SAS: Who Dares Wins – Jungle Hell came to an end on Channel 4 last night, as Chief Instructor Billy Billingham and his team of DS (directing staff) – Foxy, (Jason Fox), Rudy Reyes and Chris Oliver reveal that Grant (2), Joshua (3) and Hilary (4), have PASSED this year’s selection course, in the gruelling Vietnamese jungle.
Over the past five weeks, twenty ordinary men and women, have been attempting to complete the jungle phase of SAS selection but last evening (Tuesday 21 February, 9pm, Channel 4), as the series finale concludes, with four recruits remaining (Grant (2), Joshua (3), Hilary (4), Faye (7)), Billy revealed that only 3 recruits had passed the course.
On making the announcement, he says: “Take a breath, relax, it’s been a tough f*cking course, so it’s a massive achievement for all of you right now standing in front of us. The question we always ask is – could we have that person stood next to us. Number seven (Faye), the answer was no, but for the remainder of you, congratulations, good effort you’ve all passed the selection process. Well done! F*cking good effort! Congratulations to all of you – it’s a massive achievement!”
On passing the course, Grant said: “As a civilian taking on Special Forces tasks and challenges, I felt super human! I felt like a new man…I feel proud.” Joshua commented: “It’s an amazing, indescribable feeling. I had a once in a lifetime opportunity and I’m very proud of my achievement! I was buzzing, to say the least, and just glad I dug deep to see it through to the end.” and Hilary adds: “It feels so so amazing, so liberating and so satisfying to have made it through. I would never have thought I would get this far at all…I definitely left there a changed person, not just for a while but forever. I feel so empowered and honoured to say that I have completed something like that.”
Throughout this series, the DS combined their skills and experience in jungle warfare to create the toughest course yet. It’s been the ultimate test of man versus the elements, where everything’s out to kill you. Vietnam is flooded with conflict history and is where the rules of guerrilla warfare were re-written. The conditions can work for or against, push you or break you, but ultimately only the toughest survive.
In this final episode, the remaining seven recruits were captured by an elite Hunter Force team, deep in the Vietnamese jungle and were brought in to be questioned by a specialist team of interrogators with over 40 years experience in war zones. Over the following 14 hours, the recruits were subjected to punishing interrogation techniques, as they used a cover story to hide their true mission. In the most feared phase of the course, they received severe punishments, including being held in stress positions for hours and being buried alive in a bid to force a confession.
Only 4 recruits made it through this phase to compete in a final ‘Sickener’ task, but as the recruits edged closer to the end of the selection course, only 3 proved they were mentally and physically tough enough to pass?
SAS: Who Dares Wins – Jungle Hell is a Minnow Films production for Channel 4.
