Fans of 1980s action comedy Midnight Run starring Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin will be delighted to see the movie lives on, not in sequel form but in Channel 4 format Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing, which launches Monday.
The David Brest movie sees a bounty hunter, played by De Niro, handcuff himself to a rogue accountant who is wanted by mob bosses and the FBI as they travel from New York to L.A. Nearly 40 years after hitting the big screen, the movie inspired David Glover, boss of Handcuffed producer 72 Films, to pitch a format that reflects an ever-polarizing British society but has plenty of heart.
“At first they hate each other but by the end of the film they’ve got past their differences,” said Glover. “By the end they almost love each other. That kind of comedy is often done with just two people. So I started talking to Channel 4 about divided Britain and a divided society, and how we could capture that in an interesting way.”
‘Midnight Run’. Image: Universal / courtesy Everett Collection.
The resulting format is Handcuffed, hosted by Celebrity Traitors alum Jonathan Ross, a big talking point at today’s London TV Screenings event for its distributor, Fremantle.
Unsurprisingly, the pairs in Handcuffed don’t have much in common, at least on the surface. In the opening ep, a body positive feminist is put together with a “gym bro” who she accuses of espousing toxic masculinity. Then, a relentlessly posh gentleman who owns more than 50 cars is chained to a hard-working Londoner who works in a pub and runs a cleaning business. More odd couple pairings follow.
To win the £100,000 ($135,000) prize, contestants need to be the final pair standing. They are first handcuffed in front of a studio audience and Ross before heading out to live in each other’s lives for a couple of days. They then have to go on holiday before being isolated in a house, taking part in a quiz, and then a final race. The show therefore combines state of the nation with elements of comedy, drama and ramped-up competition.
Tim Whitwell, exec producer, said he and Glover were something of a test case before they set off to find the pairings. “He’s posh, clever and makes high-brow documentaries, and I’m an East End cockney no-mark who makes reality TV,” he joked. “We handcuffed ourselves to each other and something beautiful emerged.”
The show’s title wills out in every second of the format, which proved quite the challenge for the production team. Whitwell stressed that the pairings are genuinely handcuffed together every moment, with an extended chain offered only when they go to the toilet. If they un-chain, they are eliminated.
“We were very hardcore about it,” said Whitwell. “They had to be handcuffed 24/7 and out of that came the comedy. The funny thing about Midnight Run is that they can’t get away from each other, so we had to stay true to that.”
The pairings show up a divided society and what happens when disparate groups come together, but the producers stress to us several times that this is first and foremost an entertainment show. It differs, therefore, from Go Back to Where You Came From, the Channel 4 immigration format that saw six Brits follow routes taken by refugees and was criticized by some human rights groups, especially when one of its contestants was revealed to have posted antisemitic tweets.
“We didn’t put the mission first, we wanted to entertain first and then the mission comes with that,” added Whitwell, while Glover said Go Back to Where You Came From was “more issues based.”
Jonathan Ross: more than just a presenter
Jonathan Ross on ‘The Celebrity Traitors’
BBC/Studio Lambert
Helping with the entertainment was Ross, whose stock has soared since his star turn on Celebrity Traitors and who, with Handcuffed, is presenting his first Channel 4 show since Saturday Zoo in the early 1990s.
Glover said Ross, who was an EP, did way more than just stand infront of the camera. “He’s been advising on the format and gave some very clever suggestions,” he added. “I think people often underestimate presenters. Jonathan has been on television for decades and decades and has a very interesting angle on what works and what doesn’t.”
As well finding out what makes the contestants tick, Whitwell said you “learn something” about the “brilliantly witty” Ross.
As they prepare to pitch the show to buyers in the UK capital, Glover and Whitwell see plenty opportunity for international versions, as does outgoing Fremantle global entertainment boss Andrew Llinares. “We’ve always been excited about Handcuffed because it offers entertainment with a big purpose, which feels timely in today’s divided world,” said Llinares. “It represents the kind of scalable, talkable reality format that travels across territories while tapping into a very contemporary cultural conversation. By forcing unlikely pairs to navigate everyday life together, the series delivers compelling character-driven moments and a clear competitive engine, making it highly adaptable for local broadcasters and platforms. It’s a big, returnable reality format with a universal premise, and we’re excited to share it with partners around the world and to begin building its international rollout.”
Glover said streamers are already showing interest, while Whitwell, whose credits include Hunted and The Island, noted that he has already thought about possible development points for Season 2, which could build out the part of the show when the contestants are isolated in a house, for example.
For now, the team urge readers to kick back with a bit of Midnight Run as prep for what they hope will be the next big thing format.