Based on Ben Macintyre’s best-selling book of the same name, SAS Rogue Heroes on the BBC has been a huge hit with audiences and critics alike, with episode one attracting 9.4 million viewers (28-day all screens figure). This makes SAS Rogue Heroes the BBC’s third biggest drama launch of the year so far. The series has been available in full as a box set on BBC iPlayer since launch. The men were in awe of Paddy Mayne,” says Mortimer. “Not all of them liked him as a man. He could be difficult and bloody-minded – as some commanding officers are – but there was no one else they wanted to be next to in combat more than Paddy Mayne.”

Everyone speaks so highly of your energy on set - what is the atmosphere that you like to create during filming? In the show, Stirling, while bedbound, then formulates the plan for what becomes the SAS – a small airborne unit that can drop behind enemy lines and carry out sabotage missions. Still on crutches, he sneaks into British HQ in Cairo, evading the guards, and gets his plan in front of the appropriate general. The story is one of the most legendary SAS tales, but – according to Mortimer – the product of Stirling’s self-serving imagination. The SAS would overcome some quite spectacular failures — vividly depicted in the series — to operate behind enemy lines, damaging airfields, port infrastructure and more. They would face betrayal by a traitor within their own ranks, capture and heavy losses. They would operate in North Africa, the Mediterranean and northwest Europe, and become the first Allied troops to reach the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Blair 'Paddy' Mayne is pictured right in Norway in 1945. The SAS wreaked havoc against German and Italian positions Even though the front line wasn’t that far away, Cairo was very much a party city and it was famous for its nightlife, its nightclubs. There were lots of great descriptions. There were a lot of interesting writers who turned up in Cairo at that point. Obviously a lot of soldiers were there from all over the ally powers. There were Czechs, Indians, Brits, Aussies. There was this kind of vibrant community there, various communities rubbing along during war

In the latter, they helped ease the final Allied advance in 1945 by destroying Nazi communications, collecting intelligence and training Resistance fighters. I don’t think Mayne took Stirling very seriously as a guerrilla fighter. Over time this embittered Stirling. I think he appointed Mayne as a training officer to take him out of action and claim successes of his own, which he didn’t do.”

In Rogue Heroes, Stirling pronounces: "I am a long shot. A shot in the dark. But at least I am a shot." In November 1941, the position looked dark for Allied forces. They had been driven out of Europe. America had yet to enter the war. And Hitler's advance into Russia did not yet look like the disaster it would become. Holding North Africa was essential to controlling the Mediterranean and ultimately retaking Europe. There was a lot of 'off-the-cuffery', by which I mean everything really was do-it-yourself. They really did go out and raid the New Zealanders, who had everything under the sun including a piano and easy chairs and all that kind of thing while our guys were sleeping on the floor on kit bags. Two aspects of the series Lorna thinks members of the regiment, past and present, might not be happy with are the extent to which spymaster Dudley Clarke (Dominic West) is credited with inventing the SAS and the hint Paddy Mayne was gay. He wasn't asking them to do anything he couldn't do himself and my father jumped straight after Stirling on that occasion." One night we were shooting this romantic scene between Stirling and Eve, and out of nowhere within seconds the biggest sandstorm just hit us, I think we got that on camera. It’s so funny because me and Connor are still trying to make this scene as romantic as possible.Lorna's father "Gentleman" Jim Almonds - played on-screen by 29-year-old Corin Silva - was a key member of the early SAS and personally hand-built much of their basic parachute training equipment as well as jumping out of Jeeps at 30mph to practise parachute landings.

I had a great time, though I missed out on the 50 degrees of the desert unfortunately! I was in minus 4 where we were. It’s a wonderful part, with wonderful scenes. We had a fortnight of bootcamp type training led by our military advisor, a fellow called Bags. He is an ex-serviceman and knows of what he speaks. It was good. He was a good training officer. We did a fair bit of physical type stuff and tried to feel a little fitter anyway. When we moved to Morocco we had another two weeks of warm weather training. We got up early and did various types of punishment. And some days we would have a morning off and played around together in the sand dunes. That was good for morale, team building, that type of thing.A boxer, a Northern Ireland rugby star and reportedly an excellent shot, Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne went into the Second World War with many ideal qualities for a soldier, and also had a reputation as a rambunctious personality.