'They underestimated us' - Sussex friends break barriers on Channel 4 competition Hunted

Annida Boiling, 55, from Lancing, and Cathy Vandepeer, 56, from Worthing, made up one of six teams on this year’s series of Hunted. The Channel 4 series turns ordinary people into wanted fugitives, who have to evade capture from a team of elite Hunters.

If they stay on the run for 21 days, they will win a share of £100,000.

Annida, an aesthetics beautician, and Cathy – who owns an online boutique and works as a care home entertainer – said they signed up to break age stereotypes.

“We’re aware most people who do it are much younger than us,” Annida said, in an interview with the Worthing Herald and Sussex World. “People don’t notice middle aged people as much as younger people so we are invisible.”

Cathy added: “The reason we wanted to do it is for the adventure. We’ve got to an age where we both completely feel invisible. The menopause has not been kind to either of us. We wanted to prove that you can still go out there and do something.”

On their run across the length and breadth of the UK, fugitives on the show have to always be looking over their shoulders – ever fearful that the hunters have picked up their trail.

Leading the investigation from Hunted HQ was Chief Superintendent of Cleveland Police, Lisa Theaker. Lisa has led many complex investigations. Now she oversees a handpicked team of top police and military personnel, armed with the powers of the state – which includes live CCTV, ANPR, GPS positioning, drones, tracker dogs, mobile phone monitoring, publicity campaigns and, for the first time, motorbikes.

Cathy said: “They gave us an extraction point to get to, with no money, no phone, off you go. We were running around like headless chickens.

"Our children laughed at us, saying ‘you’ll be back in a day’. In fact, we lasted 12 whole days on the run. We’d both go again tomorrow, that’s how much fun we had.

"We borrowed cars, we dressed up as Thelma and Louise and nuns. We just took the mickey.”

Cathy and Annida were referred to on the show as the ‘white haired ladies’ – and were considered to be easy pickings in the first episode. One of the hunters went as far as to say the pair were ‘running with no plan, no clue, no money and probably won't last that long’.

Speaking on the show, Cathy said: “The hunters think we are a bit stupid and won't get very far. Little do they know we are mistresses of disguise."

Speaking to this newspaper, Annida added: “We were trying to prove a point – don’t right us off because we’re middle aged.

“They underestimated us. They said we were the weakest.

"Actually, we had a ball. We got told off for giggling too much. We thoroughly enjoyed it and are really proud that we’ve done it.

"One of my son’s friends said isn’t this for young people? That motivated us – don’t right us off. It’s not all about fitness, it’s about outwitting people too.

“It was an achievement. I liked the fact they were surprised at what we managed to achieve.

“People liked us because we had a sense of humour and were in fancy dress all the time.”

To stay in the show as possible, the contestants had to rely on the kindness of strangers. In Cathy and Annida’s case, this included borrowing a car from a man they had only just met.

“There are some really nice people out there who genuinely want to help,” Cathy said.

"The first car we borrowed was from a man we’ve never met before in Brighton. He didn’t know our surname and said ‘oh you can borrow it, bring it back when you’re done’.

“No one else is going to do what we’ve done. No other way in our life that could happen. We’ve even thought about recreating it ourselves without a camera crew and going for a run!”

The pair said they have been recognised in their local area – including when they recently took part in the Tough Mudder challenge.

"Some people thought we were still on the run,” Cathy joked. “We’ve had lots of positive feedback.

“We had a laugh and didn’t take it too seriously.

"To us, the menopause is overlooked and we wanted to raise awareness of that, whilst having fun. We made our kids proud, so that’s so lovely as well.

“We had a Shirley Valentine moment where we found who we were again.”

To catch up on the latest series of Hunted, and see Cathy and Annida in action, steam the episodes for free at https://www.channel4.com/programmes/hunted.