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SAS: Rogue Heroes

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For the BBC 2 documentary SAS Rogue Warriors, see List of television programmes broadcast by the BBC § S.

SAS: Rogue Heroes
Series 1 DVD cover
GenreHistorical drama
Created bySteven Knight
Written bySteven Knight
Directed byTom Shankland
Starring
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes6
Production
Executive producers
  • Tommy Bulfin
  • Martin Haines
  • Emma Kingsman-Lloyd
  • Karen Wilson
  • Steven Knight
Running time55–58 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network
Release30 October 2022 (2022-10-30) –
present (present)

SAS Rogue Heroes is a 2022 British historical drama television series created by Steven Knight, which depicts the origins of the British Army Special Air Service (SAS) during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II.[1][2] The storyline is a broadly accurate representation of real events, as described by Ben Macintyre in his 2016 book of the same name.[3][4]

On 4 December 2022, the BBC confirmed that a second series had been commissioned, based upon SAS operations in the European theatre of war.[5]

Premise

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The series begins in a Cairo hospital in 1941, when, after a failed training exercise, British Army officer David Stirling has the idea of creating a special commando unit that could operate deep behind enemy lines.[1]

Cast and characters

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Main

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Supporting

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Episodes

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SeriesEpisodesOriginally airedAverage UK viewers
(millions)
First airedLast aired
1630 October 2022 (2022-10-30)4 December 2022 (2022-12-04)5.65

Series 1 (2022)

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No.TitleDirected by [6]Written by [6]Original release date [7] Viewers
(millions) [8][a]
1"Episode 1"Tom ShanklandSteven Knight30 October 2022 (2022-10-30)6.55
In spring 1941, British forces in North Africa are losing ground against the advancing German Afrika Korps. British officer David Stirling takes part in military exercise where the trucks run out of fuel. Paddy Mayne defeats three British military police in a hand to hand fight while Jock Lewes and his unit steal parachutes from an Australian Army unit. Coming together, the three men come up with the idea of forming an elite parachute regiment to raid German Army truck convoys traveling through Libya. Mayne and Stirling also meet Eve Mansour, a Free French military intelligence officer based in Cairo who seeks their help for the Free French forces. Mayne is initially reluctant to participate and seeks transfer to the Burma campaign. Putting their idea into action, Lewes and Stirling parachute out of a plane into the desert, but Stirling's parachute tears and he is seriously injured.
2"Episode 2"Tom ShanklandSteven Knight6 November 2022 (2022-11-06)5.63
Stirling is rescued by British forces and recovers at hospital in Cairo. Meanwhile, Mansour meets with Brigadier Dudley Clarke, seeking his help in recruiting paratroopers for the Free French forces. Mayne is sent to military prison after assaulting a superior officer. Still determined to establish his parachute unit, Stirling recruits Mayne and lobbies Commander-in-Chief Claude Auchinleck and General Neil Ritchie. Clarke agrees to support Stirling's plan on the condition that it adopts the name of a "ghost" military unit known as the Special Air Service. With the help of Mayne and Lewes, Stirling recruits several misfits and killers into the unit. As part of their first training exercise, the unit is tasked with travelling back from their training camp to Cairo.
3"Episode 3"Tom ShanklandSteven Knight13 November 2022 (2022-11-13)5.67
For their first operation, the SAS led by Stirling and Lewes take part in a nighttime parachute drop during Operation Crusader in November 1941. Due to adverse conditions and darkness, the operation is a failure with a third of the unit killed or captured. After being rescued by the Long Range Desert Group, the SAS set up a new desert base and "raid" a New Zealand Army camp for supplies, including a piano. The SAS then takes part in a successful night time raid against German and Italian airfields in Libya, inflicting significant casualties, and destroying aircraft and fuel tanks. The successful operation draws the attention of the British GHQ in Cairo and Mansour.
4"Episode 4"Tom ShanklandSteven Knight20 November 2022 (2022-11-20)5.16
The SAS continue their operations against Axis forces along the Sirte route. During an operation, Lewes is fatally gunned down by a German Bf 109 fighter plane, leaving the unit without a training officer. Flashbacks depict Lewes' relationship with his fiancee Mirren Barford. Following Lewes' death, Stirling promotes several SAS personnel including Sergeant Mike Sadler. The SAS also adopts the motto "Who Dares Wins." Stirling pursues a romantic relationship with Mansour. Mansour and Clarke later arrange a meeting between Stirling and Free French Captain Georges Bergé, who proposes that the SAS incorporate a squadron of French paratroopers. Stirling tasks Mayne with training the French paratroopers in the ways of the SAS.
5"Episode 5"Tom ShanklandSteven Knight27 November 2022 (2022-11-27)5.58
Paddy Mayne trains the Free French and French Foreign Legion soldiers in desert combat. The French unit also includes Jews, Germans, and African colonial soldiers. His unorthodox training methods, including dividing the troops along ethnic lines during a tower-building exercise, causes friction with the French soldiers particularly Lieutenant Augustin Jordan. The relationship deteriorates after Mayne assaults several of the French trainees in a drunken brawl. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Winston Churchill's son Randolph accompanies Stirling and some SAS operatives on an undercover mission to the Italian-occupied port of Benghazi. They plant explosives in the harbour and escape. An impressed Randolph promises to lobby his father for more equipment and funding to the SAS. Returning to base, Stirling convinces Mayne to make peace with Eoin's passing and repair relations with the French soldiers. As a conciliatory gesture, the two men serve the Free French soldiers a roasted gazelle.
6"Episode 6"Tom ShanklandSteven Knight4 December 2022 (2022-12-04)5.33
In Cairo recovering from sand sores, Stirling meets with Winston Churchill and obtains his overwhelming support. Churchill widens the SAS area of operations to the entire southern Mediterranean, including Crete, in order to ensure that two convoys to reinforce Malta are successful now that Tobruk has fallen. Stirling plans attacks at multiple airbases on the Mediterranean coast, as well as Heraklion in Crete. The attacks are successful, although Mayne's group must scrub their attack when their target is warned by early detonations from the French paratroopers' attack on a nearby base, and one French attack is a complete failure when it is betrayed by one of the German Free French troopers. During that failed operation, one of the French Jewish soldiers detonates an explosive that kills or wounds numerous enemy personnel. Bergé is captured by German forces in Crete. Stirling returns to Cairo to celebrate the success, but is dismayed to learn that Mansour has apparently been lost in an air crash while returning from Alexandria. After the United States enters the war, Stirling is captured while investigating a possible route which will allow the British and American forces to link up. With Stirling's capture, Mayne is promoted to major and placed in charge of the SAS.
  1. ^ 7-day ratings

Production

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In March 2021, it was announced that filming had begun on the six-part miniseries, with Connor Swindells, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Allen, Sofia Boutella and Dominic West in starring roles. The series was written by Steven Knight and directed by Tom Shankland.[6] In June, César Domboy joined the cast.[9] Location work was done in Morocco.[10]

Filming for the second season occurred in Croatia, Italy, England and Scotland over a six month period between May and September 2023. According to director Stephen Woolfenden, production for the six-episode second season consisted of 81 shoot days, about 370 scenes, and almost 2,000 slates over two units.[11][12]

Release

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The series made its premiere on BBC One on 30 October 2022 in the UK.[2] It simultaneously made its US debut on MGM+.[13] In New Zealand, it was released on TVNZ+.[14]

The first episode was watched 5,526,000 times on iPlayer alone during 2022, making it the fifth most viewed individual programme on the platform that year.[15]

In November 2024, the BBC released the trailer for the second season of the series. The second season will be released on BBC One and iPlayer in the United Kingdom, and MGM+ on the United States. Banijay Rights will distribute the series internationally.[16]

Reception

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Writing in The Guardian, Antony Beevor commented that the series was "unmissable viewing", and "achieved the right balance of irreverence and admiration all the way through with a brilliant contrast in characters".[3]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 100% with an average rating of 8.3/10, based on 12 critic reviews. The website's critical consensus said: "With a terrific cast inhabiting this roster of likeable rapscallions, Rogue Heroes is a fun throwback to down-and-dirty adventure stories."[17] Metacritic gave the series a weighted average score of 78 out of 100 based on seven critic reviews, indicating "Generally favourable reviews".[18]

SAS Rogue Heroes was the sixth most-watched UK drama series of 2022, and the fourth most popular of the year on the BBC.[19]

Historical accuracy

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Members of the 'French Squadron SAS' (1ere Compagnie de Chasseurs Parachutistes) in Tunisia. Previously a company of Free French paratroopers, the French SAS squadron were the first of a range of units "acquired" by Major Stirling as the SAS expanded.

At the beginning of each episode, the viewer is informed that the series is "[b]ased on a true story", and that "the events depicted which seem most unbelievable… are mostly true".[20]

Unlike the main trio of Stirling, Mayne, and Lewes, the character of Eve Mansour is fictional. Sofia Boutella, notes that her character is influenced by real-life female spies such as Noor Inayat Khan and Virginia Hall.[21]

As military historian Antony Beevor noted, whilst events surrounding the creation of the SAS "certainly defy belief", it is true that "some liberties with the precise record" were taken – for example, in the scripting of a romantic association between David Stirling and Mansour, the French intelligence agent. However, his opinion was that these were "mainly additions, fleshing out characters and context", rather than being significant "distortions" of the facts.[3]

Billy Foley, writing in The Irish News, was somewhat more critical of the artistic license employed, particularly in the depiction of Paddy Mayne. Far from being "a brutish, rough man who was looked down on by the aristocracy of his native Newtownards and despised the toff officer class of the British army", Foley pointed out that the ostensibly working class Mayne was in fact born to a landed family, went to grammar school, played rugby for the British & Irish Lions, and studied at Queen's University Belfast before qualifying as a solicitor.[22] Historian Damien Lewis also said it was "nonsense" to portray Mayne as a "thug and drunken lout", when he "cared passionately for those men he commanded".[23]

Moreover, it was Stirling who asked General De Gaulle to have Frenchmen in the SAS because he needed men ready to do anything to deal with the Germans. So the 1re Compagnie de Chasseurs Parachutistes was sent, which became the French Squadron SAS.[24]

Gavin Mortimer wrote that the "main problem with Rogue Heroes is that it is true to David Stirling's version of how the SAS was born. But as I make clear in my recent biography of Stirling, The Phoney Major, based on two decades of research, he was a master at twisting the truth to suit his own ends", adding that Paddy Mayne "was not the borderline psychopath depicted in Rogue Heroes. I know because I've interviewed scores of men who served under Mayne in the SAS."[25]

References

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  1. ^ a b "First full-length trailer and new pictures released for SAS Rogue Heroes, coming soon to BBC One and iPlayer". BBC Media Centre. 30 September 2022.
  2. ^ a b Nicholson, Rebecca (30 October 2022). "SAS Rogue Heroes review – is the follow up to Peaky Blinders fun? Does Arthur Shelby like a drink?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Beevor, Antony (22 September 2022). "'This is rock-star history!' – Antony Beevor on the gung-ho brilliance of SAS Rogue Heroes". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  4. ^ Macintyre, Ben (2017). SAS Rogue Heroes (Paperback ed.). London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-241-18686-2.
  5. ^ "Hit BBC drama SAS Rogue Heroes to return for a second series". BBC Media Centre. 4 December 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  6. ^ a b c Kanter, Jake (9 March 2021). "Jack O'Connell, Alfie Allen & Dominic West Among Cast For Steven Knight's BBC Series 'SAS: Rogue Heroes'".
  7. ^ "SAS Rogue Heroes – Episode guide". BBC One. Choose appropriate episode. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
  8. ^ "Most viewed programmes". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. Retrieved 7 November 2022.
  9. ^ Wiseman, Andreas (23 June 2021). "'Outlander' Star Cesar Domboy Joins Steven Knight Series 'SAS Rogue Heroes'". Deadline.
  10. ^ McLean, Craig (25 October 2022). "Tough Enough? What did it take to step into the boots of the men who made a myth?". Radio Times. London: Immediate Media Co. p. 19.
  11. ^ Marland, Sean (25 January 2024). "SAS Rogue Heroes season 2: potential release date, plot, cast and everything we know". Whattowatch.com. Future plc. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  12. ^ Rowan, Iona (24 January 2024). "SAS Rogue Heroes season 2 potential release date, cast, plot and everything you need to know". Digital Spy. Hearst Communications. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  13. ^ "Rogue Heroes". Epix.com. Archived from the original on 3 January 2024.
  14. ^ "Big, Bold and Bingeable: TVNZ announces its 2023 line-up". TVNZ. 10 November 2022. Archived from the original on 26 July 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2024.
  15. ^ "World Cup wins 2022 in record breaking year for BBC iPlayer". BBC Media Centre. 31 January 2023. Archived from the original on 3 May 2024. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
  16. ^ "BBC releases first trailer for the return of hit drama SAS Rogue Heroes". BBC Media Centre. 15 November 2024. Archived from the original on 16 November 2024. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  17. ^ "Rogue Heroes: Season 1". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on 7 November 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
  18. ^ "Rogue Heroes: Season 1". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Archived from the original on 7 November 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  19. ^ Hibbs, James (20 December 2022). "Top 10 most-watched dramas of 2022 revealed – as BBC tops the list". Radio Times. London: Immediate Media Co. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  20. ^ "SAS Rogue Heroes: fact vs fiction". The Telegraph. 14 December 2022.
  21. ^ Boutella, Sofia (31 October 2022). "SAS Rogue Heroes | Interview with Sofia Boutella (Eve Mansour)". Bradford Zone (Interview).
  22. ^ Foley, Billy (12 November 2022). "TV review: SAS Rogue Heroes is not to be relied on but it's great fun". The Irish News. Belfast. Retrieved 25 November 2022.
  23. ^ Sheridan, Danielle (7 December 2022). "SAS hero is 'turned into someone he wasn't' in new BBC series, family says". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  24. ^ "How to benefit from those French connections". The Herald. 2 June 1995.
  25. ^ Mortimer, Gavin (16 December 2022). "Rogues Heroes: What Prince Harry has in common with the SAS's founder". The Spectator.
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