Filmed on location in the UK and Morocco, the six-part series will tell a dramatised account of how the darkest days of World War Two lead to the formation of the SAS under extraordinary circumstances.

The series will star Connor Swindells (Sex Education), Jack O’Connell (The North Water), Alfie Allen (White House Farm), Sofia Boutella (Modern Love) and Dominic West (The Pursuit of Love). Tom Glynn-Carney (Dunkirk) will star as SAS founding member Mike Sadler.

Also joining the star-studded cast will be Jason Watkins (The Crown), Stuart Campbell (Baptiste), Ralph Davis (Small Axe), Bobby Schofield (Time), Virgile Bramly (Grand Hotel), Tom Hygreck (La Garçonne), Paul Boche (SOKO Potsdam), David Alcock, Moritz Jahn (Dark), Arthur Orcier (J’irai où tu iras), Jordy Lagbre, Adrian Lukis (Feel Good), Anthony Calf (Poldark), Isobel Laidler (The Witcher), and Ian Davies (Game of Thrones).

Swindells will star as David Stirling, an eccentric young officer who is hospitalised in an accident during a training exercise in Cairo, 1941. Bored and out of action, he creates a radical plan to revolutionise the traditional commando units that are failing in battle. Seeking permission to recruit the toughest, boldest, and brightest soldiers for the small undercover unit, Stirling’s team of soldiers are complicated, flawed and reckless, whose heroics see them create mayhem behind enemy lines.

Writer and executive producer Steven Knight commented: "It has been a privilege to work on a project which tells the story of a renegade band of soldiers who used wit and imagination as much as firepower to halt the march of Fascism across North Africa during the darkest days of World War Two. This is a war story like no other, told in a way that is at once inspired by the facts and true to the spirit of this legendary brigade of misfits and adventurers."

SAS: Rogue Heroes will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in 2022.