Jock Lewes - Co-Founder of the SAS

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In sharp contrast to Stirling, Lieutenant Paddy Mayne, a rugger international from Ulster, may be a lover of poetry, but he is better known as an unexploded bomb likely to go off as soon as he has downed more than a bottle of whisky or rum. Mayne is first shown meeting Stirling in a military prison, having beaten up his own commanding officer for interrupting a game of chess, although this is almost certainly SAS myth rather than the truth. Blair was never in prison,” Mayne’s niece, Fiona Ferguson, told The Daily Telegraph. “Him fighting three military policemen never happened. The story was good enough without throwing stuff like that in.” There was a lot of 'off-the-cuffery', by which I mean everything really was do-it-yourself. They really did go out and raid the New Zealanders, who had everything under the sun including a piano and easy chairs and all that kind of thing while our guys were sleeping on the floor on kit bags.

These characters were also very particular, essential and so eccentric. I think they represent something even bigger than liberating North Africa from the Nazis. Just looking at Paddy Mayne’s character and the arc that it follows, it’s very very current and essential to be talked about. I think that’s the same for David Stirling. As much as my character is not based on one real-life person, she’s very much a character that existed at the time - women that were essential to the liberation during the second World War. I was really drawn to telling this story, to play this female character who is strong, powerful and essential to a story – to an arc of the story.With Stirling and Lewes determined to prove that the concept of the SAS could have actual utility, they take to the skies for a parachute run — both largely unequipped and inexperienced. They head to an airstrip fifty miles east of Cairo, caught in the middle of a terrible sandstorm. Despite the protests of an airman on the ground, they take to the skies, shot and scored with the bombast typical of a Knight drama. Then Stirling jumps, his parachute tears, and… yeah. Crunch.

Given Britain's plight on the battlefield in North Africa at the time, permission was given to Stirling for him to assemble his unit, which was made up of soldiers who had proven themselves to be fearless.a b McPherson, Fiona (2004). "Lewes, John Steel (1913–1941)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/74291. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

He was depicted by Alfie Allen in the 2022 television historical drama SAS: Rogue Heroes. [10] Military career [ edit ] As seen in the series, the SAS were named by Dudley Clarke, who had already created the Special Air Service as a fictitious regiment – a clever ploy to confuse and misdirect the enemy (Dominic West’s Clarke is seen wearing women’s clothes and make-up in one scene – a reference to Clarke once being arrested in Madrid while dolled-up in ladies’ clothing). I had a great voice coach - Brendan Gunn - who I have worked with for a few years. He is from Northern Ireland. Arrested in Madrid … Dominic West plays cross-dressing spy chief Dudley Wrangel Clarke. Photograph: Kudos/BBC/PA According to regimental tradition, Mayne was recruited into the SAS from a prison cell, where he was awaiting court martial for striking his commanding officer. Whatever the truth of this story, Mayne proved to be a great asset to his new unit.

The Phantom Major

I really have to take my hat off to Steven Knight. The writer of Peaky Blinders has adapted Ben Macintyre’s SAS Rogue Heroes, the authorised history of the Special Air Service, and turned it into the best dramatic series the BBC has produced for ages. In 1941, Lewes was in a group of volunteers assembled by David Stirling to form a unit dedicated to raiding missions against the lines of communication of Axis forces in North Africa. For military deception and counterespionage purposes, this platoon-sized group was at first officially known as "L"Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade. [13]