Twelve famous faces have swapped television studios, dance floors and comedy stages for life on the run in a new series of Channel 4’s Celebrity Hunted.
The seventh celebrity series launched on 3 August 2026 and is being broadcast in aid of Stand Up To Cancer, the fundraising campaign created in the UK through a partnership between Channel 4 and Cancer Research UK.
Six pairs must attempt to disappear into mainland Britain for 14 days while being pursued by chief hunter Ray Howard and a team drawn from policing, military and intelligence backgrounds.
The hunters use methods including CCTV, automatic number-plate recognition, facial recognition, drones, helicopters, search dogs, cyber investigations and public appeals. The fugitives, meanwhile, must depend upon quick decisions, disguises and help from friends or members of the public without leaving a trail behind them.
Who is taking part in Celebrity Hunted 2026?
The 12 celebrity fugitives are competing in the following six pairs:
- Amy Dowden MBE and Carlos Gu — professional dancers from Strictly Come Dancing.
- Brian Conley and Lucy Conley — entertainer and actor Brian is running alongside his daughter Lucy, a comedian and actor.
- Chris Taylor and Toby Aromolaran — television personalities known for their appearances in the Love Island franchise.
- JJ Chalmers and Sophie Morgan — television presenters whose work has included major sporting and Paralympic coverage.
- Scarlette Douglas and Stuart Douglas — presenter and property expert Scarlette is paired with her brother Stuart, a former professional footballer, presenter and property expert.
- Jen Brister and Laura Smyth — two stand-up comedians, actors and writers taking on the hunters together.
Amy Dowden’s personal cancer connection
The Stand Up To Cancer purpose has particular personal significance for Amy Dowden, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023.
Dowden has spoken publicly about undergoing a mastectomy and chemotherapy, as well as the physical and emotional effect of her diagnosis and treatment. She has used her public profile to encourage awareness and support others affected by cancer.
Her participation alongside fellow Strictly professional Carlos Gu adds an especially poignant dimension to a programme which combines light entertainment with reminders of the lives behind the fundraising campaign.
Dowden’s experience is her own, and cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery differ from one person to another. Viewers with health concerns should seek information from the NHS or an appropriate medical professional rather than relying upon individual television accounts.
What is Stand Up To Cancer?
Stand Up To Cancer was launched in the UK by Channel 4 and Cancer Research UK in 2012. The campaign uses television, comedy, celebrity challenges and public fundraising to generate money for cancer research.
Cancer Research UK says the initiative supports translational research: work intended to move scientific discoveries from laboratories towards tests and treatments that can benefit patients.
The entertainment is therefore the route into a much more serious subject. Episodes may move between comic attempts to avoid detection and personal accounts from people whose lives have been affected by cancer.
Those stories are an important reminder that the programme is not simply a competition between celebrities and surveillance specialists. It is also designed to raise awareness and encourage viewers to support research intended to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
How Celebrity Hunted works
The celebrity edition follows the central idea of Channel 4’s civilian Hunted, but compresses the chase into 14 days.
Each pair must leave behind the digital habits and familiar routines that make modern life easy to trace. Phone calls, cash withdrawals, vehicles, friends and social-media sightings can all give the hunters a lead.
That task is particularly difficult for recognisable contestants. Asking the public for assistance can secure transport or somewhere to hide, but every encounter also creates another person capable of revealing their location.
Channel 4 describes the production as its most ambitious celebrity series so far, beginning with an aerial launch among London’s skyscrapers and building towards an extraction attempt for any fugitives who remain uncaught.
Entertainment with a purpose
Celebrity Hunted works because its cast brings together very different relationships: close friends, professional colleagues, siblings and a father and daughter.
Their efforts to stay hidden provide the comedy and suspense, while the Stand Up To Cancer partnership gives the series a purpose beyond determining who can avoid capture.
Celebrity Hunted is showing on Channel 4, with episodes also available through the broadcaster’s streaming service. Donations to the campaign can be made through the official Stand Up To Cancer website.