SAS Rogue Heroes: Meet the ‘fearless’ Special Forces unit portrayed in BBC series

The BBC’s latest drama will follow the “adrenaline-fuelled origins” of the SAS during the Second World War.

Based on best-selling author Ben Macintyre’s book, SAS: Rogue Heroes stars Jack O’Connell, Alfie Allen and Connor Swindells and is written and directed by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight.

The six-part series is inspired by true events of the formation of the “fearless, reckless Special Forces unit, its legend forged among the mayhem of WWII”.

Knight shared that he had to tone the script down to make the real-life stories of the war heroes portrayed seem more plausible for audiences, with the series beginning with a disclaimer that says the events shown “which seem most unbelievable… are mostly true”.

Macintyre described his book’s new adaption to The Times as “superb” with a “rocking modern soundtrack, gripping action and some superb individual performances”.

“Knight’s script [depicts] a group of courageous warriors who teeter on the edge of madness, revelling in warfare, and deeply, irrevocably damaged by it,” Macintyre added.

Who are the real-life war heroes portrayed in the upcoming drama?

Connor Swindells

Sex Education star Swindells plays David Stirling, the founder and creator of the SAS.

The series follows the eccentric young officer and his comrades after he grows increasingly frustrated at the army’s operations and imagines the beginnings of the special service.

Stirling “fights for permission to recruit the toughest, boldest and brightest soldiers for a small undercover unit that will create mayhem behind enemy lines”.

Knight shared that while researching Stirling, who died in 1990, he found that he and his fellow soldiers did not fear death, with the series depicting them blowing up planes and throwing hand grenades for fun.

In his later life, Knight said Stirling still wanted “the possibility of death” and would even go as far to close his eyes when crossing main roads, according to his secretary.

Jack O'Connell

O'Connell, who is best known for playing Cook in Skins, stars as Blaire Mayne in SAS: Rogue Heroes.

Also affectionately and commonly known as Colonel Paddy, Mayne was a British army officer from Newtonards, Ireland, and was one of the founding members of the SAS.

O’Connell told The Telegraph that Mayne was “a man who went to war”, meaning “it was required of him to be violent.

“These are the lads that society probably does want to lock up in peacetime. But when it comes to situations of conflict, they’re your heroes,” he explained.

Mayne was also a poet and rugby player and there is debate about the late soldier’s sexuality, which O’Connell said he “enjoyed” playing the ambiguity of. The war hero died in a car accident in 1955.

Alfie Allen

Allen, who starred as Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones, will play army officer Jock Lewes.

Born in Kolkata, India and raised in Australia, Lewes co-founded the SAS with Stirling and Mayne and established a gruelling programme of physical exercise, parachute training and desert survival for recruits, expected to be explored in the series.

Lewes was killed in combat in 1941. It is not known if the series will show Lewes’s death.

SAS: Rogue Heroes begins 30 October at 9pm on BBC One.