Jock Lewes - Co-Founder of the SAS

Product Information

We had a fortnight of bootcamp type training led by our military advisor, a fellow called Bags. He is an ex-serviceman and knows of what he speaks. It was good. He was a good training officer. We did a fair bit of physical type stuff and tried to feel a little fitter anyway. When we moved to Morocco we had another two weeks of warm weather training. We got up early and did various types of punishment. And some days we would have a morning off and played around together in the sand dunes. That was good for morale, team building, that type of thing.

She continues: "He was a very strange character. My father said he was quite stand-offish and aloof." a b McPherson, Fiona (2004). "Lewes, John Steel (1913–1941)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/74291. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Early life

Well that’s always very nice to hear! I guess I’m a big believer that when you are on set you are playing. There are so many things that you could get stressed about when you’re filming. I tend not to only because, I suppose fundamentally I do think we are just playing. There is no recorded footage of Paddy speaking, which is helpful for me. It just means I have got a bit of room for manoeuvre, instead of trying to hone into something that is famously known. I can sort of reimagine it a little bit. Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama, says: “The fantastic response and huge iPlayer figures for SAS Rogue Heroes is a testament to Steven Knight’s incredible skill for turning our history into modern, must-see TV. BBC viewers have really taken this series to their hearts, and we’re delighted to be working with Steven and Kudos to bring the Rogue Heroes’ exciting next chapter to life.” Based on Ben Macintyre’s best-selling book of the same name, SAS Rogue Heroes on the BBC has been a huge hit with audiences and critics alike, with episode one attracting 9.4 million viewers (28-day all screens figure). This makes SAS Rogue Heroes the BBC’s third biggest drama launch of the year so far. The series has been available in full as a box set on BBC iPlayer since launch. 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.

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. Still, SAS Rogue Heroes has been well received by people who know their stuff, such as the historian Antony Beevor, often grumpy about historical accuracy in war films. “Knight has of course taken liberties with the precise record,” he wrote in The Guardian, “but they are mainly additions, fleshing out characters and context, not distortions.”It was a ghost regiment, he made it up to scare the Germans and Italians into thinking the Brits had a parachute regiment to destroy their aircraft - and then of course, they did. But, he called it L detachment, meaning that there was A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H… and it was called First Division. Anyway, he was pretending that it was this vast division with thousands of paratroops - in fact it was just But now, a new BBC drama re-tells the story of the previously top secret origins of the Special Air Service, which was formed in North Africa in 1941 by Lieutenant-Colonel David Stirling. Certainly, Stirling was captured in January 1943 and sat out the rest of the war in POW camps, from which he tried (and failed) to repeatedly escape.

What also drew me was the fact that I grew up in a military family. My grandfather was a colonel when Algeria gained its independency in 1962, but was a captain under the French military. I grew up very much in a military family, so it just hits home for me. In that way being Algerian, growing up in Paris and having that relationship with France - and so does my character who is Algerian but serves under the French regime under General de Gaulle directly. I was also very proud to play an Algerian character who is considered highly in those kind of areas, who is also educated, and serving a purpose that is bigger than her own. Stirling was captured by the Germans in January 1943 after yet another raid. Although he did initially escape, the officer was re-captured by the Italians and, despite another four attempts to get away, he was imprisoned for the rest of the war at the infamous Colditz Castle. It’s completely fictitious,” says Mortimer. “As I said in my book, his brother Bill was the brains behind the SAS. Why on earth would Stirling break into HQ when he could just say to his brother, with whom he shared a flat, ‘Hey Bill, do you mind giving this to the general?’”

Return to civilian life

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. I’m a surgeon who’s survived breast cancer - here’s what women need to know about having a mastectomy and how ops to rebuild breasts can leave them looking and feeling natural,' writes DR LIZ O'RIORDAN Girls Aloud 'WILL perform Glastonbury in honour of late bandmate Sarah Harding and take to the stage for the festival's ICONIC legends slot' 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 . Retrieved 31 October 2022. Stirling might well have met a French spy or two in those early days, but Eve, chic smoker so she is, is a construct of Knight's imagination, according to the show notes. You'll probably recognise Boutella, though, having appeared in films like The Mummy, Kingsman and Atomic Blonde. Did Connor Swindells' David Stirling really lob a grenade at a crowded snooker table?