Matt Hancock in new Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins
Matt Hancock can't get enough of the jungle. Last year it was New South Wales and the 10 Bushtucker Challenges on I'm a Celebrity, and now it's Exercise Thung Uy in North Vietnam and a Special Forces Selection-inspired exercise on SAS Celebrity: Who Dares Wins is set to begin on Channel 4 later this month. “This is one of the most physically and mentally challenging things I’ve ever done,” Hancock said. “It opens your eyes and makes you look inside yourself.”
Suffering figures prominently in every iteration of the Who Dares Wins franchise: grueling marches, forced fights with fellow contestants, merciless interrogations and injuries—Olympian Fatima Whitbread and actress Jennifer Ellison are among those who have suffered for the sake of television stardom. But how realistic is this program? Is it a pale copy of the real thing or does it provide a true representation of what Special Forces selection is like? The answer is a lot of the first and a little of the second.
Of course, the television version is much simpler. Participants carry much less weight, do not carry weapons, and are not required to do some of the map reading and orientation (compass azimuth, distance, altitude, etc.) tasks that real soldiers do. Civilian and military training are very different things: the former involves preparing for sports and looking good, the latter for combat conditions. You can't just apply the first to the second and expect it to work.
Jay Morton, who spent 10 years in the SAS and appeared as a series regular on Who Dares Wins, says that “it's only when you're actually in combat that you understand what being a soldier is all about? There are so many facets to a soldier, and only in battle are they properly tested and revealed.”
"Welcome to your worst nightmare"
First look at Matt Hancock published in SAS: Who Dares Wins. @PeterBoneUK says: «MPs shouldn't be doing this, it's a full-time job looking after their constituents.»
@ Jacqui_Smith1 | @theJeremyVine | @StormHuntley | #JeremyVine pic.twitter.com/lEp6A3QVsL
— Jeremy Vine On 5 (@JeremyVineOn5) September 14, 2023
In real life, you have to meet several strict criteria to even attend the selection process, let alone pass. To do this, you must serve at least three years, preferably in either the parachute infantry or the marines, elite units located halfway between the regular army and special forces. You need to be one of the best in your division. And in order for the commander to recommend him and release him, he must be personally recommended.
The real selection lasts six months: filming of the TV show is completed in two weeks. «Anyone can go through hardships for two weeks,» says former SAS operator Chris Ryan. «But if it lasted six months, you might say, 'Screw it, I don't spend six months knocking out a frying pan,' and that's something you can't replicate.»
For good reasons, the series cannot reproduce the dangers of the real Selection. About 20 potential Special Forces recruits have died on Selection Island over the past 40 years, including Corporal James Dunsby, Lance Corporal Edward Maher and Lance Corporal Craig Roberts in the Brecon Beacons during the 2013 heat wave. On the contrary, no television program can, will, or should risk even one death.
Ryan also notes that the instructors who yell at recruits love the cameras. “We expect [in real life] that every student entering the selection process will be self-motivated. We only tell them once. No one goes into the barracks shouting and shouting, there are no marches or cheers. We're just leaving them to their own devices, but they have to act.»
Actress Jennifer Ellison, injured while filming SAS: Who Dares Wins. Photo: Channel 4/Pete Dadds
The television version is much less restrictive in terms of age and gender. There's a reason the upper age limit for actual selection is 32: it's a young man's game, and no matter how hard he tries, the 44-year-old former minister wouldn't stand a chance. And while there are eight men and eight women in the series, positions at SAS and SBS have only been open to women since 2018. To date, no woman has made the cut: only two are known to have even tried. Many military sources hope this situation will change soon, but for now, Special Forces remains an all-male zone.
Every reality show these days requires contestants to go on an emotional journey, and this is very much part of the production process. Rebecca Randell, who appeared in the sixth series of the regular show, says: “The application asks you to talk in detail about your childhood, upbringing and reasons why you are applying to be on the show. It's difficult physically, but also emotionally because you're really reflecting on your life. It forces you to use your emotions much more than you think.” In real SAS, of course, only travel to and from combat zones is important.
It's for all these reasons that Ryan says the series «might as well be called The Krypton Factor.» This is entertainment and should be classified as entertainment. I'm not criticizing any of the guys who do it, but it's definitely not SAS's choice.»
Real Armed Forces Exercise Special in Qatar, 2018. Photo: Getty
But there are also hints of realism. Unlike many reality shows, there are no prescribed selection points, just as there are none in a real Selection course. Participants may withdraw voluntarily or be removed by instructors, but this is not set in stone.
Where this celebrity series excels over its predecessors is in its location. Previous episodes have been filmed in Scotland, the Andes and the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan, all of which presented different challenges, but the jungle is a different matter (the SAS heads to Brunei, not North Vietnam). «Soldiership doesn't get any more difficult than training in the jungle,» Morton says. “In terms of testing everything a soldier needs, this is an ideal environment. The conditions are brutal: not only is it incredibly hot, but it's also incredibly humid, so you're always, always sweating.
“You are under the canopy of trees, so the sunlight can only penetrate halfway, and there is often no wind at all, not even a breeze. The heat and humidity fry your head, sometimes literally. Apart from the rare occasions when you have to bathe in the river, you never have a chance to cool down, not even for a second. Those dreary, cold English autumn days you hate so much at home? One of them would be enough to kill for after a week in the jungle.»
Matt Hancock gets annoyed in new Celebrity film SAS: Who dares wins
So perhaps it's best to think of Who Dares Wins less as a serious military proposal and more as an endurance program backed by the endorsement of an iconic regiment. Public fascination with the SAS seems limitless, as seen most recently with the success of the BBC drama SAS Rogue Heroes, but this fascination is not necessarily linear or limited. SAS is something to be proud of, even if you don't personally aspire to join it: something that is a global leader at a time when we as a nation are questioning our place in the world.
“Deep down,” Morton says, “this show is not about SAS at all. It's about putting civilians in the same stressful situations that the special forces guys go through and delivering a narrative to them. The show is designed to inspire people to get out in any way: out of their homes into the open, out of their routine, out of their comfort zone. Many of the recruits, even those who didn't make it to the end, said it changed and inspired their lives. It's a positive show that teaches positive qualities — discipline, fitness, health.»
It can also be a subtle but effective element of political advertising. “The military budget is constantly shrinking,” adds Morton, “and the Department of Defense has to fight for funding like any other government department. Anything that can help demonstrate the value of our special forces, and by extension our armed forces, must be a good thing.»
SAS Celebrities: Who Dares Wins airs on Channel 4 from Tuesday 26 September< /p>
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