, and it all got more exciting. I think it’s just the excitement and thrill of taking part in something that’s going to be the biggest experience of my life. Being a self-employed plumber who’s on his knees for five, six days a week – the thought of not having to work for a month is absolute bliss.

What do each of you think you’ll bring to your Hunted partnership? Are you worried about falling out?

Katie: Being organised and keeping us on track is probably my forte. I’ll be the one that says ‘woah, Liam, what are we doing here? Let’s just slow down and think about it? Just be a bit more logical than Liam!
I don’t think we’ll fall out. I can’t remember the last time we did! I might get stressed, angry and annoyed and Liam will just go quiet, ignore me and wind me up. But if we do fall out, it will be because we’re under extreme pressure! We’re being thrown into a situation that we’ve never been in in the 13 years we’ve been together…

Liam: I’m a really positive thinker so I’m hoping positivity. Katie also says my comedic value – I’ll keep a smile on my face, but I’ll also be the one getting Katie up in the morning, scraping her off her bed saying, “Come on, we’ve got to move!”

What tactics, if any, are you planning to employ? Are there things you’ve seen in previous Hunted series’ that you’d like to adopt – or avoid?

Katie: Being off grid and out of sight. Not making too much contact with strangers if possible because we’ll be paranoid over whether they’ll help us or snitch on us! We’re not going to be out there chatting to everyone and wandering around the middle of cities – we’re going off grid, camping wild and keeping our heads down.

Liam: Not staying still for too long and making big moves covering big distances. You don’t want to be ringing your mum and asking for a lift! Ideally doing a risk assessment before making any big decisions – is it or isn’t it a good idea? And then at least we’ll know we did the best we could. More fading into the background and being nice and polite so people will help! That’s usually been a help in previous series.

Katie: We’ve watched all the previous series and looked at what other people have done. The main thing where people go wrong seems to be someone might make a call that ultimately leads to their capture. The call is detected, the car is detected, the person’s followed and then caught. I think we ned to make sure we break that chain of making sure we’re using a couple of contacts to get us somewhere.

How confident are you in your abilities? Do you think you have what it takes to make it to the end?

Katie: I’m trying to keep positive and think we will evade them and win because if I think about it too much, I’d think, “Oh yeah they’re going to get me”. But genuinely, I think a lot of it is down to luck – 50% luck, 50% wrong place, wrong time. If they capture me, it’ll be because they’re lucky! I do think we’ll be one step ahead of them. I do think we have what it takes to get to the end otherwise we wouldn’t have been chosen. We have to think that way otherwise we’d be stuck.

Liam: I think we do have what it takes. I don’t tend to worry about these things – I’m quite headstrong and don’t really get stressed out. I just deal with whatever’s thrown at me. I am very competitive though and challenge the hunters to catch me. I’ll just run: I’ll be the Forrest Gump of Hunted.

What do you think the experience of being on the run will be like?

Katie: Horrendous, amazing, hell – and probably the best time of our lives. I think it’s going to be everything. Some days we’ll want to go home and forget about it all and then others, we’ll be like, wow, this is just so cool. I’m sure some moments will be awful and others we’ll be laughing our heads off until we’re crying.

Liam: An unknown! It’s going to be a wild and unpredictable adventure. Pre-Covid, we’d always plan holidays with an adventure and every day would be so well planned. This will be something where every day is completely new for us.

How do you feel about the prospect of having no technology, no money, no backpack and no possessions?

Katie: I think initially it’ll be a real shock to the system, especially with our phones. We won’t be able to just Google things, we’re just so used to using our phones for everything. It’ll be a shock but might also be quite nice after a while though.

Liam: It’ll be like I’ve an arm missing with no phone, it’s always there! You just rely on it so much. But I am quite looking forward to the challenge.

If you manage to avoid capture, what would you spend your winnings on? How big a factor is the money for you?

Katie: We’ve just recently bought a barn which we’re converting so we’d love to pay someone to do it up so Liam, as a handyman, doesn’t have to do it all!  We’ve also been thinking about buying a campervan so we can do some travelling and make more memories. That’s not going to be cheap, but we’d love to do it.

Liam: It would be blessed to just get the kitchen done and get someone in to do it so I can just sit and watch TV! We’d also like to compensate our Hunted helpers – they’ve all been offering us all sorts, above and beyond.

Katie: The money isn’t that big a factor for us – we’re really pleased to be part of the whole process and be able to have this experience we can look back on. When can you ever do something like this and be shut off from your normal life? The money would be a bonus, but we want to enjoy the process