Damien Lewis

So this guy goes out drinking, comes back, he's late, and he goes before Paddy Mayne.

Paddy Mayne says, you know, watch your excuses.

Well, it's like this, sir.

He says, I was coming back well in time.

stopped for a cigarette to light a cigarette, had to turn around because it was blowing a hoolie in the desert, as it often does.

So I turned around to light the cigarette, forgot to turn back around again, walked for two hours in the wrong direction because you know, Paddy, all the desert looks the same.

That's why I'm late.

And because he made Paddy Mayne laugh, he was let off.

So yeah, that's a brief nutshell of the founding ethos of the SAS.

It was egalitarian.

It was quality above rank.

Your background, your education, your career before the war, none of that mattered.

All that mattered was whether you were willing to take the fight to the Nazi enemy in these

borderline suicidal missions across the North African desert and that you could think completely outside of the box and find means to attack the enemy that the enemy never even conceived of.

Yes, a great question.

By now, we're talking summer 1943, David Sterling, founder of the SAS, has been captured.

So he's in captivity.

Paddy Mame has been forced to take over command.

Why do I say forced?

Because it's something he never sought.