James Delingpole James Delingpole

SAS: Who Dares Wins is harsh, gruelling and transgressively countercultural

The Channel 4 show is just about the only TV programme I can bear to watch any more

issue 08 February 2020

SAS: Who Dares Wins (Channel 4, Sundays) is literally the only programme left on terrestrial TV that I can bear to watch any more. And I’m only slightly exaggerating. Where else, anywhere from the BBC to Channel 4, would you see a woman being punched in the face and made to cry by an ex-SAS soldier for your amusement and delectation? Where else would the competition not be rigged in one way or another so as to ensure that the appropriate race and gender mix made it through to the end?

Yes, of course it was shocking a few weeks back watching midwife Louise Gabbitas, 29, get thumped several times in the head by a bloke. Especially when we viewers knew that he was in fact undercover ex-special forces and had been sent to spy on her.

But this rigour and integrity is what makes this series so watchable and so worthwhile.

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