To create a drama from this amazing story I had to sculpt a world where things are a little bit heightened, much like how war and the absurdity of it heightens every emotion. Bringing characters to life to inhabit this world, especially ones that are not archetypical heroes, was made so much easier by leaning on the facts and the truths. A more conventional approach would have been to simply focus on success upon success, but these are real men with real flaws who made mistakes along their paths to victories. Even though the front line wasn’t that far away, Cairo was very much a party city and it was famous for its nightlife, its nightclubs. There were lots of great descriptions. There were a lot of interesting writers who turned up in Cairo at that point. Obviously a lot of soldiers were there from all over the ally powers. There were Czechs, Indians, Brits, Aussies. There was this kind of vibrant community there, various communities rubbing along during war KATIE HIND: How Bobby Brazier's dance for his 'superhero' mum Jade Goody moved judge Shirley Ballas to tears on Strictly Like his comrade and SAS co-founder David Stirling, Lewes found his time in the Commandos frustrating. Many operations were cancelled and others ended in failure. Learning from this, Lewes sought to refine the commando concept and develop a more effective way of using these highly trained soldiers.

He’s fantastic to work with. He’s probably one of the most positive directors, if not person, I’ve ever met. Anything could happen - covid, heatstroke, sandstorm - and he’s always there with a glass half full mentality. That’s always helpful for a team to have someone leading us who has so much positivity. These characters were also very particular, essential and so eccentric. I think they represent something even bigger than liberating North Africa from the Nazis. Just looking at Paddy Mayne’s character and the arc that it follows, it’s very very current and essential to be talked about. I think that’s the same for David Stirling. As much as my character is not based on one real-life person, she’s very much a character that existed at the time - women that were essential to the liberation during the second World War. I was really drawn to telling this story, to play this female character who is strong, powerful and essential to a story – to an arc of the story. Some say Mayne was personally responsible for destroying 100 aircraft, and he’s reputed to have destroyed more German planes during the Second World War than the RAF’s top ace.SAS Rogue Heroes series one was written and executive produced by Steven Knight, directed by Tom Shankland, and produced by Stephen Smallwood. Executive producers for Kudos were Karen Wilson, Martin Haines and Emma Kingsman-Lloyd, with Tommy Bulfin as executive producer for the BBC. SAS Rogue Heroes is distributed internationally by Banijay Rights.

Lieutenant Colonel Robert Blair 'Paddy' Mayne is pictured right in Norway in 1945. The SAS wreaked havoc against German and Italian positionsHe wasn't asking them to do anything he couldn't do himself and my father jumped straight after Stirling on that occasion." He had a volatile streak to him, certainly. You don’t survive the commandos and become the commanding officer of a regiment by being wild and disciplined.”

And then we had to find David Stirling and I count myself quite fortunate that I was included in part of that process and was able to read with one or two actors for the role. When you saw Connor’s take there was no removing him from what you were hoping the project would end up being. Working with him has been one of the highlights of the job, just to see him step up to the mark and take it all in his stride. What he does when the cameras are on is spell-binding. In the show, Stirling, while bedbound, then formulates the plan for what becomes the SAS – a small airborne unit that can drop behind enemy lines and carry out sabotage missions. Still on crutches, he sneaks into British HQ in Cairo, evading the guards, and gets his plan in front of the appropriate general. The story is one of the most legendary SAS tales, but – according to Mortimer – the product of Stirling’s self-serving imagination. He then agreed to work with Stirling if he would adopt the name Special Air Service for the regiment. Turns out this actually happened and, what's more, Knight had to tone it down. According to the i Paper, Knight rewrote it as a dummy grenade to “make it believable” in the show. Mike Sadler, the 102-year-old last surviving member of the original SAS, told Knight however that it was, actually, a real grenade. Does it count as snookering if the table's blown to bits? …and did he actually break his legs on an early parachute run? I don’t think Mayne took Stirling very seriously as a guerrilla fighter. Over time this embittered Stirling. I think he appointed Mayne as a training officer to take him out of action and claim successes of his own, which he didn’t do.”SAS Rogue Heroes, the first episode of which airs on Sunday, depicts the real-life events that were revealed at great length by historian Ben Macintyre in his 2016 book of the same name. Following its disastrous opening operation in North Africa in November 1941, it was Mayne who first brought badly needed success to the SAS. Sandstorms we can’t do anything about and also we got some great footage of them for the series which were otherwise going to costs us a lot of money in visual effects, and we got that for free! I like to be positive about that! Family of SAS pioneer to travel to Libya to find soldier's grave". The Telegraph. 4 December 2011 . Retrieved 21 November 2022.