A pair of fugitives on the run, search parties looking to recapture them, the world's media descending on a sleepy rural setting - it has all the makings of a classic thriller.

Except that 25 years ago today it was a pair of pigs - soon christened the 'Tamworth Two' - who had made a bid for freedom. Reporter Rhys Griffiths recalls the saga which ended with a new life right here in Kent...

When they arrived at the slaughterhouse in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, on January 8, 1998, their days, if not hours, were surely numbered.

The sister and brother, later to be known to the world as Butch and Sundance, the Tamworth Two, were among a trio of pigs council road sweeper Arnoldo Dijulio was bringing from his garden to have killed.

But the plucky pair were having none of it.

They wriggled free under the perimeter fence and made their escape by swimming the River Avon to the relative safety of nearby gardens.

The hunt was now on - and the enduring legend of the Tamworth Two was about to be born.

"They were half wild boar and half Tamworth, and Tamworths are quite a lively breed on their own, but introduce wild boar and they're extremely lively.

"Which is why they managed to get away on the run in the first place and stay un-captured for as long as they did."

So recalls Davy McColm, manager at the Rare Breeds Centre in Woodchurch, near Ashford, who knew the porcine pair well.

But we're skipping ahead in the tale, for now the daring duo are loose in Wiltshire and the net is closing.

According to local press reports, Butch and Sundance were happy foraging and rooting about in what is described as "an impenetrable thicket" near Tetbury Hill.

They may have been worth around £50 if they had made it as far as the abattoir, but word of their antics has spread and now Fleet Street and the world's media are also on their trail.

As with many a legend, the precise details may have become exaggerated in the retelling, but it is said bidding had spiralling to £15,000 by the time pigs' owner, Mr Dijulio, cracked and promised they would not be for the butcher's block after all.

The pair were eventually cornered, although Sundance required a tranquiliser dose to bring him down, and their time on the run was finally at an end.

Then the Daily Mail newspaper swooped in to purchase the fugitives and the exclusive rights to the scoop. And this is how the pair ended up calling Kent home.

Mr McColm said: "The Daily Mail themselves were very good in terms of helping to support them. They helped us financially as a charity, paid for their feed and their vet bills throughout their lives.

"They didn't just put them here and then forget about us, they were very supportive. So from point of view of the Rare Breeds Centre they were a very good asset for us as an attraction."

Having settled in Woodchurch after their re-capture in 1998, the pair were firm favourites among visitors to the farming attraction.

Many older visitors remembered their story from the extensive media coverage at the time, while younger guests enjoyed learning about their remarkable week on the run.

And what were the pair like to be around during their years in Woodchurch?

"They were getting older by time I got here," recalled Mr McColm, who has worked on the farm for 20 years.

"She [Butch] could be a grumpy old git, she really was a grump and she was the boss.

"Like most relationships of brothers and sisters, it's usually the sister that's the boss and that was the case here. She was still fast - they were both still fast when it suited them.

"Whereas old Sundance was just very much quite happy just flopping the sun, sort of just taking life easy.

"The pair of them cuddled up in the middle of the wallow in the height of the summer.

"They were no problem, but you did have to watch the gates because if they did manage to get out, we weren't going to catch them easily even in their latter years.

"They had a turn of speed on them."

Sadly in 2010 Butch succumbed to suspected liver cancer, and seven months later, in May 2011, Sundance had to be put down after suffering with worsening arthritis.

But, having had their tale told in a £2 million BBC film as well as capturing hearts around the world, the memory of the Tamworth Two will surely always live on.