 that proper soldiers are. Civilian fitness and military fitness are very different things: the first involves training for sport and to look good, the second for combat conditions. It's impossible simply to apply the first to the second and expect it to work. Jay Morton, who spent 10 years in the SAS and has appeared on the regular Who Dares Wins series, says that 'only when you actually experience combat do you realise what soldiering's all about. There are so many facets to being a soldier, and only combat properly tests them and brings them out.'){kind=link}
The ex minister is about to go through hell on Channel 4’s military survival show. But it’s nothing compared to what real recruits endure
Matt Hancock can’t get enough of jungles. Last year it was New South Wales and 10 Bushtucker Trials in I’m A Celebrity: now it’s North Vietnam’s Thung Ui and Special Forces selection-inspired exercises in Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, which begins on Channel 4 later this month. “It’s one of the toughest physical and mental things I’ve ever done,” Hancock said. “It opens your eyes and makes you look into yourself.”
Suffering is high on the menu in every iteration of the Who Dares Wins franchise: gruelling marches, forced fighting with other contestants, relentless interrogations and injuries – Olympian Fatima Whitbread and actress Jennifer Ellison are among those who have suffered for TV glory. But how realistic is the programme? Is it a pale facsimile of the real thing, or does it give a genuine taste of what Special Forces selection is like? The answer is a lot of the first and a little of the second.
Certainly the TV version is substantially easier. The participants carry much lighter weights, they don’t have weapons, and they’re not required to do a fraction of the map-reading and orientation (compass bearing, distance, elevation, etc) that proper soldiers are. Civilian fitness and military fitness are very different things: the first involves training for sport and to look good, the second for combat conditions. It’s impossible simply to apply the first to the second and expect it to work.
Jay Morton, who spent 10 years in the SAS and has appeared on the regular Who Dares Wins series, says that “only when you actually experience combat do you realise what soldiering’s all about. There are so many facets to being a soldier, and only combat properly tests them and brings them out.”