Ultimate Force

If you want to see character development and soapy plots, then I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place. If it's action you're after, then Ultimate Force is for you.

Former Eastenders hardman Ross Kemp plays the tough Sergeant in this show about the notorious Special Air Service, one of the most secretive regiments in the British Army. This is a show about one thing only-action and plenty of it!

The SAS are one of the most elite forces in the world, having seen action in places such as Oman and Iraq during the Gulf War. They are a highly trained regiment who go in, do their job with the minimum of fuss and causing as little damage as possible, and then they leave. This show did a great job portraying the S.A.S. Whilst some of what happened in this show may not be what the S.A.S. gets up to in real life, it is still a fantastic show which portrays the S.A.S. how they deserve to be portrayed-as courageous soldiers. This was a very good show which I hope gets a second series.

Who Dares Wins?

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.

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.

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.

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!