RECRUITS READY FOR MORE TOUGH TESTS...
SAS: Who Dares Wins has a new recruit to its staff – military veteran Melvyn Downes. By
IT’S been a tough year for many people, but it seems that 21 men and women decided they need even more of a challenge and signed up to go through the most unforgiving selection course yet, as SAS: Who Dares Wins returns for a new run.
Chief Instructor Ant Middleton and his team of Directing Staff (DS), Foxy and Billy, are joined by ex-SAS operative Melvyn Downes to put the recruits through their paces in the wild of Scotland.
In last week’s opening episode, the process started before they even arrived, as the DS hijacked the train bringing them to their base.
Next, the gruelling hill challenge saw two struggling recruits being told to leave the show, and a third, Grenfell firefighter Ricky Nuttall, who opened up about his PTSD after attending the tragedy in 2017, quit at the end of the first episode.
Melvyn spent 24 years serving in the British Military, including 11 years in the SAS.
He says of being involved in the show: “It was an exciting experience but also terrifying as I’ve spent most of my life undercover.
“Once I got over the initial shock of all the cameras, I loved being back in that environment with the fellow DSs, putting the recruits through their paces.
“A couple of the personal stories that the civilians shared with us really hit home for me too, especially as I had similar experiences.”
The Stoke-born 56-year-old was impressed with how authentic the reality show is.
“It gives you a great essence of the
Special Forces, especially the types of tasks and missions we’d be asked to complete over the various terrains,” he says.
“The show pushes civilians to both their physical and mental limits, just like the real thing. It brought back a lot of memories from my selection.
“Of course, the civilian show is a lot shorter than SAS selection, which is over six months, but it does a great job of giving you a real taste of the experience.”
Melvyn was also impressed with the standard of the recruits.
“The ones we pick are those we’d be able to count on during a mission, so we’d like to believe they’d survive the course.
“You also have to remember that viewers may only see a brief snippet of a beasting or interrogation on TV but, in reality, the civilians are put through their paces for much longer periods. It’s survival of the fittest and I was really impressed with them.”
But he was still surprised by who lasted the distance and who didn’t. He reveals: “The ones I thought had what it takes to make it sadly didn’t, and there were also a few dark horses who surprised me.”
In tonight’s episode the remaining recruits are sent deeper into the wild and unforgiving terrain of the Isle of Raasay in Scotland.
They have to perform a forward abseil, are exposed to extreme cold in a water immersion exercise and are required to operate as a team in a pitch-black disused tunnel.
■ SAS: Who Dares Wins continues tonight on
Channel 4, at 9pm