Interview with Jack O’Connell who plays Paddy Mayne in SAS Rogue Heroes

How did it feel when you heard there was going to be a second series?

When I jumped into this, read the book and saw that series one only went up to a certain point the question was ‘are we going again?’, and the feedback was always ‘more than likely’. A second series wasn’t a massive surprise but it was a relief and exciting because the team are such a good bunch. I think we all expected to go back at it.

How did it feel to return to the role of Paddy again?

I love this character, in terms of the man himself we can do all the research in the world but at the end of the day it’s what Steven Knight has offered on page that has to be the main guidance. We do obviously tell a historical tale but it’s quite reimagined, there’s a lot of room to play with within that.

Reading series two it feels like a continuation. When the scripts came through we were all buzzing, it’s got Steven Knight’s imprint on it and the scripts were banging.

Where did we leave Paddy at the end of series one, and where do we meet him at the start of series two?

At the end of series one David Stirling is captured so that put him out of the running, the natural appointment then was to promote Paddy. This is a new arena for Paddy, I don’t think we’ve seen him in that role before. He struggles with leadership in that official capacity, that was interesting to play around with. Also, as did happen in reality, Paddy was in a bit of trouble again – he was denied leave to go to his father’s funeral, reacted outwardly and there were some consequences, so we pick up with him at the start of series two in jail. He’s very aggrieved but there’s a job to do, the SAS are needed for the invasion of Europe. Paddy returns back into the fold in a leadership role and they head to Italy. It’s a really heroic story that we get to portray.

How are the SAS used differently in series two, compared to the desert campaigns of series one?

Throughout the series we see Paddy conflicted with how his unit has been repurposed for the different type of warfare they’re being asked to do. This is frustrating for Paddy because they’re remodelled almost to a regular commando unit, whereas before there was a kind of piracy to what they were doing, like bandit warfare. I think Paddy romanticised that way of doing things, being dropped behind enemy lines covertly, wrecking all their hardware and leaving them under resourced. Now the SAS are getting thrown at enemy positions way ahead of the main invasion which doesn’t sit well in terms of odds and mortality rate. It wasn’t really acknowledging their specific skillset, this was an interesting point of view to take on. Seeing Paddy frustrated by this throughout the series was a nice constant thread.

But it’s an amazing campaign that they go on, hugely important in dictating the overall outcome of the war. We’re detailing campaigns that took place before D-Day that sometimes get overlooked.

There are big moments in series two including historic battles, what was it like to recreate those?

The antithesis of what I think we try to work towards in SAS Rogue Heroes is just a bunch of unemotional, two-dimension, super army soldiers – that’s our antithesis. Steven Knight is too intelligent as a writer to be guilty of that. We’re in a very fascinating era when what people our age achieved was something quite unimaginable to what we can compare to. There is always a mindfulness to layer the story and show the human cost, not portray people as cardboard cutouts, because there has to be a human cost to what they do.

Something I feel strongly about is there must’ve been a huge bearing, psychologically speaking. I think it’s a very useful example to see what happens when these people are in the biggest extremities of war and are fighting for an overall cause that we now all benefit from. To try and understand that emotional cost on the individual is something Steven Knight gives us in the writing.

This cast is a bunch of actors I love to watch – to see how they portray their roles, it makes it quite unique because it’s individualistic. There is an unravelling and it’s sensitively done, we spend time with them in the story and really take a close look at what these levels of grief do. The traditional way of handling it was, I guess, a big piss-up afterwards, a massive wake with alcohol to numb the short-term pain. But there’s also a long-term effect that’s felt, we see that seed get planted in episode one with something they all have to endure, we see them being put in this horrific scenario that haunts them throughout this whole story.

Our hope is that we can realise that and show the human tale behind it because none of these characters are totally numb, they all have their own patterns and mechanisms in how they survive and sustain that amount of mental torture that they all have to bear.

What was it like to be joined by new actors and new characters in series two?

They are a good bunch, credit to all the lads it’s just the best job in the world. You have to dig deep in this job, you’re up against it. It’s an ambitious story and in order achieve it you have to suck it up and get on with it quite a lot, which is good because it has to be difficult; if it was too easy then it wouldn’t be that much of an enjoyable drama to watch. I feel that anything that has ‘SAS’ in it isn’t going to be cups of tea, dressing gown and slippers, sitting pretty.

The lads have been great, they’ve jumped on board and got on with the spirit of things.

How has it been working with series two director Stephen Woolfenden?

Great – he adopted the spirit and understood that it was going to be quite ‘rogue’ early on. He stepped into preparation way before any of us, looking around Sicily and absorbing stock footage and whatever he could to mentally prepare for the story.

I think what we needed in series two were even more bangs, fizzes, whistles and pops, and Stephen’s definitely well-versed with making something look visceral and exciting in terms of the action. He’s definitely bought value, he’s made things look threatening and frightening.

What can viewers look forward to in series two?

A portrayal of amazing feats of what these lads got up to being first on the ground in mainland Europe, putting the fascists on the backfoot and running them up through Italy. Also some great characters, great portrayals and a brilliant script. The characters are really distinct, and just as fascinating as we had before. Series one has its own unique set of challenges and the second does again, but what’s great is following these lads – all their dark humour, seeing them sustain themselves against all of the adversities they go through.

Spring, 1943. Paddy Mayne takes control of the SAS following David Stirling’s capture, as attention turns from the conflict in North Africa to mainland Europe. But GHQ have cast doubt over the future of the regiment, while the creation of a second unit and an influx of new arrivals make things even more difficult for the men. Can they prove that the SAS remains essential to the war, wherever it may lead them? Based on Ben Macintyre’s best-selling book of the same name.

SAS Rogue Heroes series two is available in full on BBC iPlayer from 6am on New Year’s Day, and airs on BBC One from 9pm that night.