Never judge a book by its cover, they say, and perhaps the same is true for TV. The BBC’s new Sunday night thriller – SAS Rogue Heroes, based on the book by prolific popular historian Ben Macintyre – is saddled with a name so naff that it conjures images either of video game stealth missions or Ant Middleton dangling celebrities off cliffs by their toenails. In point of fact, SAS Rogue Heroes is something of a prestige drama – albeit one imbued with a streak of deep tackiness that befits its title.
It’s 1941, Egypt, and this is the story of three men: David Stirling (Sex Education’s Connor Swindells), a toff burdened with horrific levels of self-confidence (or, in the words of his commanding officer, a “drunken, insubordinate malcontent”), Jock Lewes (Game of Thrones’s Alfie Allen), a “mad martinet”, and Paddy Mayne (Starred Up’s Jack O’Connell), an Irishman with a reckless propensity for chaos. Together, they will found the SAS, via a series of alcohol-fuelled shenanigans. The SAS? “Sounds like a branch of the f***ing Post Office,” comes Paddy’s earthy verdict. If Swindells feels a touch green to lead the regiment, O’Connell and Allen – both actors with a pleasing madness in their eyes – bring a roguish intensity.
