SAS Rogue Heroes S2: the boys are back and ready to liberate Europe in this terrific, bloody boys' own bonanza
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The last we saw of Paddy Mayne he was in in the desert, machine gun on his up, contemplating commanding the 1st SAS regiment after David Stirling had been captured by the Germans, and saying through gritted teeth: “Blood will follow”. It was quite a final line for the show. And pleasingly, he was right. Blood is in plentiful supply in the eagerly-anticipated season two of SAS Rogue Heroes which lands like a boot to your groin this New Year’s Day.
As is plenty of Paddy action, from the very start. There he is, Jack O’Connell as Mayne (who, like most of the characters in the show, was real and just as wild) sat in a Cairo hotel as he’s refused some compassionate leave for the death of his father. He’s quiet for a minute. Very un-Paddy. Then he smashes up the table and chairs. Very Paddy.
Collecting himself, he addresses the onlookers, “Apologies ladies and gentlemen, but GHQ in Cairo has got my f***ing goat.” Before then beating up about 15 soldiers to Rip It Up by the Adolescents. Terrific stuff. So with Paddy suitably riled up, off we go for another gleefully rambunctious march through the history of late Second World War by big men with no shirts and large machine guns to a loud punk soundtrack.
With North Africa won by the Allies – with the help of the maniacs in the SAS operating behind enemy lines, as told in season one – attention now turns to the liberation of Europe. Though it seems that the main task is simply to turn Paddy in that direction.
It’s Spring 1943 and it turns out Stirling is in a prisoner of war camp in Italy, and with him off-grid, Bill is trying to stop the disbanding of the SAS and in fact aiming to form a new unit, the SRS, Special Raiding Service to lead the charge. It’ll be the same men but new guise to satisfy the pencil pushers.
