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 is also a film about another wartime raid, Operation Anglo on Rhodes, because the war in the Mediterranean was never only about one unit.
Listen to every episode on this page
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SAS Rogue Heroes: Seasons One and Two
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: A show that admits its liberties up front earns more trust than one pretending to be accurate. Eve may be invented, but the real women agents behind her were not.
What we thought: No score yet: we rate season one in Part Two. Sam calls it “a kind of historical inaccuracy I can get behind”, and Maartje loves its stylised, funny tone.
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: Rogue Heroes compresses and merges real events, and we forgive it, because it gets the people right: Mayne’s grief, Lewes’s death, the friendships.
What we thought: Maartje and Sam both give it 9 out of ten (ill-advised digs at Paddy Mayne), our highest scores so far. George gives it 14: minus one for the dark night scenes, plus six for Mike Sadler.
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 real history, from the Commando Order to Operation Speedwell and the landings at Termoli.
Our angle: The series opens with “This is not a history lesson”, and we take it at its word: you can dislike an inaccuracy without calling it a moral failing.
What we thought: No score yet: we rate season two in Part Two, with George and military adviser Ben.
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: We like Eve in the fight, but ask why she has to stand in front of the men, and Sam takes issue with the Ritz fight against Black American marines.
What we thought: We give it 8.3 and 8 out of ten (Reg’s donkeys), a touch below season one. George gives it 8, and Ben about 7.3: seven donkeys and the front third of another.
The Real History: Reg Seekings and Operation Anglo
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: Behind the SAS legend is a man from the Fens and his own notebooks. Tony Rushmer on why Reg Seekings was Superman, and why most of us relate more to Bob and Eric.
What we thought: No score: it’s an interview. Tony Rushmer leaves us wanting Mike Sadler at our dream dinner table too.
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: Operation Anglo is a better story than this film. It drops the real SBS men and the fate of the two Greek guides, and Sam reads it as post-empire memory-making.
What we thought: Maartje gives it 6 and Sam 4.8 out of ten (goats are the goat). Watchable, forgettable, and in Sam’s words, “The goats are the real MVPs of this movie.”
Behind the Scenes: Advisers, Actors and Costume
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.
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: Bobby Schofield took a part that is about a sentence in the book, tracked down Dave Kershaw’s family, and heard from his daughters that they loved it.
What we thought: No score: it’s an interview. Come for the ad-libs, stay for the story behind his emotional scene in series two.
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: Corin Silva plays Jim Almonds with real care, from his faith to his calm after captivity, and is honest that the series brings Jim back into the story earlier than he really returned.
What we thought: No score: it’s an interview. Corin hopes for a season three set in France, and keeps sharing behind-the-scenes photos in the meantime.
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: Terry Herfield came to costume as a mature student and now runs a crowd department on a very male set. She also notes how few scenes on the show have women in them.
What we thought: No score: it’s an interview. Behind every convincing uniform is a team doing quiet craft, from the breakdown crew to the modesty pouches that floated off into the sea.
Keep Listening
A few other episodes that connect to this list:
- Ep 67 – Masters of the Air (Part One) – Corin Silva, our Jim Almonds, also plays Lt Col John Bennett here
- Ep 91 – Ice Cold in Alex – the 1942 desert war in North Africa, the same ground the early SAS raided across
- Ep 5 – Carve Her Name with Pride – Eve in Rogue Heroes is a composite of women agents, and Violette Szabo comes up in our SAS episodes
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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.
