Ultimate Force

Dealing with the lives and missions of a small group of soldiers in Britain's most elite Army unit, the SAS, this is definitely one of the best British action / drama series for years. Although there's a definite nod towards `political correctness' in that this fictional SAS unit has a multi-ethnic make-up, plus a female member (in the real world, no women serve in the SAS), the series on the whole succeeds in striking the perfect balance between strong storylines, gritty realism, exciting action scenes, personal drama and the occasional touch of humor. The quality of the stories is also consistently good, and so far (after two series of six episodes each) I'd say that there hasn't been one single `weak' episode. Only perhaps the odd episode that's been `less good' than the others.

But last night – after watching the finale of Series 2 – I was left disappointed. Now I've never served in the military so I don't pretend to be an expert on these matters, but as a layman I've always thought that one of the series' main strengths is that it seems pretty realistic with regard to its portrayal of Army life and the kind of missions that UK special forces troops perhaps get sent on in real life etc. etc. However, the end of last night's episode left something of a bitter aftertaste, simply because the series' main character, Sergeant `Henno' Garvie (ably played by Ross Kemp of `Eastenders' fame) gunned down in cold blood his troop CO, Captain McElwaine, for no other reason than the latter had been shagging the wife of one of his men. The killing was done in cold blood and using a captured AK47 rather than Henno's own weapon to make it appear that the Captain had been killed by enemy fire – thus instantly transforming the Henno character into nothing more that a cold-blooded murderer. True, soldiers are trained to kill without hesitation if necessary. But I find it inconceivable that - given the (on the grand scale of things) relatively trivial nature of the Captain's `offence' - these would be the actions of an experienced, senior NCO in Britain's most elite military unit. And I found the actions of the rest of the squad (including their Colonel, who they'd just freed in a daring rescue mission) almost equally bizarre – namely dumping the (admittedly unpopular) dead Captain's body in a freezer full of beer and cracking jokes over it. Unbelievable. I hope that this is not the end of the series and that it will be back. Firstly because that last night's closing scenes notwithstanding, it's been such a great show up to now and secondly it would be a pity to end the whole thing on such a negative note – there definitely needs to be some character redemption!! Still – it's great that all six episodes of Series 1 are now available to buy on DVD, because this series is a must for anyone who enjoys hard-hitting action and / or military drama that pulls no punches.

We need a series like this. It does exactly what is says on the tin. Most of the situations are unbelievable but what do you expect from a show about the SAS? The production values are OK and the action is exciting without being silly (compared to made for TV American action movies). There are some stock characters but the script isn't laughable and the actors seem to care about what they are doing. As the new team member Jamie Draven portrays the right amount of innocence and brings a sense of duty to his role; his interactions with the rest of the cast are well thought out; you can see some chemistry between him and Alex Reid and I hope this is fleshed out in the next series. Although billed as such I never found Ross Kemp to be the star of the show and at times we aren't even supposed to like him; I am glad character is written this way and that his obvious mental scars dictate the person he is. This is in stark contrast to badly written imported shows where we are expected to believe that hardened battle veterans who are emotionally scarred and have shattered private lives are really nice guys who never do any thing wrong.

Some episodes are better than others; I actually thought the first episode was fairly weak but the second with the pressure group sniper story was excellent and allowed us to see flashes of how good the series could be.

I only got to see the first episode of the second series which took place on board a ship; the standout fight scene being that in the belly of the ship between Jamie Draven and the legionnaire, it was a tough no nonsense scrap and as exciting as the fight in the Bourne Identity.

Looking forward to the DVD.

Like the summary says.. WOW!

It's about a young guy, Jamie Dow who started out as a thief stealing cars from the age of 12 to 18. When sentenced, the judge was told that he'd just been accepted for the Royal Legistics Corps.

From there he worked hard and made it into the SAS. When asked why he did it he says that he 'wanted to see if I could make it'.

The show is basically about the SAS and the situations they find themselves in.

Not for the faint hearted but a very good show. Ross Kemp plays the ultimate Sergeant, the typical hard guy needed to be there. He's still very fair but doesn't let his feelings get in the way of things. Underneath he's a real pussycat, and looks after his command with his life.

The supporting cast is very well picked and compliments the show perfectly.

Last comment.. it's lovely to see an almost unknown actor Jamie Draven being given the chance to shine, and he takes every opportunity. One of the films you will have seen in is 'Billy Elliot' as Billy's brother.

I hope they do more than the 6 episodes as I would love to see more of Jamie and the guys.

Where to start. As a big fan of the SAS, I've watched countless documentaries, & after finding this immediately knew I had to watch. As a whole it's a decent show worth a watch at least once, however; series 1 & 2 were by far the superior as it lost its way in series 3 & only slightly brought it back for series 4. Series 1 & 2 showed a varied selection of different Operations with the SAS assault scenes filmed perfectly, probably due to the input of Chris Ryan, but series 3 relied heavily on typical action style shootouts with bullets flying everywhere as opposed to the normal SAS precision. Series 4 however went slightly back to the old format of the show, but on a whole not a bad show if you enjoy the SAS or any form of military drama.

Just finsished watching the final episode of the second series. Set in an overseas country two things bother me... 1 The lead charecter kills his officer without a moments hesitation -in cold blood- for reasons that are self explanitory..But the other characters don't seem in the slightest bit bothered or concerned how his death might have happened. 2. The helicopters that arrive to collect them after their mission - from a locally based operation - have a 'G' registration - this is a UK registration for those not in the know.

Apart from this it's great fun and full of action that is enjoyable to watch.

Look forward to the third series.