BBC TO AIR DRAMA BASED ON ELITE UNIT SAS founder says screenwriter’s new hero uncle will be something special
SCIENTISTS CROWN HIGGINS GREATEST SNOOKER STAR
The Crown. People watch dramas like that on television and it becomes history – they actually believe the stories, not realising that everything is not correct.
“But in this case I think the history and the great story will be close.
“Steven Knight is a brilliant writer – I love Peaky Blinders
– and I’m very much looking forward to seeing the finished result.”
Scots Guards Colonel
Stirling founded the SAS in
1941 after volunteering to join Commandos in the Middle
East. Unimpressed that so many Commando missions didn’t work or had to be cancel led, he and friend Lieutenant “Jock” Lewes had a conversation about the mi l itary potential of parachuting.
He joined Lewes on an experimental parachute jump – the first to be made in the Middle East – but suffered a serious spinal injury when the exercise went wrong.
While convalescing in hospital, he had time to go over the discussions he’d had with Lewes and set to work devising the creation of a new parachute raiding force that would operate as a small unit, carrying out acts of sabotage and gaining intelligence behind enemy lines. Stirling, who came from an ar istocratic Perthshire family with a proud military heritage, used his social connections to get approval to set up the unit – for which he devised the motto “Who Dares Wins”.
Work ing a longside Lewes, they recruited 55 men for a mission that would see them dropped behind enemy lines in Libya to destroy enemy aircraft on the ground.
Launched in a f ierce s t orm, the mi s s ion tragically failed, with just 21 of the 55 men returning. Keeping faith in the potential of their unit, the survivors carried out a second mission just a month later – no longer using parachutes – and over the next 12 months enjoyed great success, causing havoc in a string of hit-and-run raids behind enemy lines.
One of the first volunteers for Stirling’s unit was British Lions and Ireland rugby player Paddy Mayne.
The exploits of the unit became legendary. In September 1942 the SAS were given regimental status and continue to be an elite fighting force. The BBC drama, SAS: Rogue Heroes, is based on Ben Macintyre’s bestselling book of the same name. Former Scots Guards officer Archie, ex-husband of the late acting icon Diana Rigg and dad of actress Rachael Stirling, said he hoped the new drama would share his uncle’s story with a new generation of fans.
He added: “David was a remarkable man, not just in regards to the SAS but in everything he did.
“His nickname was the
Phantom Major.
“When I was very young, he was abroad but he would come back to Keir and, as I grew up, he was around a lot and we got on pretty well.
“He treated everyone exactly the same – old or young, black or white, rich or poor.
“The principles of the SAS are very much a l l f o r o n e a nd t ha t everyone who joins should be classless, self- disciplined, humble and goodhumoured – and that was very much David.
“He was one of those people who always had a project on the go and was very much ahead of his time.
“I’m not sure what he would think of a lot of the SAS-related things you see on television.
“It’s f lattering but it’s created a genre of people who think they get what the SAS is real ly all about when they don’t.
“But Steven Knight is a really good egg, who writes a brilliant script.”
A release date has not yet been set for the drama.
Knight said: “I’m really excited to be gathering together the very best of a new generation of British and international talent to tell this remarkable story.
“The people who are depicted and who did such extraordinary things were young, in their 20s, and we have made a conscious decision to cast people of the same age.”
Sex Education actor Connor Swindells said he was deeply honoured to be cast as Stirling.
He said: “Portraying such an interesting man is incredibly exciting and I feel very lucky to be able to do so. It’s going to be an amazing ride.”
Allen – the brother of singer Lily Allen and son of actor Keith Allen – will play Lewes, while Skins star Jack O’Connell will play Mayne.
O’Connell said: “Playing the legend Paddy Mayne is an honour. I can’t wait to get stuck into the challenge of telling this story.”
Mark MarkHowarth Howarth
It’s the sort of formula that would be enough to leave even Albert Einstein scratching his head.
But snooker-loopy scientists have used an equation to crown John Higgins the greatest potter of the past 50 years.
Mathematicians crunched the results of nearly 48,000 matches since 1968 to find out who should be hailed king of the cue.
And it was Wishaw hotshot H i g g i n s wh o surprisingly came out on top – edging out six-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and fellow Scot Stephen Hendry, who are both often lauded as the best in the sport’s history. But Higgins played down the findings. He said: “I’m truly flattered but have tot admitditI’I’ve nott won enoughh offththe big titles consistently to be regarded as the greatest of all time.
“If I had to give the accolade to anyone, it would have to be my rival for so many years – Ronnie.”
Snooker’s official world rankings are based around who wins the most prize money. But scientists from Limerick University in Ireland used a database of top-level results between 1968 and 2020 to find out who should be regarded as the
greatestgreate player of the modern era. TheyTh built an equation which weighted all wins according to the standard of opponents and taking into account head-to-head results between the sport’s biggest names.
A computer algorithm produced the league table of greats, which was published in the Journal of Complex Networks.
Four- time world champion Higgins, 45, came out top with O’Sullivan second, Welshman Mark Williams third and Hendry fourth.
Police watchdogs have pledged to reveal details about what’s said at “secret meetings” after a damning report.
Dame El i sh A ng i o l ini ’ s independent police complaint review called for changes at the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) as part of 81 recommendations.
The SPA is tasked with holding Pol ice Scotland to account , including investigating complaints about senior off icers. But the quango has been accused of failing to be transparent.
Pol i t icians accused SPA management of running it like a “secret society” and likened the organisation to the Kremlin.
Last November former lord advocate Dame Elish called on the SPA to “increase public confidence” by publishing more information – including key minutes of private sessions – in a r e v i ew of pol i c e complaints procedures.
The oversight body, wh o s e f o rme r chairwoman Susan Deacon quit in 2019 amid claims it was “fundamental ly flawed”, said it will now implement changes within weeks.
The SPA said it would be “reviewing the minutes of private sessions with a view to publication of items as appropriate” by May.
The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland called for an increase in taxpayer-funded bodies making minutes available to the public.
Its convener Carole Ewart said: “We welcome this initiative and review process. Currently the duty to publish minutes is seen as key to building public trust and meeting the duty to promote transparency and accountability in publicly funded services.
“As such, only that which needs to remain confidential should.” In 2018 the SPA was cr it icised for quiet ly clearing Assistant Chief Constable Bernie Higgins in a private session following claims he swore at colleagues and fired guns unlawfully at a practice range.
Former SPA board member Moi Ali quit the body in 2017 after she objected to plans to hold its board meetings in private. She said: “When I joined the SPA in 2012, minutes of private sessions were published.
“What the real question here is why the SPA stopped it in the first place and why it has taken arm-twisting by Dame Elish to do it again.
“The SPA has a duty to carry out its functions in a transparent way. There are, obviously, some details that need to be redacted. But that should be the exception rather than the rule.”
Last December, former Labour health secretary Susan Deacon warned the SPA was “joined at the hip” with Police Scotland – the force it is supposed to provide oversight on. She welcomed Dame Elish’s report rep re and called it “game changing”.
The T SPA said: “The Dame Elish recommendations rec r relate to the Complaints Co C and Conduct Committee and an a a proposal is due to be discussed at the committee in May which, if approved, ap will be implemented by that tha committee.”
They Th added that the Complaints and an Conduct Committee has a “hhigher proportion of business taken tak in private sessions” compared to other SPA committees.