This programme contains strong language
Sit.
During these uncertain times,
what we're looking for is those that have the courage..
Stand up.
...to take the leap into the unknown.
Follow the DS. Let's go.
Get a move on, move it.
In this series...
...an elite team of ex-Special Forces soldiers...
Get up, number 21.
...are putting 21 men and women...
Come on, we're going to come last.
Push, push, push.
...through the most gruelling stages of SAS selection.
Whatever's happening in the world, we need to switch on.
Because the enemy are not going to stop
if you're scared or exhausted,
you need to know that you've got the inner strength to keep fighting.
Each task based on the real process...
...the recruits must go beyond the physical
to come face-to-face...
What would you do?
...with their true self.
G0, g0, go, go.
In the Special Forces,
you swear an oath to your comrades that you're willing to give
the ultimate sacrifice
to see them live another day.
No other test asks as much...
Holly, wake up.
...or means as much...
...to the few who make it through.
You're about to be in a whole world of pain.
I feel like if I spend any more energy,
like, I'm just going to fall asleep.
ALL: Yeah.
Oh, I can't wait to get home to my missus.
I miss her so much.
Oh, I'll never shout at her again.
It's the penultimate phase of the course,
with less than 48 hours to go.
This morning, number 14 Jamie
and number 12 Reanne handed in their armbands.
Save himself a good kicking anyway.
THEY LAUGH
Now just eight recruits remain.
Five minutes outside. Move it.
Sean, you best get ready, we need to go.
Everyone outside now.
Today is going to be your hardest day.
All of you, you are going to need each other.
And that's why I'm going to be putting you in teams.
Number 3, come out here, stand there.
You are a team leader Team Alpha - is that understood?
Number 4, two metres behind her, you are team leader Team Bravo.
Staff.
Number 3, turn around and pick someone.
Number 7, you are Team Alpha.
Number 4, turn around and pick someone.
Number 9, Staff. Number 9, in you go.
Number 10, let's go. Move.
16, Staff.
Number 18, let's go.
Number 19, Staff. Number 19, let's go.
Number 4 Sean has chosen an all-male team.
And number 3 Justine has chosen the remaining female recruits,
plus number 10 Kieran.
Team Alpha, Team Bravo.
You've got each other now.
More of you to rely on.
However, more of you to let each other down.
Do not be that person.
ALL:
When I say go, disappear into the accommodation, jackets on.
With your Bergens on.
Stand by.
Go. Move, move, let's go.
Throughout this phase, the recruits will be working in their two teams.
Within a team, there can be a lot of people that hide behind other
people's strengths.
But when you're on operations, you have to pull your own weight.
You have to be self-sufficient.
Team Alpha in one wagon, Team Bravo in the next. Move. Go.
Followship is just as important as leadership.
We want a group of individuals that can work as a team.
Forget about the pain now. Forget everything else.
All that matters is we win. This is where it gets real now, boys.
Come on. Yeah, boy.
If you can't lead a team, not only are you a danger to yourself
but you're a burden to the team.
Let's go, start moving. Straight in, number 9, move.
Hurry it up.
Get up.
The recruits have been taken to the Raasay peat bogs...
Go, number 19. Move.
Go, move. Get up. Let's go.
...to face a test of teamwork and leadership in
one of the course's most demanding tasks.
Faster, number 19. Move, let's go. Go.
I am the nonteaching head of year in a school,
responsible for the safeguarding
and the general welfare of over 240 students.
And there's a lot from disadvantaged backgrounds.
I really feel I'm relatable because of the experiences I had growing up.
The teams must fight for possession of the tyre.
To score, they must drive it across the opposing team's goal-line.
This is where it really fucking counts now.
All over to you now.
This task is a chance for number 4
Sean and number Bjustine, the youngest recruit
on the course, to display their leadership skills to the DS.
Get this fucking tyre over their line.
Get in there now.
Good, good, good.
Excellent.
Keep 905F19-
GoaL
Go, move. Good, number 9.
Run back. Great communication, great teamwork.
Sean's team win the first round.
Number 3, get a grip of your team, otherwise I'll come
over there and get a fucking grip of you, do you understand?
16, 9.
All you four.
They all run to the tyre,
so drag them all in and then make a run.
Go!
Let's go, move.
Move.
Get in there.
Oh-ho-ho! Classic.
Good effort, you two. Well done, number 9.
That tyre was closer to you. You're fucking fannying around.
You haven't got the strength on your side,
but do you know what you've got? Speed, agility, mind-set.
You should be pissing all over these lumps. It's smarter than this.
We're the thinking soldier for a reason.
It is not about brute strength all the time.
Do you understand me? Yes, Staff. Fucking make it happen.
Justine's team are now two round down.
Number 3, number 18.
Do not keep hold of that thing.
Hot potato, girls, hot potato.
Move.
Here.
Go!
Drop it off.
What was that?!
Stop fucking floundering, got it? And you saw this lot out.
You're keeping hold of it for far too long.
You're only as strong as your weakest link.
And there's going to be some points when it does take a team to
get over things.
I'm the sort of person that has an ability
if I'm in a great mood to lift people up and lift a whole room up.
Because I 100% believe that I give everything I've got.
Number 3, over to you.
This is where it counts, you go again.
Let's go.
After just ten minutes,
the all-male Team Bravo
are now three runs up against Justine's team.
Good, number 19, good.
Good effort, let's go, let's go, let's go.
Let's fucking get amongst it.
SWP'
Well done, good effort.
Grab your Bergens and you'll be back in this location.
After a draw in the final round, the DS call time on the task
and Team Bravo are the winners.
Listen in.
You are only as strong as your weakest member.
See how important it is, teamwork?
When I say go,
you will make your way as a team to the DS.
Is that understood?
Stand by.
Go.
Let's get out of here, let's shift.
Move!
Wow! Not for the weak, this course, is it?
Fucking beast mode.
Everybody all right?
I've never been this wet.
After they were dominated by Bravo in the earlier task,
the DS are meeting to discuss the future of Team Alpha.
First thing in the morning, murder ball. Yeah.
Foxy, over to you, then, brother.
She weren't in the game this morning.
She weren't even switching on to it. Paying no attention.
I thought that extra responsibility as well on top,
it's just, fucking, the pressure.
Could have imploded.
Listen, she's only young, but that's what selection is all about.
You know, you imagine that on the battlefield,
having a brain fart like that - you know, it's going to cost lives.
Number 3, in my eyes, is that close and she's gone.
God, I'm going to get the shits. I've had two things of coffee.
That's strange, isn't it? Do you not? No, no. Lucky.
Didn't know that. Because some people can't deal with
protein powder, can they? Oh, my God.
Protein farts are like a different new level of...
My body must be immune to it, because I've... Really? Yeah.
After a display of poor leadership on the task,
the DS want to find out if number three, Justine,
has the potential to take control of her emotions and her team.
Number three. Tired? Yes, sir.
I think that's one of the hardest times I've pushed myself.
I'll be honest. You know, between us,
speaking to each other in the DS,
you're out the front physically, but mentally, there is
a lack of confidence in your leadership ability.
How do you feel about leadership and stepping up?
Even though I am quite quiet, when I...
I do try my best to step up to leadership roles.
But you were pretty disappointing.
Why did you come on here? What did you want to achieve,
for you personally?
Because I really want to join the military. I want to join the army.
I thought this would be a good test.
I've got good discipline. I've always had it,
ever since I was a child.
Well, my parents are quite high achievers,
so I've always felt the need to really, really impress them.
My mum went to the Bolshoi Ballet School. Wow.
And Dad is a very entrepreneurial man,
and I've always felt like a massive disappointment, so...
Your parents are quite strict? My mum used to be very strict.
We lived in Italy. I was brought up in Italy.
Then, at 13, my mum passed away, and then that same year,
we moved to Cornwall.
That was a...
...massive change, obviously.
For me, losing my mum at 11, I wasn't very emotional.
I repressed everything, didn't deal with that emotion,
and I see that look in your eyes.
It reminds me of myself when I was your age.
I did the same thing, and I think I've always had that gap.
That's why I joined cadets,
because I wanted to feel like I belonged to something.
That's also why I kind of want to join the military. I just want to...
I want to be like you guys.
I want to feel like, you know, part of a family.
We've asked you to step up as a team leader.
That will continue,
but there's times when you've just got to be confident in your own
abilities, because you as an individual, you're fucking there.
It's now about leadership.
We want to see you at the end.
Yeah.
Thank you, sir. Guard!
DOOR OPENS
My mum was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was around ten.
But she passed away when I was 13.
Keep doing what you're doing, number three. Stand by. Go.
I didn't cry at the funeral.
I literally held it in the whole day,
because I was just trying to get my head around the fact that
I would never see her again, and, you know, that was it.
We didn't really talk about my mum's death at all.
That's how we coped with it. We just...
You know, put a lid on it and just, that's it.
No, no, you haven't... You keep going.
Times are hard, eh? Mm-hm. THEY LAUGH
Fuck me!
Come on, let's go, let's go. To the wagon. Go!
Tonight, the teams will be sent on the run for escape and evasion,
but first, they face a two-stage task in teams
designed to drain their physical reserves.
Yeah? Positives. Come on, positives.
Following their defeat in the previous task... Move forward.
...it's a chance forjustine to lead Team Alpha to victory.
Right, this next task is basically in your teams, you will pick a boat.
Once you've picked a boat, you're going to follow the DS.
It's as simple as that. Let's go. Move. I don't care how you do it.
Get above your heads, blag it.
This bow should not be touching the floor.
Aargh!
Each team must race over boggy terrain to a loch two miles away...
Three, two, one... Go!
THEY STRAIN
...carrying a 95kg boat...
Aargh!
...with an extra 20kg on their back.
Get this boat fucking moving up the hill!
Let's get moving! Keep that pace. It's a steady pace.
We're not going any faster then we need to.
Sean's Team Bravo take an early lead.
Every foot we make is a step closer to the ending, eh?
I've always drifted and not put myself in that spotlight,
just in case I get it wrong.
There's fucking ditches everywhere.
Three, two, one. Let's go. Pull.
Push, push, push!
Because of my job role in school, I feel like people look up to me.
So I don't like the fact that I'm still scared of failing.
THEY STRAIN
Let's go! Push!
Push!
Fuck's sake! Number 3, take charge.
Lift the boat together as a team.
OK, guys, we need to get underneath the boat a little bit more. Yeah.
That's it. Great. Wait, wait.
On your shoulders, get it on your shoulders at the front.
That's it, get under. That's it. Under, everybody.
Get your bags underneath it. You good? That's it.
3, take charge, that's it.
First two men at the front, drop the end of the weight...
After a strong start...
Right, listen, listen to me. One voice.
We are going to lift it, we're going to go over that first section there.
...Bravo have hit an obstacle. Three, two, one, go!
Over your head, just lift it now!
Small steps, guys. Right, now, number 3,
think how you're going to tackle that obstacle.
Right, guys, come on, drag it through the shallow water.
Come on, 18! Good. Smart!
Good.
By choosing to navigate the boat through the water
instead of over the fence, Team Alpha overtake Team Bravo...
Drop it, drop it!
...and win the race.
Brawn versus brain, and brain won.
Now the recruits have been exhausted on land,
the DS will push them further, with a gruelling open water task
designed to push their bodies to near-hypothermia.
Right, myself and the DS are going to give you
a demonstration of how you re-right these boats if they are capsized.
So I suggest you pay attention to everything that myself
and the DS do when we're in the water.
Operating in almost freezing water,
the recruits must first capsize the boat.
Observe.
Ready?
We're going to turn the boat over to go through the drill.
Keep watching.
One recruit must cling to the bottom...
...and once upright, retrieve the remaining members from the water.
Justine's team are the first to go.
Ready? Everybody up? Three, two, one...
Number 7, Lauren, has volunteered
to take the more physically demanding role.
Ready? Wait, wait. Communicate! Three, two, one...
Go!
Strong, strong.
Next to go are Team Bravo.
4. Centre shout.
OK, through the middle, take a step back.
Ready!
Fucking hell!
With the first round of the task over,
the ice-cold temperature is taking its toll on Team Alpha.
Yes, sir.
Go!
Fucking spring, warm up. Spring, warm up.
Aargh! Some people will tolerate the cold longer than others.
That's a fact.
Move, number 7, because you're going back in the water, number 7.
Go. If it's too much for you, you can give me your number.
But at some point, that cold will take control of you.
It breaks down the best of people.
Get a grip of yourself. You're going back in there, number 7.
If you don't want to go back in there, give me your number.
Grab your bergen, dress over to the side. 7.
I'm going to give it everything I've got,
but I think that if you chip away at people, they do break.
And I will know when I need to go.
Number 7, Lauren,
has voluntarily withdrawn from the course.
Nowjust seven recruits remain.
You are one person down.
Do you understand me? Are you OK, number 3? Yes, sir. Are you sure?
Yes, sir. Then do exactly the same drill with bergens.
Attach your bergens to these...
To the ringlets on there...
Breathe!
Number 10, Kieran, suggested strapping the bergens onto the boat.
You would get nowhere without being in a team, innit, you know?
But, like, I'm not going to be like, "Oh, I've got the bigger dick.
"L'm going to lead," you know?
OK, everybody on this side...
On the edge. On the edge.
But I don't know what it is. On it, on it.
I just have something inside me, you know? I have, like...
I feel like I could pull it out the bag.
Three, two, one...
THEY STRAIN
Go on, Justine. You can do it. You can do it, Justine.
Because I've had, like, quite a few life experiences for somebody
my age, I think I definitely know myself really well.
Good girl. Good girl.
If I did join the military, I would be able to cope with that.
I wouldn't... I wouldn't doubt myself.
OK, Justine? OK. Yeah.
Oh, fuck!
They're working really well as a team, them lot.
As Team Alpha strapped their bergens onto the boat,
they kept their equipment at hand,
and have successfully completed the task.
Pull that paddle out. Yeah, next one on. Go.
Two, one... Go.
Ready! Give me a big "ready". Connor will tell you when you're going.
HE SHOUTS
Three, two, one... Pull!
Fucking hell!
By failing to secure their bergens, Team Bravo have failed the task.
Communication's key there, isn't it?
4, take charge of your fucking boat.
You're the boat commander there.
Get in the wagons. Go. Move it!
No, you're not.
It's OK. That's fine.
GRUNTING
Quite frankly, look at me. I don't give a fuck right now.
Look at my sock! Literally, this is the closest I've been to homeless,
like, I think ever.
After failing to lead his team to success in the previous task,
the DS want to find out why number four Sean
isn't fulfilling his potential as a leader.
How are you finding this?
Tried to kick on today.
I was disappointed with the task.
You're a schoolteacher, right? Staff.
Which is full of leadership, isn't it?
So this should have been second nature to you,
but it wasn't, was it?
You seem to have lost complete confidence at the moment.
What's took that away from you?
I just didn't think I took instructions on
as good as I could have done.
Right. Growing up, where you from?
Manchester, staff.
From Moss Side which is quite a diverse community.
Good upbringing?
Our household wasn't great. Wasn't a great upbringing, staff, no.
My dad and my mum never got along, my mum just couldn't cope,
and her way of dealing with it was to turn to drug abuse and that.
How old were you then when this was happening?
11 years old. 11, 12. Right.
When my dad went away, my mum had a choice and she made a choice
and she moved us away out of the area to a predominantly white
British environment and immediately just didn't fit in.
Suffered racism for about two years
and I never spoke to anyone about it.
I hated the colour of my skin, staff.
I just wanted to be like the rest of my friends and there would be times
when I would go home and look at the colour and ask myself why.
OK.
Yeah.
What do you want to get out of this?
I know what I could have been
but I don't know what I'm capable of doing.
We want to know who you are as well,
but in order for us to do that you have to give us 100%.
Staff. All right? Grow with confidence, prove to me
that you really want to be here and you're going to go for it.
Guard!
As a kid, I was judged on the colour of my skin.
So it made me feel I'm not good enough.
I remember getting home one day, got some bleach,
poured bleach down my arm and I scrubbed for a good ten minutes
until it stung, until it burned.
At the time, that's where my head was at.
I was trying so hard to fit in.
Over the years I have learned to cope with any situation
that I'm thrown into and that's all down to growing up a lot faster
than I should have done.
What day is it? Friday, mate. It's Friday. Five o'clock.
Start looking at menus now on just Eat.
We normally get pizzas and Indian.
The recruits don't know it yet but they will soon embark
on the escape and evasion stage of the course.
But first, they have one last meal.
One each? That's nuts. Game's started, boys.
Number four!
Having exhausted them physically, the DS will now apply
mental pressure by seeing how the recruits react to potential contact
with their loved ones.
Strength is important in the special forces.
But just because you're strong physically doesn't mean
you're strong mentally.
No-one really knows their true strength until they've been tested.
CHIMING
As a special forces operator, your emotions are definitely heightened.
You have to know when to bring them to the forefront
and you have to know when to control them.
What's going on?
How are you? Oh, mate.
Messages from home, everyone deals with them differently.
Today I was struggling. I was going to come home.
I was going to come home, I thought I'd had enough...
...but going to push on, mate, and finish strong. 48 hours.
CHIMING
CHEERING
We love you. Stay strong, mate. We are so proud of you.
All right, thank you.
For me, it's a distraction.
I'd rather not know any sort of problems that I couldn't solve.
Love you.
I'll see you soon.
I don't think that's going to do him any good.
CHIMING
That's the right decision. Closes, that's his little box boxed off.
We need to know what type of people they are.
Because if you have any distractions whatsoever,
you won't make it through.
But look, she's computing what's going on.
CHIMING
I'm quite good at, like, focusing on one thing and putting
everything else to one side if that's what needs to be done.
You just keep going and not let other things get in the way
because the minute you do, that's when you lose control.
She is beyond her years.
She is going to make an awesome soldier.
We all channel into it energy in different ways, don't we?
That's pushed me, man. I need that.
Yeah, yeah.
You all right? Yeah.
Well done. a hard nut, you are.
You are a hard nut.
Yeah, I did.
Bawled my eyes out.
On selection, you know that escape and evasion is coming,
but you can never prepare for it.
It is always still terrifying.
It is the most exposing, intimidating situation
you could ever be in.
You have no idea what the enemy have got in store for you.
The next phase is designed to push people to their limits,
or what they perceive as their limits.
It's where you prove to us as the DS that you've got what it takes.
BARKING
The remaining seven recruits are about to start
the escape and evasion phase of selection.
You're to move as a team at all times.
That's the edge of the forest,
there's some outbuildings and that is RV1.
Armed with just a compass and a map, each team must navigate their way
to two separate RV points to meet agents who will direct them
to an extraction point on the western shore of the island.
Right now, you're behind the lines,
you're on the run.
You're going to move fast, OK?
Both teams will be pursued by a hunter force.
We're going to aim to get to RV1 as quickly as possible,
but we're going to stay off the road and move on from there.
G0, go, go, go, go.
First to go are the all-male Team Bravo made up of number 16 Connor,
number 9 DJ, number 19 Adam and team leader, number 4, Sean.
Escape and evasion, teamwork is crucial.
You are in one of the most difficult situations that you as a team
will find yourself in.
You're moving at night and you are cold.
It's horrendous and you need to be able to rely upon one another
and be there for each other.
Team Bravo decided to go off road, which is safer but slower.
Back at base, the DS are following the team's progress.
Team Bravo just slow,
Team Alpha have moved off pretty quick. They're moving, look.
They're nearly at RV1. They are shifting.
Soon as we get to this RV, the better.
Along with her team mates, number 19 Tyler and number ten, Keiran,
Justine's Team Alpha are way ahead after taking the faster
but riskier road route.
We're at this point here,
so from here we've got about a K and a half.
Super important that we try to stay off the road.
Half an hour behind Alpha,
number four Sean has led Team Bravo off-road.
People deserve a second chance.
Path I'm on is the path I was meant to be on.
The choices I've made are the choices I was meant to make.
I still feel I've got more to achieve.
Team Bravo, slow as fuck.
I can understand how they want to stay off the tracks
because they could probably blend in more.
But they are too far away from that road.
Yeah.
I recommend we pick it up on a little bit of a jog once we get
a bit of a straight.
Fucking hell.
The hunter force are closing in.
Is he gone?
There's still one more car right there.
We shouldn't be walking on the road. We're way quicker on the road.
She said stay off the road. We can't be going off the road.
We won't know where we're going. We need to get up here.
Higher ground, so we can see what comes in both directions.
SWP'
Car. Get down.
Switch that fucking torch off.
Having taken the more direct but physical route,
Team Alpha are now in close contact with the hunter force.
We shouldn't be stopping, we should keep moving.
Come on!
Fuck sake.
In the last half hour, Team Bravo have only moved one kilometre.
Follow my lead.
Car. Car.
Lay down.
Three hours into escape and evasion, Team Bravo are captured.
Team Bravo have been caught.
I'm not surprised. So slow.
Do you know what, they disappoint me a bit.
Disappointing, disappointing.
Interrogation is designed to expose
all of your demons.
It can be a very dark place to be.
You're fucking bonus won't come in,
because I fucking won't save you, you BLEEP.
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