SAS: Who Dares Wins returns with new stateside Instructors

This seventh series of SAS: Who Dare Wins is led by a new elite team of ex-special forces operators from the UK and, for the first time, the USA.

Combining their skills, this new elite ‘Brotherhood’ has created the most gruelling course yet, played out in the unforgiving and epic backdrop of the Jordanian desert. With 15 years of experience in multiple war zones, Chief Instructor and ex-US Recon Marine Rudy Reyes and new Directing Staff team member, ex-US navy SEAL Remi Adelekewill join Billy and Foxy to push 20 recruits to challenge their physical and psychological limits. It’s the ultimate endurance test.

In the first episode, the men and women face an intense start, with recruits crawling and running to their base in the searing heat of the Jordanian desert. The recruits’ teamwork is tested as they must cross a ravine balancing on a rope suspended 165 feet above the ground. The leaders assess the recruits’ ability to work together as they try to escape from a room full of CS gas.

Rudy Reyes:

“I had been working in film and television, making survival shows, and some feature films. But the best stuff I’d ever done was with British production teams. Something about the sensibility and maturity, the Europeans seem to have when it comes to entertainment. I got a call, and I had no idea it was for the chief Instructor, I didn’t even know about the show. But they started talking to me about it….

“I watched every single episode on Amazon… I’d read every single book on combat, I’d read every single book on special operations, I read Andy McNab’s books, Chris Ryan’s book, I read Black Hawk Down. So for me to be honoured to be in the conversation with the SAS: Who Dares Wins, I was blown away. I was extremely excited and extremely humbled. I went and did the recces, and got to know Billy and Foxy, and we’re now very close. It’s been nothing short of a blessing, it’s the best work I’ve done in entertainment ever. And I know it’s just the beginning.”

Rudy Reyes was born in 1971 on Richard’s Gebauer Air Base in Missouri while his father, a US Marine, was fighting in Vietnam. After his parents’ divorce, Rudy and his three brothers were raised by his grandparents, and later by the Omaha Home for Boys.

Aged 26, a decorated martial artist, Rudy joined the United States Marine Corps and, after impressing in the recruitment phase, went on to become an elite Recon Marine. Rudy became a highly decorated Special Forces operator, leading over 50 patrols behind enemy lines. He served one tour in Afghanistan and two tours in Iraq as a Recon Marine Team Leader and Scout Sniper. After leaving the marines, Rudy worked as a counter-terror contractor for the Department of Defence.

Remi Adelekewill:

“[The new series] takes place in the desert –it’s a beautiful landscape, absolutely gorgeous. And the most glaring new part of the programme is that two of the DS are American! Myself, former SEAL, and Rudy Reyes, former Force Recon Marine, collaborating with two former SAS and SBS guys. And I think that’s going to be unique, because there’s things that obviously they had been bringing to the table, which has been awesome, but now there are going to be some different things that we’re going to bring to the table, which goes towards switching up the course and making it unique and different.”

Remi Adelekewill was born into riches in Nigeria, but following the death of his father and the unjust seizing of his family’s wealth by the Nigerian Government, Remi, his mother, and his brother permanently relocated to Bronx, New York in 1987.

After years of making regrettable decisions, Remi joined the Navy in 2002 and later joined the Navy SEALs where he specialized in combat medicine and HUMINT (Human Intelligence/tradecraft). After ending his naval career in 2016, Remi worked in film/tv consulting, directing, writing, and acting, including the 2017 franchise film Transformers: The Last Knight, SEAL Team CBS, the Universal thriller directed by Michael Bay, Ambulance, and the August 2022 Lionsgate blockbuster The Plane.

Remi also had a recurring role on Amazon’s TV adaptation of the New York Times Best Seller Terminal List. Remi wrote and directed The Unexpected, a 32-minute short film based on a true story of uncovering an international organ harvesting ring. As a screenwriter, Remi co-wrote the adapted screenplay for Slave Stealers, about the abolitionist, Harriet Jacobs. He also has published an autobiography, Transformed: A Navy SEALs Unlikely Journey From The Throne Of Africa – To The Streets Of The Bronx – To Defying All Odds.

Mark ‘Billy’ Billingham:

“I was really struck by how well the team bonded together as quickly as we did. We don’t know each other that well, so we were observing and learning from each other. But having worked with Americans, youknow what their strengths are, and what their weaknesses are, and I guess they know ours. We worked very well. Rudy’s a great character –he wears his heart on his sleeve, he’s got a lot of experience, and the same for Remi. Remi was different, he was quieter, but again, a very experienced guy and a great member of the team.”

Mark ‘Billy’ Billingham MBE joined the Parachute Regiment in 1983 and served until 1991 holding an array of positions, including Patrol Commander for operational tours in many worldwide locations and also served as a training instructor for the Regiments as a military specialist.

Billy joined the SAS in 1991 as a Mountain Troop specialist and has been responsible for planning and executing strategic operations and training at the highest level in numerous locations (Iraq, Afghanistan, South America and Africa) and has led countless hostage rescues. Billy is a certified Special Forces and Counter Terrorist Sniper Instructor, Advanced Evasive Driving Instructor, Tracking/Jungle Warfare/Navigation Instructor, Demolition/Sabotage Instructor, Ski Mountaineering/Rock Climbing/Abseiling/Ice climbing Instructor, Combat Survival/RTI Instructor, Counter Terrorist Instructor (all options) and has worked as a Patrol Medic/Trauma Life Support agent for five hospital attachments.

He received the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery and the MBE for his outstanding service as the SAS Ground Commander for the London 2005 attacks and for leading several internationally renowned hostage rescues in Iraq. Following his military career, Billy became a bodyguard for some of the world’s most high-profile celebrities.

He toured the world as Head of Security for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and looked after Hollywood A-Listers including Sir Michael Caine, Hulk Hogan, Kate Moss, Russell Crowe, Sean Penn and Tom Cruise. His first novel – Kill or Capture was published in May 2021. His second novel will be released in May 2022.

Jason Fox:

“I don’t ever want to downplay the series’ that have come before, because they’re always tough in their own right. The first one, I would say, was physically very brutal. It was an experiment, it was very raw in its approach. But this one, it is the toughest one. There’s so much relentless slog in it. It’s longer as well –it’s one of the longest we’ve done. The tasks are hard, the environment’s hard, the terrain is hard. I think we, as a DS, as the team, have got it right with the American spin and the UK spin. It is hard. It is very hard.”

Jason Fox, ‘Foxy’, is a former Royal Marine Commando and Special Forces Sergeant, serving with the Special Boat Service.

Jason has planned and led operations including hostage rescue, counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency, maritime counter-terrorism, surveillance, bodyguarding and counter-narcotic missions.

Jason is also trained as a combat swimmer, demolitions expert, Special Forces dog handler and jungle survival expert. After leaving the Special Forces, Foxy moved into the TV and Film industry, initially using his wealth of experience in the Special Forces to support production crews who were working in environmentally hostile areas, such as the jungle, the Arctic or the desert. Foxy made the ground-breaking 2018 series Meet the Drug Lords: Inside the Real Narcos, entering the cartel strongholds of Mexico, Colombia and Peru, exposing the most formidable and dangerous drug gangs from a rarely seen perspective.

Foxy’s first book, Battle Scars, about his rise, fall and recovery in the military as an elite operator, was a Sunday Times bestseller. His second book, Life Under Fire: How to Build Inner Strength and Thrive Under Pressure shares the tools Foxy has developed at the cutting edge of an elite military career and shows how to build resilience and inner strength to overcome life’s challenges.

Charity work is also something close to Foxy’s heart, he holds a new world record for rowing across the Atlantic in aid of the NSPCC and in 2018 led a group of civilians to the North Pole for Borne charity. Foxy is also co-founder of the charity Rock 2 Recovery, which helps preserve the lives of distressed servicemen, veterans and their families, and an ambassador for Veterans 4 Wildlife for the prevention of wildlife crime.

SAS: Who Dare Wins, tonight, Channel 4, 9 pm