“The events depicted which seem most unbelievable…,” a cheeky disclaimer advises, “are mostly true.” As the early episodes gleefully show, the regiment’s origin story is rooted in make-believe.
The story gives him a licence to swill: to mix facts – the stuff of black and white newsreels – with colourised fictions. This is to the advantage of Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, who in SAS Rogue Heroes (BBC One, all episodes on iPlayer) has taken command of Ben Macintyre’s bestseller about the regiment’s North African genesis. If Swindells feels a touch green to lead the regiment, O’Connell and Allen – both actors with a pleasing madness in their eyes – bring a roguish intensity.The SAS is so steeped in legend that we civilians will huff up almost any tall tale about it. The SAS? “Sounds like a branch of the f***ing Post Office,” comes Paddy’s earthy verdict. Together, they will found the SAS, via a series of alcohol-fuelled shenanigans. It’s 1941, Egypt, and this is the story of three men: David Stirling ( Sex Education’s Connor Swindells), a toff burdened with horrific levels of self-confidence (or, in the words of his commanding officer, a “drunken, insubordinate malcontent”), Jock Lewes ( Game of Thrones’s Alfie Allen), a “mad martinet”, and Paddy Mayne ( Starred Up’s Jack O’Connell), an Irishman with a reckless propensity for chaos. In point of fact, SAS Rogue Heroes is something of a prestige drama – albeit one imbued with a streak of deep tackiness that befits its title.
The BBC’s new Sunday night thriller – SAS Rogue Heroes, based on the book by prolific popular historian Ben Macintyre – is saddled with a name so naff that it conjures images either of video game stealth missions or Ant Middleton dangling celebrities off cliffs by their toenails. Never judge a book by its cover, they say, and perhaps the same is true for TV.
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