"A body always floats", according to Channel 4's forthcoming series Hunted, is a law-enforcement phrase used when wanted individuals go on the run – sooner or later, some technological trace of them will show up somewhere. Hunted sets out to test how long ordinary people can remain fugitives, with the participants self-filming as they try to evade capture from "expert hunters".

Speaking at the Celtic Media Festival, Channel 4's commissioning editor of formats, Danny Carvalho, said versions of the "going off grid" show had been pitched on multiple occasions over the years, but that consumer technology adoption rates and surveillance society headlines meant 2015 was "the right climate" for one. "It just felt that the timing is right," he said.

The best ideas for TV shows, he told the independent producers in the room, have that pub-debate element to them. "If you were going off grid, where would you go? How would you do it?" Hunted was originally intended to be more heavily formatted, with time limits and live segments, but Carvalho said the fashion at Channel 4 was for "looser" formats that have one constructed element explained to viewers at the start and "then just let it play out".

The series, which will air in the autumn, is made by Shine TV, the company founded by Elisabeth Murdoch and now ultimately owned by father Rupert’s 21st Century Fox. It is not known whether any of the sophisticated tracking techniques deployed by the show’s expert hunters will involve listening to voicemail messages.