SAS Rogue Heroes star reveals real-life connection to staggering WW2 ‘deception’ story
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Gwilym Lee has tackled two British institutions: playing Sir Brian May in Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and Midsomer Murders. Now, the actor is taking on his third in the shape of BBC drama SAS Rogue Heroes. In the show’s much anticipated second season, the 41-year-old portrays Lieutenant Colonel Bill Stirling. And he has more in common with him than may meet the eye, he reveals to Metro over Zoom before Christmas.
![[SAS Rogue Heroes 2,01-01-2025,Gallery,1,Bill Stirling (GWILYM LEE),Banijay UK,Robert Viglasky]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233647162-c99f.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Gwilym has a real-life connection to the military through his maternal and paternal grandfather. The former was in the Merchant Navy during the Second World War, while the latter, affectionately called Grampy, was an engineer in the RAF. It was Grampy who told Gwilym a story that ‘rang bells’ with the acts of subterfuge and deceit actioned by British army officer Dudley Clarke, played by Dominic West in SAS Rogue Heroes.
![[Mandatory credit: TM & ? 20th Century Fox. No Merchandising. Editorial Use Only. No Book or TV usage without prior permission from Shutterstock Editorial Mandatory Credit: Photo by 20th Century Fox Licensing/Merchandising/Everett/REX/Shutterstock (14265513d) BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, l-r: Gwilym Lee as Brian May, Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, 2018. ph: Alex Bailey/? TM & copyright ? Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved./Courtesy Everett Collection Bohemian Rhapsody - 2018]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_234628371-48d8.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
He recalls: ‘When Grampy was in France, they used to bolster the appearance of the aircraft on the airstrip by building wooden aeroplanes because they used to see these German spy planes go over. ‘So, they started building wooden planes to make it appear like they had more hardware than they did, and the Germans flew over, saw them and the next day dropped bombs on the wooden planes.
![[TELEVISION PROGRAMMES: MIDSOMER MURDERS. GWILYM LEE as DS Charlie Nelson and NEIL DUDGEON as DCI John Barnaby.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AD_194309059-7b96.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. Up Next. ‘This was exactly the kind of stuff that Dudley Clarke was doing: all these little acts of war that you’re just not fully aware of.’.
