Is SAS Rogue Heroes the most gripping small screen war drama we can’t wait to watch?
As acclaimed Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight unleashes SAS Rogue Heroes, Danielle de Wolfe hears more about the series from stars including Jack O’Connell and Alfie Allen
It would be fair to say that anything Steven Knight touches turns to gold. The Academy Award-nominated screenwriter was thrust into the spotlight courtesy of Birminghambased BBC drama Peaky Blinders. However, the unprecedented scale of the show’s success left many wondering: what next?
We’re now set to find out, as his new adrenalin-fuelled series SAS Rogue Heroes prepares to hit our screens. Rewinding the clock to 1941, the Second World War is well under way and the darkest days of the war seem eternal. Things, however, are about to change, as a ramshackle bunch of eccentric military recruits unknowingly prepare to change the course of history from North Africa.
“The whole thing, I am so proud of it. It’s so bloody good,” says Knight, breaking into a smile.
“Virtually everything was a surprise,” admits the 63-year-old director, adding: “The idea that these people, especially in their early 20s, some of them 19 years old, went there to do this. I just hope we’ve done justice to who they were and what they did.”
Based on Ben Macintyre’s best-selling book of the same name, the six-part spectacle’s all-star cast has Peaky fans salivating.
Starring Sex Education’s Connor Swindells, Skins alumni Jack O’Connell, Game of Thrones’ Alfie Allen and The Wire’s Dominic West, this testosteronedriven affair is brought down to Earth by Modern Love star Sofia Boutella.
TURNING BACK TIME
Transporting viewers to the sun-scorched deserts of Cairo, SAS Rogue Heroes serves up a slice of history – albeit with a smattering of artistic dramatisation for good measure. Cementing the origins of Britain’s elite SAS unit, this eye-opening, horrifying and, at times, hilarious depiction of history has Steven Knight’s fingerprints all over it.
Following “arguably the most famous military regiment in the world”, according to Allen, the 36-year-old Emmy-nominated actor stars as Lieutenant Jock Lewes. “I was in the countryside when I got the script. I was actually hanging out with an old military guy, and when I told him the names – David Stirling, Jock Lewes and Paddy Mayne – his face lit up. He was like wow, you’re playing Jock Lewes?”
A series built upon the foundations of Macintryre’s acclaimed novel, Allen’s co-star Swindells – who plays the eccentric founder David Stirling – says the reputation of the book is one that precedes it. He also recounts how the work initially came as a recommendation from his brother, “a massive war fanatic”.
“I’m laughing because I’ve never seen him light up in the way that he did,” recalls 26-year-old Swindells of the moment he made mention of the role.
“I mean, it was absolutely unbelievable. And when I read the book, I felt the exact same way – and the scripts to match were absolute fresh fettle.”
THE MEN BEHIND THE UNIFORMS
A sense of excitement shared by the whole cast, filming for the series took place in Morocco. Exposed to soaring temperatures and arid landscapes, Allen admits it was a time “camaraderie really started to form”.
Fresh out of lockdown, the sense of freedom was palpable. The cast, who took part in a range of training exercises prior to venturing out to North Africa, recount their experiences, learning to fire a Tommy gun and adjusting to the weight of military equipment.
With Allen and Swindells sitting in appreciative silence, the cast reflect on how the real-life SAS founders trekked across open desert in 50-degree heat, wearing layers of sheepskin, jackets and woollen uniforms.
“You definitely need a certain type of fella to be pulling off the type of things these lads were pulling off – groundbreaking and real leaps into the unknown,” reflects O’Connell, 32.
Stepping into the shoes of Paddy Mayne, the British actor says the “secretive” and “unobserved” nature of the job plays into the origin story’s sense of “mystery”.
No stranger to WW2 dramas and military roles alike, the Bafta Awardwinning The North Water star having cut his teeth as soldier Gary Hook in ‘71 and Olympian Louis Zamperini in Unbroken.
“A lot of what they’re up to, I think I’m right in saying, was illegal, hence the level of secrecy that surrounded it,” says O’Connell.
“I think what the series does a good job of is documenting how they were perceived within the army.
“The hierarchy within the army would probably be in alignment with that theory - that they’re sort of expendable, I suppose, as any soldier is.”
THE MILITARY SEAL OF APPROVAL
Relaying how the band of men “changed the course of the war”, Knight describes the men as “a ragged group” who were a force unto themselves.
“The military suggests conformity, usually. It suggests uniform and it suggests people obeying orders,” says Knight.
“These people did the opposite. They disrupted the uniform until they looked like pirates and Bedouins. They didn’t obey orders. They didn’t even give each other orders, they didn’t salute.”
The moment of truth, according to Knight, came when a group of current and former SAS soldiers sat down to watch the series – a reflection that sees the screenwriter take a deep inhalation of breath. It’s an experience he describes as “quite nerve-wracking”, particularly given the varying positions of hierarchy present at the time.
“So, we did this screening, and we sit there and look at their reactions. They loved it. I mean, they absolutely loved it,” says Knight, smiling. “The first thing they said was the humour was authentic,” he recalls, noting a fine line that often separates the darkly macabre from the hilarious.
“In those situations, when your friend has just been blown to pieces, there is this bleakness, and there is this horror, which perhaps will come and hit you a year later.
“But in that moment, there is this funniness, this huge madness. And I think my task was to try to balance that, so that you are seeing the horror – but you’re also seeing how human beings react.”
SAS Rogue Heroes begins tonight on BBC One, 9pm with all episodes then available on BBC iPlayer