SAS: The Soldiers' Story

This is an hour long explosive special about the storming of the Iranian Embassy in Kensington, West London where accounts from the actual SAS add up to the most revealing, definitive and human scale history of the regiment ever compiled. Daring, determination, breathtaking skill and bravery were the crucial qualities the SAS troopers displayed to the world as they ended the six-day siege in May 1980 and released the hostages in a manner that immediately catapulted the regiment into the annuals of military legend. Altogether the SAS men rescued 19 hostages of the original 26 seized by the terrorist. One hostage was executed, another was killed in the assault and five released during the siege. The sole surviving terrorist was sentenced to life imprisonment for manslaughter.

Former members of the SAS talk about the battle of Mirbat in July 1972, in which nine SAS men showed outstanding heroism to defeat an attack by 400 Arab rebels. The battle is dramatically reconstructed, and several of the survivors from the platoon are interviewed for the first time.

The Gulf War saw the largest deployment of Special Air Service since the Second World War. The celebrated exploits of one of them, codenamed Bravo Two Zero, have gripped the world's imagination; but this was only in a massive SAS campaign involving many missions. This was one of the most daring and spectacular of all Special Forces operation.

Drawing on first hand testimony from many of the Regiment's most decorated soldiers, this film reveals for the first time the inside story of SAS selection. The few that make it through will become 'universal soldiers', elite members of the worlds' most highly trained fighting force. The exhilarating and sometimes brutal elements of SAS selection are presented using powerful and dramatic reconstructions. In the first selection phase candidates undertake punishing endurance marches. Despite severe mental and physical stress, the recruits have to cross the pain barrier many times as they navigate across the Brecon Beacons, carrying immense weights over huge distances. Only the toughest will get through to the jungle phase, known to the recruits as the 'Green Hell'. Enclosed by the dense canopy they are tested to the limit in one of the harshest environments known to man. Those tough enough to endure the hardship and those lucky enough to avoid the plethora of jungle diseases will pass on to combat survival and interrogation. We have reconstructed this phase as a soldier is ruthlessly pursued by a Hunter Force, captured and interrogated. The candidate must prove that he is tough enough to operate deep behind enemy lines. If captured he must prove he has the resilience to resist the fiercest interrogation. Only those with the most immense spiritual strength will be welcomed into the ranks of the SAS.

It was a textbook operation in the best tradition of the SAS - a daring nigh-time `hit-and-run-like-hell' raid on an Argentine airstrip on Pebble Island. This programme includes a first-hand account from one of the men in G Squadron who were secretly landed on the Falklands Islands before the main British landings. About 40 men were involved in high risk missions, relaying a continuous stream of intelligence from covert-observation posts in difficult and boggy terrain set in a desolate and freezing enemy-occupied landscape.

This episode looks at SAS missions in the jungle and for the first time reveals that the SAS have operated in Columbia, co-ordinating special units to fight against the drug cartels controlling the production and supply of cocaine throughout the world. In this episode a leading SAS soldier talks first hand about his experiences fighting the drug barons.

Account of the role of the SAS in Northern Ireland. Former members of the elite force talk about missions they undertook in the Province, reflecting on the realities of fighting terrorism and describing in detail some of the covert operations they launched to suppress the terroist threat.