Hunted

Interview with Paul James, 48, construction manager from Hertfordshire and Nick Batchelor, 51, lead youth worker from Kent

Category: Interview

How will you succeed? What tactics will you employ? And are there any tactics from previous series of Hunted that you hope to replicate or avoid?

Nick – We are not going to replicate any of them, because not many of them have won and we don’t intend to be those who have failed. What tactics will we use? Hopefully we will use the tactics that we have learned from our past, so common sense, one of the rarest ones and I haven’t seen much of it on this show, at least by the Hunters anyway! Maybe manipulation a little bit? Using our resilience and things that we have learnt over the years.

Paul – Yeah I think just a couple of cloak and dagger tactics really, we are over here or are we? So it is going to be a bit of cat and mouse, we aren’t going to be relying on our fitness. So we are going to use our wits and our knowledge of life on the streets. We are going to live off our wits and I think that we are going to be fine.

Are there going to be any from the previous series that you are going to replicate or avoid?

Nick – We might use burner phones and accidentally leave them on the train to Sarajevo when we are not going anywhere near that, we don’t know, we will have to see closer to the time.

Paul – I don’t think that we will be getting on coaches, you know, putting our stuff in a plastic bag, getting around London. I think that we are going to give that a swerve. So we are just going to try and be really spontaneous and unique and see how we cope with that. 

What do you think that the experience of being on the run will be like? And how confident are you that you will stay hidden until the end?

Nick – I think that it is going to be like nothing else before, a totally different experience. I think that we will make it to the end, we have not gone on to just take part. We fully believe that we can be there for 25 days, 100 percent. And if we don’t, it’s Paul’s fault.

Paul – The odds are stacked heavily in the favour of the Hunters, but that is what makes it exciting. I like those odds, and making it to the end? Why not? We have got as much chance to make it as the next man, maybe even more!

Nick – We have been against harder odds before. Hence that we are sitting here today.

Paul – Yeah we have been against odds most of our lives, and we have come out of it pretty good, so… another day in the office really.

Okay so, why do you want to take part in Hunted?

Nick – The reason I want to take part in Hunted, is because I think that we can achieve it, and outsmart the hunters. Also, a hundred grand is a good motivator.

Paul –I just think that it is really going to be a challenge to put our wits against serious people that have some real powers at hand, just to show that a couple of down and outers from south east London, can best them at their profession and beat them. Come home with a nice bit of money as well.