Interview with Steven Knight – Writer, creator and executive producer

As a writer what do you enjoy about continuing a story, its characters, and their journey into a second series?

With something like SAS Rogue Heroes you’re compelled to continue because the story did happen and did continue. The fact is that the true story of the SAS is a piece of drama better than anyone in fiction could invent. The characters are beyond belief but, in the majority of cases in the series, they’re real. I said at the beginning when we were promoting the first series, some of the things that really happened I can’t depict because no one would believe me.

How does series two begin?

When David Stirling was taken prisoner of war the decision was made to put Paddy Mayne in charge. Paddy is the born rebel, he’s the one that punches the commanding officer, rather than being the commanding officer. What fascinated me all the way through reading the history was how Paddy dealt with that, and he did deal with it in an incredible and different way. I wanted Paddy front and centre, to look at his character, not brush over some of the flaws and understand – as I think with all of the men actually – that they were selected by war. Had it not been a time of war they probably wouldn’t have thrived because as the Rudyard Kipling quote goes: “For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ”Chuck him out, the brute!” But it’s ”Saviour of ‘is country,” when the guns begin to shoot” – it’s the person in the brawl or in the bar, suddenly they’re required.

What new characters are we introduced to in series two and how do they disrupt the dynamic from the first?

Our team are now in Italy facing a totally different challenge to the desert. There are new people joining the regiment – indeed there is a new regiment altogether, 2SAS – and of course there are sparks and friction.

The main change, which again this is the truth and something reality throws at us, is that when David Stirling was captured his brother Bill Stirling became a very prominent part of the SAS and 2SAS. Gwilym Lee’s performance is amazing as Bill Stirling; a man who is good, honourable, straightforward but feels this pressure because of his brother. David is renowned as ‘The Phantom Major’, he’s done all this stuff. Bill as the older sibling has something of a sense of superiority and a desire to make the men respect him in the same way they respected David. This creates a lot of tension.

But there are lots of new characters and all of them heroes. John Tonkin (Jack Barton) has the most incredible experiences and enacted the most heroic acts; Jock McDiarmid (Mark Rowley) who was a wild Scotsman, force of nature and incredibly courageous.

What was it like to delve deeper into the impact war has on people?

I find that element to the SAS the most interesting and compelling part. At this time these young men – some of them as young as 19 or 20 – are going through incredibly traumatic, horrific experiences which they will never unsee, never forget, ever. At the time there was no room for acknowledgment of that, no one was going to talk about it. The first example I came across was when I was researching series one and met one of the original SAS members, Mike Sadler. We were talking about one of the battles and he described how the Germans opened fire with machine guns, mortar and hand grenades; “It wasn’t ideal”, he said. ‘Not ideal’ is not how most people would describe that… But with the SAS everything has a lid on it which is fantastic for the drama because what you can’t do is explode – because these guys didn’t, they kept it under wraps and they did the most amazing things. They referred to these operations as ‘going on a jolly’, you could say that’s repression, dangerous and instead of bottling it all up they should get it all out in the open but however it worked somehow. It’s almost as if the use of the language is daring the emotion to come out of hiding. When it does happen, when people are torn apart inside it comes through, it gets in. It’s about seeing these stone structures with a crack in them. I enjoyed portraying these things knowing you can’t do it by showing a heart to heart.

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.