Jack O’Connell

First-look and further casting revealed for Steven Knight’s SAS: Rogue Heroes

Alfie Allen, Connor Swindells and Jack O'Connell (credit: BBC)

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.

Stephen Graham boards adaptation of The North Water

Captain Brownlee (Stephen Graham) in The North Water (Credit: BBC/Harpooner Films Limited/Dean Rogers)

The North Water is set during the late 1850s and follows a disgraced army surgeon, Patrick Sumner (O’Connell), who attempts to flee from his past by joining a whaling expedition in the Arctic.

Led by Captain Brownlee (Graham) and the ship’s owner Baxter (Courtenay), Sumner serves on the Volunteer as the ship’s medic.

Sumner’s quest for redemption takes a brutal turn when he encounters cruel harpooner Henry Drax (Colin Farrell), whose indifference towards killing reflects the harshness of the Arctic wasteland they’re sailing towards.