#Roguebook heros series#

Stirling was burdened with health problems for the rest of his life from the spinal injury he suffered in that drop. Stirling’s parachute tears, causing him to plummet towards the ground and temporarily paralyse himself. That was Paddy.”ĭid David Stirling really sneak into British HQ?Īlso in the first episode, Stirling and Lewes take the plunge with their daring, first-of-its-kind parachute jump in the desert. I stayed put and of course he’d cut the detonator. I knew it had to be one of Paddy’s jokes, or his idea of one.

Nearly everyone dived under the table or ran for cover. Halfway through the meal I think Paddy began to get bored and he pulled out a grenade from his tunic, removed the pin, and placed it on the middle of the table. One time in Paris – September ’44 – Paddy and I were invited to lunch with various people, mainly the French. According to Mike Sadler, one of the original members of the SAS, it was Paddy Mayne.Īs Sadler told Gavin Mortimer: “Paddy was quite keen on practical jokes. The scene is based on a real incident, though it happened in Paris in 1944, by which time Stirling had long been captured. When other soldiers won’t give up the table, Stirling throws a grenade onto the table and sends the soldiers running. To unfurl their giant map, they need to use the snooker table. In the first episode, Stirling and Jock Lewes meet at a Cairo club and formulate a plan: to parachute into the desert and attack the Axis’ supply line. In SAS Rogue Heroes, David Stirling is a maverick from the get-go.

“It captures his arrogant bravado and entitlement,” he says. Other details and characters – such as Sofia Boutella’s French intelligence love interest – are entirely fabricated.īut what about the most explosive moments from SAS Rogue Heroes? Are they historically accurate or the stuff of legend? Did Stirling clear a room by throwing a grenade on a snooker table? While Mayne’s portrayal might be contentious, Mortimer thinks that Stirling is accurately depicted in the series. Stirling’s stories, says Mortimer, came at the expense of Mayne, whose death in a car crash in 1955 gave Stirling licence to embellish the truth and position himself as “genius of guerrilla warfare”.

Historian Saul David called Mortimer’s book “a carefully researched and impeccably sourced take-down of the legendary special forces pioneer”. Mortimer wrote about the truth behind Stirling and his wily self-promotion in his book, David Stirling: The Phoney Major. Indeed, the show’s portrayal of Mayne – as a boozed-up, violent and wild-man – lives up to his reputation, which, according to historian and author Gavin Mortimer, was largely crafted by David Stirling. His niece, Fiona Ferguson, protested his depiction as a “drunk Irishman”. Less complimentary were the family of Paddy Mayne. “Knight has of course taken liberties with the precise record,” he wrote in The Guardian, “but they are mainly additions, fleshing out characters and context, not distortions.” Still, SAS Rogue Heroes has been well received by people who know their stuff, such as the historian Antony Beevor, often grumpy about historical accuracy in war films.

Lt Col Dudley Clarke (played by Dominic West) acknowledges as much when he tells Stirling: “You yourself are a work of fiction, trying to write yourself into the history books.” It focuses on the exploits of three founding members: David Stirling (Connor Swindells), Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne (Jack O'Connell), and Jock Lewes (Alfie Allen).Īs that opening blurb suggests, the show knowingly leans into SAS legend – a legend perpetuated by the self-aggrandising yarn-spinning of “the Phantom Major” David Stirling.

#Roguebook heros series#

According to the opening blurb of the BBC’s souped-up WW2 drama, SAS Rogue Heroes, “those events depicted, which seem most unbelievable… are mostly true.” The six-part series – created and written by Peaky Blinders’ Stephen Knight, and based on the book by Ben Macintyre – tells the story behind the formation of the Special Air Service in North Africa.