Classic Movie

Cool rolls and gas masks

	It’s like this: the SAS are cool. And the film’s got a really ace ending that reflects the events of the 5 May just how every bloke wants them to

Who Dares Wins (1982)

The plot: A load of CND student muppets with badly permed hair and resentful looks on their faces fall victim to an undercover sting orchestrated by SAS renegade, Lewis Collins, who stops them blowing up the US embassy and thoroughly shags one of their main firm into the bargain.

Sounds amazing… At the time it was right on the money. At 11:30am on 30 April 1980 a six-man terrorist team calling itself the “Democratic Revolutionary Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan” (DRMLA), sponsored by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, captured the Iranian Embassy in Prince’s Gate, South Kensington, central London. Five days later at 19:23 on 5 May the Special Air Services, or SAS, came to the world’s attention when the global media showed them successfully storm the building, killing five out of six of the kidnappers and rescuing 19 hostages. Now that’s what we call a non-negotiation policy.

Why’s it a classic? It’s like this: the SAS are cool. And the film’s got a really ace ending that reflects the events of the 5 May just how every bloke wants them to. Long before The Matrix, it also made every young man in Britain want to do them sideways roll things whilst firing semi-automatic weaponry. What’s more, there’s some low-tech gadgetry to retrospectively chuckle at and for 80s enthusiasts and London-centrics there’s a cracking chase scene involving an old-bearded bloke that takes place across our brilliant capital to savour. Perfect classic movie fodder really. Get to it, soldier!