All our men are good men - they just have the misfortune to be lead by us
Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2022.
#46 : SAS : Rogue Heroes
Steven Knight’s follow-up to Peaky Blinders was a thrilling, boisterous ride anchored by a terrific cast. Following the exploits of the Special Air Service during the second world war, a trio of renegade soldiers in Cairo hatch a plan to attack Nazi supply lines from the desert instead of the sea. Big and brash, it certainly made for rollicking Sunday night viewing.
.jpeg)
I saw this and thought it looked like it would be a load of fun, but I also thought there would be no danger of me watching it - it all looked a bit "rah rah Boys Own" for my liking. But here we are - and I'd have to say I'm surprised at The Guardian having picked it.
And my first thought was that I very nearly gave up on this after the first episode - yes, it was fun and stylish at that (which you'd expect from Mr Peaky Blinders) but it all seemed a bit pointless. But I promised I'd give everything two episodes (which I have, unless I've given it no episodes at all) and about half way through the second episode it all clicked - the origin story of the SAS is surprisingly fascinating. And the characters involved are most definitely characters!
David Stirling (played by Connor Swindells) has both authority and daddy issues, all of which results in him suggesting taking a selection of misfits deep into the desert to do pretty much whatever the fuck they liked - as long as it involved blowing up German planes. Normally, this would be very much frowned upon but Dudley Clarke (Dominic West), an intelligence agent had actually invented a battallion for misinformation purposes and could do with some people wearing their uniforms being captured and/or killed - so the top brass went along with it. Obvious, right?!?
Included in the misfits were Paddy Mayne (Jack O'Connell), Jock Lewes (Alfie Allen) and a load of other rogues played by people I've never seen before. And basically it's all a load of boys having fun playing a load of boys mostly having fun - except for Sofia Boutella who has a load of fun playing a French spy (quite possibly because she doesn't have to go into the desert).
Yes, it's all very Boys Own and a load of nonsense but it's apparently mostly true (although I suspect some embellishment is involved in places - and given the characters involved it's extremely unlikely that there isn't) and the characters involved are likeable and you want them to succeed and survive and when, spoiler alert, some of them don't, there is way more emotional heft that you're expecting.
You'd very much guess it's done by the guy behind Peaky Blinders - it's all stylish period costumes with action soundtracked with modern music (lots of AC/DC, Motorhead and the like) and wartime ditties ("mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun!"). There's a lot of on-location filming happened as well - I imagine many people had more than enough of sand by the end of it. It also has impressive period details - yes, they do save a lot of money by filming a lot of it at nighttime, but to be fair it's historically accurate because that is when the missions generally took place. But yes, also cheap.
David Stirling and Paddy Mayne were both fascinating characters with both Wikipedia entries being well worth reading - Field Marshal Montgomery described Stirling as "mad, quite mad" and Mayne got three bars on his DSO and was denied a VC under very dubious circumstances which may well have been related to his coming from Northern Ireland and not being posh. Connor Swindells and Jack O'Connell both do an excellent job of portraying them - Jack in particular brings quite some depth to Paddy's mental torment. Alfie Allen also does a good job as Jock Lewes - he had a very different outlook to the other two "co-founders" (he's mostly sane!) and Alfie conveys it well. Every one else in the season does a good job, but it's very much an ensemble cast with people popping in and out quite dizzyingly so it's hard to pick names out.
Overall, I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting with it delivering considerably more pathos and emotion than I thought it would. I suspect you do need at least a passing interest in military matters to enjoy it, but if you do and you've avoided it because you thought it would be just nonsense then I suggest you check it out - at time of writing it's available on iPlayer.
Comments
Post a Comment