The Rosie the Reviewer Podcast

Welcome to Rosie the Reviewer, a Dutch-Canadian female-led WW2 media podcast. A new episode airs every Friday!

SAS Rogue Heroes and the Real SAS: Episodes, Interviews and the True Story

SAS Rogue Heroes is one of the subjects we keep coming back to. The series dramatises the founding of the SAS in North Africa in 1941 and its later campaigns in Italy and France, and every time we sit down with it we end up with a list of questions about what actually happened. So we made a habit of asking people who know: our regular SAS guest George, military adviser Ben Simmons, two of the actors, a costume supervisor and the biographer of one of the original SAS men.

What makes the series fun is also what makes it worth checking. It is stylistic and loud, built on real men and real raids. Timelines are compressed, events are merged, and some characters are composites. Still, it tends to get the heart right.

This page collects every episode we have made on the series and the real history around it. Start with the seasons for the story, go to the real history for the men behind the characters, or head behind the scenes for the people who made it. There are also two films about other wartime raiders and deceivers, because the desert war was never only about one unit.

SAS Rogue Heroes: Seasons One and Two

Ep 8 – SAS Rogue Heroes Season One – Part One (With Our Guest George!) – Episodes 1-3 Breakdown

BBC Drama Series · Season One

Our first ever guest, George, joined us to review the first three episodes of Steven Knight’s series about the founding of the SAS in North Africa. We follow David Stirling, Paddy Mayne and the first raiders, and look at what the show does with real history, including Dudley Clarke’s invented SAS brigade.

Our angle: Where does the series follow the real raiders, and where does it invent or merge?

Ep 9 – SAS Rogue Heroes Season One – Part Two (With Our Guest George!) – In-Depth Review of Episodes 4-6

BBC Drama Series · Season One

Episodes four to six: Mayne’s grief for Eoin McGonigal, the death of Jock Lewes, the Free French paratroopers and Stirling’s capture. With George, we note where the show compresses or merges history, then look ahead to series two and Stirling’s time at Colditz.

Our angle: When a drama squeezes years into a few scenes, what does it lose, and what does it gain?

Ep 47 – SAS Rogue Heroes Season Two - Part One (With Ben Simmons and George) Exploring Episodes 1-3 of SAS Rogue Heroes Season 2 with Our Military Experts

2025 · BBC Drama Series · Season Two

Series two heads to Sicily and Italy. George and military adviser Ben Simmons join us for episodes one to three, checking the story against the record, from the Commando Order to Operation Speedwell and the landings at Termoli.

Our angle: How closely does the second season follow the documented record, and what does the military adviser make of it?

Ep 48 – SAS Rogue Heroes Season Two - Part Two (With Ben Simmons and George) A Deep Dive into Episodes 4-6 of SAS Rogue Heroes Season 2

2025 · BBC Drama Series · Season Two

Episodes four to six, again with George and Ben. We follow the season through Termoli and Stirling’s long captivity, rate it in the unit of Reg’s donkeys, and make our predictions for series three.

Our angle: Does the season end where history did, and where do we want series three to go?

The Real History: Reg Seekings, Operation Anglo and a Fake Monty

Ep 79 – SAS: Duty Before Glory – A Conversation with Tony Rushmer

2024 · Biography Interview

Sports journalist Tony Rushmer on his biography of Reg Seekings, a boxer from near Ely who became one of the original SAS men and won the DCM and the Military Medal. We talk about how a lockdown documentary led him to Reg, what Reg’s postwar notebooks and Imperial War Museum audio reveal, Termoli, and Reg’s life in Rhodesia.

Our angle: What does a biographer find when he goes behind the screen character to the real man?

Ep 126 – They Who Dare – Operation Anglo, But Otherwise Forgettable

1954 · British War Film

Lewis Milestone’s film dramatises Operation Anglo, the September 1942 Special Boat Section raid on the airfields of Rhodes by British and Greek commandos. We run it against the real raid, the men who carried it out, because the film is a bit meh.

Our angle: Does a 1950s raiding film do justice to a raid with a more complicated real story?

Ep 96 – I Was Monty's Double – M. E. Clifton James' Role of A Lifetime

1958 · Wartime Comedy-Drama

M. E. Clifton James was an actor who impersonated Montgomery as part of a wartime deception, and in the 1958 film he plays himself. We set it against his 1954 memoir and sort the facts from the invention, including a kidnap attempt that never happened.

Our angle: How much of this true-story comedy is actually true?

Behind the Scenes: Advisers, Actors and Costume

Ep 35 – SAS Rogue Heroes Special with Military Advisor Ben Simmons – Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Insights

Interview Special · Military Adviser

A video special with Ben Simmons, military adviser on the first two seasons of SAS Rogue Heroes, together with our regular SAS guest. It sits alongside our Corin Silva interview as a way into how the series was made.

Ep 54 – Bobby Schofield on Playing Dave Kershaw in SAS Rogue Heroes, Being a History Nerd & WWII Acting

Interview Special · Actor

Bobby Schofield plays Corporal Dave Kershaw, one of the original SAS men. With George asking the SAS questions, he tells us how he traced the real Kershaw’s family after finding little about him online, and talks about his ad-libs and the emotional scene in series two.

Our angle: What do you owe a real person when you play him, and what can you invent?

Ep 45 – SAS Rogue Heroes Special with Corin Silva – Behind the Scenes with the Actor Portraying Jim Almonds in SAS Rogue Heroes

Interview Special · Actor

Corin Silva plays Jim Almonds in SAS Rogue Heroes and Lt Col John Bennett in Masters of the Air. We spoke to him as series two arrived, with George asking the first questions, and set his character beside the real Almonds, who was captured in 1942, escaped, and designed a sailing ketch in his head in solitary confinement.

Our angle: What is it like to play a real SAS original, and how close is the screen Almonds to the man?

Ep 50 – Behind the Costumes of SAS Rogue Heroes Season Two (With Terry Herfield)

Interview Special · Costume

Terry Herfield was crowd costume supervisor on series two, dressing everyone who does not speak: the extras, stunt performers and drivers. We talk filming in Croatia after Brexit, hiring military uniforms from across Europe, ageing costumes, the three-copy rule for stunt costumes and keeping uniforms accurate with the military adviser.

Our angle: How much work goes into getting the background right, and who decides what counts as accurate?

Keep Listening

A few other episodes that connect to this list:

Frequently Asked Questions About SAS Rogue Heroes and the Real SAS

Is SAS Rogue Heroes a true story?

Yes, in outline. The BBC series, created by Steven Knight, is based on Ben Macintyre’s 2016 book Rogue Heroes, which tells the story of the SAS from its founding by David Stirling in 1941. Many of the main characters were real, including Stirling, Paddy Mayne, Jock Lewes and Eoin McGonigal, but the series compresses timelines, merges events and uses some composite characters. Our episodes go through those changes.

Who founded the SAS?

Kind of a three-way thing between David Stirling, Jock Lewes and Paddy Mayne. Stirling ran it in the beginning, but he was captured in Tunisia in January 1943, escaped several times and was held at Colditz Castle for the rest of the war, arriving on 20 August 1944. Paddy Mayne took over the SAS. Lewes didn’t make it :(.

Who was Reg Seekings?

Reg Seekings (1920 to 1999) was a boxer from near Ely who joined the original SAS and won the DCM and the Military Medal. In the series he is played by Theo Barklem-Biggs. Tony Rushmer’s 2024 biography SAS: Duty Before Glory is the subject of our Ep 79 interview.

Where can I hear more about the SAS and special forces?

Every episode linked on this page is available on the Rosie the Reviewer podcast, which reviews WW2 films and TV against the real history behind them.