Channel 4 Hunted stars say 'people were amazing' as viewers find out if they won

Viewers who have been following the fortunes of mother and son fugitives from Nottingham will find out on Sunday night (April 21) if they make it to the finish and win all or part of £100,000 in the popular reality TV show Hunted. Along with five other teams of two, they have been on the run for almost 21 days, trying to evade capture by specialist police and cyber experts in surveillance-mad Britain.

Sade Cooke, 38, and Cameron Nightingale, 21, started their quest five episodes ago and now find themselves up against just one other couple - sibling pair Jax and Nicola Feeley - trying to make it to extraction where they reach the safety of a vehicle such as a plane, boat or helicopter that can whisk them away from UK soil and signify the end of the show. However many reach the end point, will decide if the money is shared or not. Or no one may get there.

The Nottingham pair, along with the other teams, were seen on the first programme of the seventh series in March, making their way to Piccadilly Circus via the Tube, where the game began, and they all had to scatter with the object of remaining free for three weeks. The fact that they have not been one of the most prominent teams featured so far in the programme indicates how well they evaded the hunters, according to Sade.

She said: "Each week there is a concentration on those pairs who are likely to be captured that week, or narrowly escape capture. We successfully hid and although the cameraman who is with you shoots loads of footage, it is up to the producers of the show to decide how much they want to feature you.

"But it doesn't stop you being terrified and not realising they don't know where you are. You really have no idea how close the hunters are to you at any one time and it is hard to feel relaxed."

Read more: Channel 4 Hunted's Sade and Cameron - meet Nottingham mother and son on new season

The hunters are a team of 30 specialists including former and serving police and intelligence personnel, an ex-CIA agent and cyber intelligence experts, who use the fugitives' online footprints to research and hunt them. The team also has access to replicated powers of the state, including CCTV and ANPR (automatic number plate recognition). While some of the experts remain at Hunted HQ, the other hunters search for the fugitives by car, helicopter, drone and for the first time, this season, on motorbikes.

The fugitives have to rely on friends and family or total strangers to get just the basics like food and shelter while they are on the run. Sade said: "People were just amazing. It's quite hard to ask strangers for help and something Cameron found very difficult to begin with. But people were amazing and quite happily let us into their homes to shower and eat. Much of the time was spent living in an awful tent that let in water mainly in the East Midlands, Peak District and South Yorkshire - not that far from home really.

"Some pairs, especially on previous series, have headed for Scotland or Devon and Cornwall, but we felt we could get trapped and limit our exit routes by doing that. We have family in Norfolk but we didn't use them because we felt escape could be limited in that area.

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"We also did some work in one place in return for board, and what I have been doing is making sure I go back to the people who helped us and now everything is over, take time to thank them properly."

Although Sade cannot reveal what happens in the show and the final outcome, the pair have been enjoying reliving their experiences to date by joining family and friends each Sunday evening at 9pm to watch, and they will be doing the same again with the final episode.

Sade said: "Since we started appearing on the show, people have been spotting us and mentioning it. I run a lettings agency and some of the tenants have been looking at me and then saying things like 'it is you isn't it?'. Where we live we are also being well-supported by local residents.

"We have also found ourselves doing radio shows and being interviewed, particularly about the relationship between myself and my son and how we found that on the run. I have to say we had such a lot of fun. I was only 17 when I had him so we are very close.

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"What is fascinating is to find out each week which parts of our time on the run are being used because the programmes everyone is seeing, we also see for the first time with them on Sundays, and finding out how people came to be eliminated is new to us as well.

"It was filmed quite a long time ago - in June 2022 - so it's quite hard to remember each individual day until it is shown on television and brings back the memories."

Viewers were particularly impressed in one episode when the pair used decoys- Sade's sister took on the role of Sade - and tricked the hunters which allowed the real pair to get away. Sade said: "That was really terrifying to do but a great feeling when we got away with it."

Sade and Cameron weren't happy to find that they would have to return to London to find out where the extraction point is - in previous series any remaining fugitives have been able to access the information online wherever they happened to be. Sade said: "It was a great concept but the thought of returning to London, where we had escaped from in the beginning, almost three weeks before, was terrifying to be honest."

The pair have been using their new-found fame to raise money for the baby son of Sade's best friend, Natalie, who fought off a life-threatening disease but has been left with complex health issues. A video of Sade launching the appeal has had more than 300,000 views on social media.

She said: "It's definitely helped and we have reached our target and now the fund stands at over £5,000, with quite a lot of fundraising events planned in the near future." Adonis Bonnick needs 24/7 care and the money will help provide specialised equipment and treatment for him, and also other families who find themselves in a similar situation.

So it's a case of watch this space to see if one or both Sade and Cameron make it to the finish, or are they destined to be captured before they reach the extraction point? Viewers can find out from 9pm on Sunday night (April 21) when the programme airs on Channel 4.