This one one of 2022’s revelations that likely saw few viewers in the US (comparatively). Right in my sweet spot of shows I am bound to like, Rogue Heroes checked all the boxes.
British? Yup.
Historical? Yup
Based on reality? Yup
Military? Yup
Fantastic actors? Yup
Beautiful landscapes? Yup
I mean what is not to love. You have the formation of one of the world’s tier 1 special forces group in the desert of WWII played out by Jack O’Connell, Alfie Allen, and Conor Swindell with support from Dominic West. O’Connell is the brightest of these lights and builds upon his fantastic work in another lesser seen BBC work, also in ‘22 and that I greatly enjoyed (The North Water).
While The North Water was a decidedly cold and icy adventure, Rogue Heroes is based in the deserts of North Africa and filled with familiar locales—Cairo, Benghazi, etc. while the color palate used by the film makers is just right in its washed out, tan, tendencies. You can feel the grit finding its way into every crevice of the human body in these scenes.
Here O’Connell is playing Paddy Mayne and while he is of lesser rank than Allen and Swindell’s characters it is clear from the start where the audience’s interest will lie. He owns every scene and Paddy Mayne lends his legends to military iconoclasts who did it their way to the aggravation of their peers and commanders but looked fondly on by the victories they gained.
Based upon the book of the same name by Ben MacIntyre (which I will now have to read) it is “factual” in as much as any TV show can be but the real story is so fantastic (Really? Raiding the New Zealanders for equipment and food because the high command won’t provide you supplies? Yup…true…) It shows the life and death decisions made under extreme duress and those fateful days where the free Western world hung in the balance and only a few hard men stood in the way of true evil. No one is imagined as perfect, good men die, questionable deeds are performed…its reality.
A great work of TV and one worth anyone’s time. Season two is supposedly in the works and will focus on the SAS efforts in Italy and Europe in general as WWII progressed. This isn’t a documentary intended to enlighten you to the material, tactics, or strategy of war. Nor is it supposed to be encyclopedic of its retelling of the SAS origins. Its just a fun and emotional tale of individuals making their own mark on history.