22 October 2015, The Tablet

Extreme selection


 
Back in July, the nation heard about the deaths of three young candidates for the British army’s elite Special Air Service – the SAS – on a selection course in the Brecon Beacons. Now, three months later, Channel 4 has decided to re-enact the selection process for five weeks of entertainment. Episode one of SAS: Who Dares Wins (19 October) even included a run up and down Pen y Fan, the highest beacon.The real process by which men are chosen to join “the Special Forces community” is, of course, secret. But the channel was able to assemble a team of SAS and SBS (Special Boat Service of the Royal Navy) veterans who disclosed enough to create their own selection scheme in an abandoned army camp. They were led by a man called Ant, hard as rock despite the sometime
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