SAS: Rogue Heroes - Now a major TV drama

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Filming has just begun on series two of the hit BBC drama SAS Rogue Heroes, created by Steven Knight and made by Kudos (a Banijay UK company) for the BBC with MGM+. Thorough and highly entertaining. It would be nigh on impossible to praise it too highly ( Daily Express)

SAS Rogue Heroes will air on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK, MGM+ in the United States, and is distributed internationally by Banijay Rights. Paddy Mayne died in a car crash on Tuesday December 13, 1955. When the war came to an end, he returned to his hometown of Newtownards and resumed his work as a solicitor. He also became Secretary of the Law Society of Northern Ireland. Television shows based on real events can ignite hours of internet searching - about the events themselves, and the people behind the action. Steven Knight’s historical drama SAS: Rogue Heroes, is no different. Based on a book of the same name by Ben Macintyre, the show has caused a surge of interest in the founding members of the SAS and their lives outside of the regiment. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Blair "Paddy" Mayne is one of the real life characters under focus in the series. The British Army officer had many talents, and was one of the British Army's most highly decorated soldiers. He was also followed by controversy - read on to find out who Paddy Mayne was, and what happened to him when he left the SAS. Hardy was never slated for the role, which was always going to be O'Connell's. Series writer Steven Knight told The Times the show would highlight the psychology of the men behind it. Macintyre provides a riveting history of a revolutionary fighting force. Using unprecedented access to British Special Air Service regimental archives, Macintyre has gleaned fascinating material. A ripping good read ( Washington Post 10 Best Books of 2016)

A master at setting the pulse racing, Macintyre relates stories of raw courage and daring by extraordinary men (Tony Rennell Daily Mail) Excellent... accessible yet authoritative. Delivers stories of tremendous adventure and derring-do, but also offers more than straightforward military history. This book has many strengths but perhaps its greatest is how thought-provoking it is (Laurence Rees Sunday Times) Author Martin Dillon was one of the first to question Mayne's sexuality. He told the Belfast Telegraph "Raising questions about his personal life, and conflicted sexuality, were not intended to besmirch his reputation. As I pointed out, there was no evidence he was a practicing homosexual, but I raised questions about his sexuality, as did some of those who served with him." Spring, 1943. With David Stirling captured and Paddy Mayne now in charge of the SAS, their attention must turn from the conflict in North Africa to mainland Europe. But GHQ have cast doubt over the future of the regiment, while the creation of a new unit and a surprise arrival make things even more difficult for the men. Can they prove that the SAS remains essential to the war, wherever it may lead them? The injustice surrounding the denial of the award was raised as an Early Day Motion before the House of Commons in 2005, and over 100 MPs signed it. King George IV was even quoted in it, who reportedly was open in expressing his surprise that Mayne was downgraded from the Victoria Cross. The government ignored the call to reinstate Mayne with the award, which has again come to the forefront of the public's minds with the release of SAS: Rogue heroes.

According to the Irish Post, Eoin McGonigal was Mayne’s best friend and possibly his only confidante. Accompanied by Mayne's shyness around women and drunken outbursts, historians have questioned the relationship between the pair. Some believed Mayne managed his feeling with alcohol, because he was a repressed homosexual. Bloodlands season 2 ending explained: What happened in the finale of the James Nesbitt police drama? Reads like a mashup of The Dirty Dozen and The Great Escape, with a sprinkling of Ocean's 11 thrown in for good measure. Macintyre is masterly in using details to illustrate his heroes' bravery, élan and dogged perseverance. A gripping account' Paddy Mayne didn't ever confirm his sexuality, and rumours he was gay appear to be speculation arising from authors and historians that has never been substantiated.Told with brilliance. The SAS are still about the best of their kind, and how they began to achieve this is an exotic saga indeed. No one will ever tell it better than this' Exactly what Sunday nights have been missing… sure to leave fans crying out for more” ★★★★ – Radio Times A superb study of wartime daring. A compelling tale full of jeopardy: bone-shattering parachute drops, terrifying night-time raids on Nazi airfields, fizzing explosive fuses, near escapes in screaming jeeps, harrowing marches through deserts, frozen forest encounters with desperate Germans and mad, edgy drinking bouts that could end with grenades being flourished' The SAS came of age in the campaign in Italy, where it was used as a more conventional raiding party, the Special Raiding Service, under the command of Paddy Mayne following Stirling’s capture in Tunisia in late 1942. The Italian campaign was a particularly grisly one, and the SRS (with its core of SAS men) found collaboration with the partisans and rivalry with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) a challenge (unlike the SAS, the SOE always linked up with local resistance). Macintyre spares none of the details; the SAS fought a dirty war against an enemy they regarded as every bit as dirty. Prisoners were rare, but in return Hitler condemned irregular commando units to death if they were caught. Not all were killed by any means, but many were, just as the Germans killed all the other irregular, partisan forces ranged against them.

Meticulously researched, splendidly told, immensely entertaining and often very moving (John le Carré on 'Agent Zigzag') From the secret SAS archives, and acclaimed author Ben Macintyre: the first ever authorized history of the SAS SAS Rogue Heroes is distributed internationally by Banijay Rights, which has sold the series to multiple global broadcasters and streaming services including MGM+ in the US, HBO Max in Europe, Prime Video in Canada, SBS in Australia, STARZPLAY in the Middle East, Paramount+ in Germany and Canal+ in France. This is a book for readers of second world war history who like the Boy’s Own version of the conflict. The cast of characters could have stepped straight from a comic strip story. Yet the men of the SAS were real flesh and blood, “rogue heroes” as the title suggests. The organisation now famous for its derring-do, and as famously secretive, has opened its archive to the historian and journalist Ben Macintyre, so that he can produce the first authorised history of what the SAS did in the war. Impeccably researched, superbly told - by far the best book on the SAS in World War II' - Antony BeevorNow, 75 years later, the SAS has finally decided to tell its astonishing story. It has opened its secret archives for the first time, granting historian Ben Macintyre full access to a treasure trove of unseen reports, memos, diaries, letters, maps and photographs, as well as free rein to interview surviving Originals and those who knew them. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ Impeccably researched, superbly told - by far the best book on the SAS in World War II (Antony Beevor) In the summer of 1941, at the height of the war in the Western Desert, a bored and eccentric young officer, David Stirling, came up with a plan that was radical and entirely against the rules: a small undercover unit that would inflict mayhem behind enemy lines. However, biographer Hamish Ross points out that with no evidence at all, it is unfair to make such a claim about Mayne's life. He argued Mayne was a deeply private and misunderstood person, devastated by the loss of his best friend. Because he dealt with his grief differently, Ross asks that speculation regarding his sexuality be left out of the discussion. How did Paddy Mayne die?