The founders of the SAS knew all about the power of making a myth, as the historian Ben Macintyre tells us in this issue of Radio Times magazine. As does Steven Knight, who created a myth all of his own when he conceived the hit BBC drama Peaky Blinders.
Now Knight had made a new drama, SAS Rogue Heroes, based on Macintyre’s book of the same name, that tells the story of the birth of Britain’s secret military regiment. A bunch of misfits and eccentrics, the men who founded the SAS knew they were looking for the unconventional when they appealed for recruits.
But they also knew they were looking for the exceptional: men who thought, fought and behaved differently from the military mainstream.
Macintyre wrote his book after being granted access to the SAS’s archive. In Knight’s hands, fact blends into fiction, as you’d expect from a drama. But at its heart, there is a real story to be told.
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Also in this week’s Radio Times:
- Cracker writer Paul Abbott remembers Robbie Coltrane, his principles, drinking, humour and why he blanked Tina Brown at a party.
- Writer Malorie Blackman, author of Noughts + Crosses, on being told she wouldn’t live past 30, growing up in poverty, facing discrimination, appearing in Stormzy’s music videos and the challenges for the Met in rooting out institutional racism.
- Bob Geldof says he would join Extinction Rebellion if he was younger, Do They Know It’s Christmas? drives him mad and he resents the time Live Aid takes up but is still committed to the promises he made, while dismissing criticism of being a white saviour.
SAS Rogue Heroes begins at 9pm on Sunday 30th October on BBC One, with all episodes then available on BBC iPlayer. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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