OK this programme purports to be a documentary of some kind

Does it? I don’t think the SAS would want cameras around anywhere near them. This series description of “secret SAS training regime” is on a level with “10 training secrets the pros don’t want you to hear about” in fitness mags/websites/etc.

You might instead try the series that followed a batch of marine recruits through a few weeks at Lympstone.

Ooh Ant on Everest. I quite liked that and anyone who can function at altitude is pretty tough. It’s an experience that’s hard to fathom unless you’ve done it. His program on recreating Captain Blighs open boat journey was exceptional I thought. Catch up TV for me later.

anyone who can function at altitude is pretty tough.

It’s nothing to do with being tough. Your body can either cope with altitude or it can’t.

Surprised that they chose some where high up as it immediately means some won’t be able to do it

Surprised that they chose some where high up as it immediately means some won’t be able to do it

Surely they can’t just fly everyone into Peru/Argentina and then say “right, we’re taking you right into the Andes, jump in the bus”. Can they?

The participants get some sort of pre-event medical & psychology test, we know that much so there must be some sort of test process where they acclimitise people. You can’t just be expected to jump out of a bus at 2500m up in the Andes and start doing intense physical exercise…
Everyone must be given some sort of idea where they’re going and the conditions they’ll encounter, it’d be madness not to. Surely?

Love the programme and watch it with my son with great commentary from us going on. With respect to what Crazy legs has said above I think they have done psychology tests on them and gone for some pretty messed up people. Yes you probably have to be slightly off kilter to be able to withstand the mental side of things but I seriously question putting a guy who couldn’t take a shit in front of a woman due to religious beliefs, a guy who had previously tried to kill himself and women who have quite obviously been the victims of some nasty experiences. It’s as if they want to highlight how these life experiences have effected them, when to be honest i would rather concentrate on the activities and mental strength of the more balanced members taking part.

Well Funkydunc I’d say it is tough. You either acclimatise and are ok or don’t acclimatise and push on with the misery and pain and get back down. The Mrs is terrible at acclimatising and still managed to carry her bike over a 5000m pass last year. Option to either give up or go up and then get back low again. Pretty tough.

Oof!

Is that not a staff **** up as well though….. were they not on an orange safety line as well?

Wow, that poor firefighter. Heartbreaking. 🙁

Oof!

Is that not a staff **** up as well though….. were they not on an orange safety line as well?

I was thinking they would have some automatic backup arrest system too….clearly not

It was clearly a cock up. There was a secondary safety back up line coming down from the top but it obviously didn’t work.

I noticed when the bloke let go he pushed himself off from the edge of the bridge with his feet. That could have caused a pendulum effect which then brought that ledge into play.

I was also concerned to see how slack they had the rope below them. I guess they wanted the effect of the initial drop but it would have made it more difficult for the belayers to take in the slack and arrest the fall.

Agree with mrb123. They didn’t show any more after that so I assume the other 3 didn’t have to do the exercise as the safety team pulled the exercise after that.

Disappointing to see a couple of the ladies wearing makeup and nail polish in last night’s episode.

@CheesybeanZ – my wife noticed that!

Does seem strange given they are supposed to be working pretty hard

They didn’t show any more after that so I assume the other 3 didn’t have to do the exercise as the safety team pulled the exercise after that.

No,they were the last team down according to his Instagram feed..

Ah right – almost feel that you need to social media commentary to fully make sense of it sometimes and fill in the gaps!

As above, my first thought as the recruit was getting the blame for it, was that the bollocking should have been directed at the People who chose the location and rigged it up. The orange safety rope I assumed was to stop them hitting the deck rather than obstacles on the way down. Would be interesting to watch again to try and see exactly what happened and how far down the line he’d travelled when he hit the rock face.

I watched the clip again, it seems he fell far further down the rope than others. Maybe the brake man hadn’t taken up enough slack but it wasn’t as if the instructors had no time to react.

In a special forces situation they just seemed to freeze. If i was in a special forces situation i don’t think I’d put my trust in them, which is vitally important in a special forces situation which it would be because i’d be special forces.

They do mention special forces situations quite a lot don’t they?

The technique is known as a fireman’s belay.

If the belayer pulled on the rope when he was told to then it’s hard to suggest he was at all at fault.

The blame should lie with the person who gave the instruction too late and the set up that brought that ledge into play.

Maybe they were just trying to make a more realistic portrayal of special forces selection by attempting to kill students in a badly managed exercise?

They do mention special forces situations quite a lot don’t they?

They mention the SAS a lot too.

Despite only one of them having been in it..

Have only just got round to watching this. How reckless of the film company to have someone jump where they could fall onto rocks.
How lucky was he to have landed on his arse and not his head.
Safety line operator the man at fault.
I suspect if he’d really injured himself there’d be a good case for a prosecution under H&S legislation.

…there’d be a good case for a prosecution under H&S legislation.

I thought it was filmed overseas so outside h&s legislation

At the end of the day, they are only playing at being in the SAS for entertainment, so the production company should be taking better care of them.

I suppose that’s why stuff like Total Wipeout was filmed in Argentina, so contestants who get badly broken have naff all chance of legal redress.

That interrogation room bugs me. Looks sooo like a studio and I’m happy if it’s a studio built at the mountain base as it means the interviews are ‘real’ in terms of the recruits being tired and emotional. But I just have this nagging doubt it’s recreated after the fact somewhere in Hertfordshire – from the inside and the grainy low light outside the table looks like a different size.

I was also surprised to see Louise’s hair not tied up (bundled under her helmet) for the bridge drop, nor wearing gloves on the off chance that she decided to grab a handful of rope. It’s not like I watch her every move or anything.

There’s an awful lot of underlying mental / demons here (unexpected bereavement, bullying, suicide, child abuse??) . Four episodes in and I’m sure each one has ended with ‘if you’ve been affected by…’. I wonder what baggage Louise has other than repeatedly sexually torturing mountain bikers both physically and mentally.

That interrogationdiary room bugs me.

FTFY

It used to be run to the top of that mountain and back and then we’ll tell you the next checkpoint……only to be told the next checkpoint is back to the top of the mountain.

My brother in law did something interesting in the army and has a similar story. “Run up Pen-y-Fan and get me a rock with a number on it.” BiL returns and hands rock to staff. “No, that’s a 6. I wanted a 7. Go and get me a 7.”

Just watched last episodes attempted rope drop accident attempted murder on the ex rugby man.

Absurd amount of pointless and excessive swearing.

10 out of 10 for gruff northern narrator selection.

Contestants do rather seem picked for their troubles.

But. Enlighten me, why do they stick a bag over contestants heads as they get led into the diary room?

Enlighten me, why do they stick a bag over contestants heads as they get led into the diary room?

For TV drama. They have walked to the right building before they put the bag on and as it’s just an interview room it probably doesn’t matter if they know the layout inside as they’re not really trying to gather intel or escape.

The only other reason would be that they have to transit them through a room full of warm drinks, nice food and intel on the board about what’s coming up.

But. Enlighten me, why do they stick a bag over contestants heads as they get led into the diary room?

Maybe it’s a lucky dip for the staff, they never know which one they’re going to talk to until the bag comes off.

Well, I have to admit I felt a teeny bit of emotion as the firefighter made it through – he was rock solid all the way as was the surgeon. Surprised Louise didn’t make it through the interrogation and felt for the two who were eliminated after the VWs. I thought Hannah had toughed it out really well and if anything was too tough in the last test. Also thought Rick’s withdrawal was harsh. Never thought Milo would make it but fair dues…

I might apply for the next one.*

*Not sure I’d nake it past the shared pooing bit. 😆

Found it a slightly strange conclusion.

They seemed to praise the ones who talked the most during the interrogation. To my mind the shepherd lass took it better than anyone yet they held it against here. Poor Milo on Tue other hand seemed totally broken and was giving them his life story but that seemed to be taken as a positive.

We don’t know what instructions they were given in advance of course but it did seem a bit counter intuitive.

Tough on the final few VWs. Couldn’t really blame them for ducking out of what was basically a torture session.

Also very tough on the two who survived but were not passed.

I think the thing with the interrogations was that if you just stop talking in real life or say ‘that’s all I’ve got’ they either escalate the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ if they think you’re lying or just kill you if they think you aren’t so talking is a good thing as long as you stay within the boundaries of what you’re allowed to say. Humanising yourself, getting sympathy can’t but help, either?

Enlighten me, why do they stick a bag over contestants heads as they get led into the diary room?

It was covered in previous series, but basically they put them in a state when they’re pretty much helpless, being lead / pushed / shoved by one of the instructors (they used to be harder on them) which ramps up the pressure / anxiety, then very suddenly the hood is lifted – you can see the shock in their faces as they’re suddenly in bright light being shouted at. It’s about putting pressure on them.

I think the thing with the interrogations was that if you just stop talking in real life or say ‘that’s all I’ve got’ they either escalate the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ if they think you’re lying or just kill you if they think you aren’t so talking is a good thing as long as you stay within the boundaries of what you’re allowed to say. Humanising yourself, getting sympathy can’t but help, either?

This, again if there was a failing with this series it was it didn’t explain to people who perhaps hadn’t seen the last few series the rules of the interrogation phase.

The only point of resistance to integration in the real world is to buy time for your colleagues to realise you’ve been captured / killed or whatever and change plans, whilst at the same time as not getting yourself executed / beaten half to death. I think in the real world they try to go 48 hours before spilling their guts.

Rather than start off with the old ‘Name, Rank Serial Number’ thing and get water boarded, electrocuted or whatever they use a cover story, they’re supposed to try to bound with the interrogator by matching their speech patterns, mannerisms get them talking about themselves, put themselves on the same side as them against ‘the bosses’ etc all the time teasing out a few mins here and there etc. What they’re trying to avoid is angering them by being evasive, lippy, angry etc.

Fair enough. Having not seen previous series a bit of explanation would definitely have made things clearer last night.

SAS: WDW Celebrity series starts tonight (Sun 7 Apr 9pm Ch4). First of five episodes in aid of Stand Up To Cancer. Victoria Pendleton is a contestant.

Anyone watching the latest series wonder how many times the mole on the nose of number 18 swapped sides?

Enjoyed the first one.

Speaking of moles, the new one is a bit of an MTBer.

Anyone watching the latest series wonder how many times the mole on the nose of number 18 swapped sides?

No, butt the whole family burst out laughing when the editor had managed to cut the words “….and get your arse up that hill!” with a perfectly framed white arse in a thong running away up said hill…

I’m still not sure, they don’t mention it often, but are they ‘special forces’ who often work in ‘special forces’ situations’?

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