A&E's Fugitive Chronicles will grip the bounty hunter in you, April 1

By April MacIntyre Mar 16, 2010, 18:20 GMT

If you love to hunt for the bad guys, A&E has a great new reality TV series for you.

“Fugitive Chronicles” is an original docu-drama series that cinematically brings to life the most compelling fugitive captures in recent history.

Producers stage gritty reconstructions, use archival footage and create a fugitive narrative from real testimony and exclusive taped interviews with law enforcement officials, each one-hour episode dramatically brings each infamous manhunt to life. “Fugitive Chronicles” premieres Thursday, April 1 at 10PM ET/PT on A&E.

At the heart of each gripping real-life manhunt will be the cinematic reconstruction of the exhaustive efforts that take place, often in very dangerous conditions, to find and bring a fugitive to justice.

Told from the perspective of the hunter and the hunted, these dramatic true-life stories are told through exclusive interviews with law enforcement officials closest to the case and the fugitive’s story based on real interrogation tapes, court transcripts and news footage.

Officials will share exactly when they learned of the fugitive’s flight, what their first course of action was and how they went about executing their takedown.

“This show pioneers a new genre of television because it artfully blends true-life narrative and scripted filmmaking,” said Robert Sharenow, Senior Vice President of Nonfiction and Alternative Programming, A&E Network and BIO. “This innovative format will fit perfectly with A&E’s slate of both real-life and scripted justice programming.”

Premise:

The nine-episode season of “Fugitive Chronicles” kicks off with prison escapee Ralph “Bucky” Philips, a career criminal who spent most of his life in and out of prison. His flight set off the most expensive manhunt in New York’s history as Bucky led hundreds of state troopers on a cat and mouse chase through the towns and backwoods of western New York for the better part of five months. Captain Steve Nigrelli spearheaded the ground manhunt to catch him, and will never forget the horrific events of that summer. During his time on the run a host of extraordinarily lucky and reckless maneuvers allowed Bucky to remain free and the fugitive was able to thwart the high profile investigation for five months in 2006.