Ultimate Force

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.

The series was actually based on the books by Chris Ryan, who has acted as a story consultant for the whole series, and has actually appeared in a few episodes. Truth be told we don't really know what the SAS do or where they are, but I would guess that Chris Ryan has a pretty good idea!

The first episode was tricky, trying to establish new characters in a series is never easy. But I felt that as the series progressed it settled down into a good solid drama, and I'm very pleased to hear that a second series has been commissioned.

Jamie Draven especially has been one to watch - he is consistently excellent and certainly tones down the 'Kemp Effect' considerably. Actually, far from being a star vehicle for Kemp, the original screenplays were written from the persepctive of Jamie Draven's character, Kemp was shoehorned in as a later addition.

On the whole I think it is an excellent ensemble cast, Tony Curran brings a hard, gritty edge to his character, whilst Elliot Cowan provides a lot of the laughs. I'm certainly looking forward to series 2 with some relish!

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.

I really enjoyed the first couple of seasons of the show, but season 3 and 4 wandered off into a fantasy land. The action seemed to be cartoon-like. It was also bizarre that season 4 seemed to focus on Americans as bumbling fools and/or untrustworthy enemies. Perhaps it was the zeitgeist of the day, or more likely a desperate attempt to salvage a very limited show that had run out of ideas. At any rate, it didn't save the show from cancellation. The other problem probably facing the show was that political correctness in the UK doesn't really allow for "bad guy profiling," so they needed to pick an enemy that isn't going to sue them or protest in the streets. So that leaves out the various Muslim nations, North Korea, Japan, the French (one supposes) and pretty much leaves the good old US of A.

The effort to salvage the show also led the producers to ever bigger stunts of daring do, ultimately requiring some pretty unconvincing Green Screen effects. Prior to season 4 the show was respectable because the actors did a pretty decent job of moving and coordinating tactically

I especially found humor in the episode where Red Team was on joint ops with the Green Berets. The Green Berets were portrayed as clueless and clumsy victims of friendly fire, who were badly in need of saving by the SAS. Being a UK show, I have no qualm with Red Team always being portrayed as the cool kids in every episode. On the other hand, if the show's creators actually felt confident then they wouldn't have to go that way, would they?

Make no mistake, the badged members of SAS are awesome, but there are other awesome special-operators out there as well. No sense making a spitting contest out of the question of superiority. All one big happy family.

This is probably the most entertaining drama series that has been on tv for a long while. The important thing to remember with it though, is that it is supposed to be entertaining and not a documentary, something that many people seem to have missed when reviewing it, therefore some of the storylines are going to be a bit far fetched and some characters will not seem realistic. It is the mix of characters though that make the programme so great. Ross Kemp is hard as nails and to quote Colonel Aidan Dempsey (Miles Anderson) is "the best soldier, in the best regiment in the best army in the world". Ricky Mann (Danny Sapani) is the comedian in the troop and Pete Twamley (Tony Curran) is the archetypal lary scotsman. All of the other characters add their own ingredients to the recipe to create the best dinner you will ever eat. Buy the first series boxset, you'll love it you will, you'll love it.