BBC SAS Rogue Heroes star Connor Swindells reveals huge sacrifice he made to play prisoner of war
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It’s spring 1943 and with Lieutenant Colonel David Stirling captured by the enemy, volatile Paddy Mayne has assumed control as Commanding Officer of the SAS. The fighting has moved from North Africa to mainland Europe and while the Allies need all the help they can get to defeat Hitler, GHQ has cast doubt on the future of its most unruly regiment. The series opens with the death of Paddy’s father and when he is denied the opportunity to attend his father’s funeral, Paddy expresses his feelings in the only way he knows how – unfettered violence. To keep his character’s tensions simmering, actor Jack O’Connell kept a punchbag with him on set.
“I had the production issue me a punchbag that followed me around Croatia and I insisted on this punchbag,” says Jack. “I did feel like an absolute diva passing it off as a requirement but this punchbag never left my side.”. The punchbag also helped Jack to hone Paddy’s intimidating physique. “I can’t do the gym,” he confides. “I can’t do reps of things, and I can’t do weights and treadmills and all of that. I find it really boring, so I have to disguise my fitness.”.
With Stirling incarcerated, Connor Swindells who plays him went on a radical diet and a punishing exercise regime for his role as a prisoner of war. “I lost a lot of weight,” says Connor. “I knew I was going to have to look quite gaunt to do the story justice, and I didn’t really enjoy that very much. But it definitely helps the storytelling element of what was going on for David at that time. I did enjoy feeling a bit like an old mangy coyote or something. He’s desperate to get out of the cage.”.
