Olly

Best piece of television I have seen for a long time.

stevem2k

Agreed.

I was a nipper when it all kicked off , so hadn't heard of the terrorists in the telex room getting taken out.

No sense of moral ourage on that from me though .. you reap what you sow.

Steve

Tim Taylor

I also agree - what a great bit of TV. I too was only very young but remember the TV pictures of the SAS going in the front windows. Now I have seen and heard their side of the story.

CHRIS_D

Excellent documentry. Yet again British forces at their best.

Only wish i'd recorded it.

Just goes to show why we havn't had another terrorist siege like it since.

Spudgun VI

and Maggie went to watch the highlights on the telly with 'em!

couldnt imagine ****** blair doing that, he'd be wringing his hands with the rest of the bleedin hearts

feeling quite nostalgic here
ah well, only a few more years till another election.

sebastian

Totally agree guy's, riveting viewing. You're right , the bit about Thatcher really brings it home what a bunch of ponces Blair and co are really. It is very reassuring to know there are people who train for there whole careers to cope with this sort of crap.

andym172

Agreed - it kept me entertained from start to finish.

What's the betting that it was that scottish fella with the dodgy tash (not that I'd say it to his face! :O) who was marching the 'escaped' terrorist back into the building to shoot him?

I love the fact that he swore at Maggy as well

AndiThompson

Ah ****, was really looking forward to that, bloody missed it [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Alas

I missed it too m8 and if it shows the Tories in a good light or Tony Blair(Labour) in a bad one, bet it will not be repeated.
Alasdair

CRAFT

Yep, brilliant programme. I was only young when it happened and it was the 1st time I'd heard of the "SAS", I remember watching it, and thinking can't believe my mum is letting me watch this

Andi T, still got it on video if you want it, only live up the road
in Rossendale/M66, it's there if you want it?

CRAFT

Luke

Look at the mess they made............ Cost us a fortune to decorate.

DaveR

. . . thought it was a great programme too.

Shows just how down to earth the SAS guys are too - there's none of the poncing around associated with Delta Force or the stuff you see in films.

Was in the military myself a couple of years ago and was lucky enough to go on an SAS exercise as a 'hostage'. (They tend to use other military personnel as pretend hostages during CT training to reduce the risk of anyone doing anything stupid - and of course for security). We were simulating a plane hijack situation, stationary on a runway. Seeing those boys in action is truly something to behold - but what really reminded me of it last night while watching that programme was the way they treated ALL hostages, until they establish who is who.

They did the same with us (and because they knew we were military, believe me there were no holds barred) - we're talking about being punched to the floor, boot held down on neck, gun to head sort of thing!!! The funniest thing of all was a relatively senior officer with us (Lieutenant-colonel) who was in plain clothes like the rest of us. I don't know if it was a wind-up or not but they seemed to identify him as a terrorist (even though he wasn't supposed to be playing one), and gave him a right beating .... I think someone tipped them off and they thought it would be a laugh ....

hope I haven't rambled on too long...

DaveR

Steve Perriam

**** i missed it !!!

i remember seeing it live on tv when i happened.....was gr8

interrupted a film i believe that i was watching....which was annoying til you saw y

much more exciting watching the SAS kick butt

cant believe i forgot to record it

Mossman

Excellent prog and good story Dave! I can well believe it!!
Mossman

PS I think the SAS should be used a little more often.....

Tricky Dicky

Fantastic...i was glued to my set from start to finish.....

Maggie......." I dont want this to continue on outside"

Great viewing...!!!!!

Brendan Hughes

Also missed it (not surprising given my location) and would love a copy. Other thing is, what channel was it on and when, (and what was the title of the prog) so is it downloadable?

Spent 4 yrs of my adolescence wanting to be in the SAS.

Craft, pls post if you can do a copy, my profile email addy is dead, cheers mate

Brendan

puppypower

Brilliant

Nice the bit about " Move your fu8king head" and it was maggie.

Shark

chiark

Interviewing that one guy... "'We do not want an ongoing problem', said Maggie. So we took that as meaning 'no-one lives.'"

I was wondering if it would be a subtle entrance, but it was a bloody great bang. I should have guessed that the iranian embassy is unlikely to have an unlocked back door really

Very good viewing. Very good interviewing technique too: when someone obviously has a difficult thing to say, the interviewer just shuts up and lets the interviewee get on with it. Make for compelling, heartfelt testimony.

Only saw half of it, but damn fine all the same. I think the real success of the story was that the terrorists came across as real people, perfectly reasonable but prepared to fight to the death for their cause. They weren't painted as evil nutters, but portrayed in a fair light.

Dark Blue Mark

I cant believe anyone questioned the fact the SAS wiped them out

Imagine the British image if they hadn't, every bugger would be trying it on. Ahh the good old days of no messing Britian.

I imagine Blair would have sent the SAS in with nail polish and feather dusters. Tosser.

MB

chiark

That's the thing. I think everyone can envisage what Blair would be doing. Or "not doing" as the case would be IMHO.

Brendan Hughes

I read Tony Geraghty's book "Who Dares Wins" published just after the siege. It explained that this is standard procedure for dealing with terrorists. When you are rushing round in a highly charged atmosphere trying to save innocents, you don't want to worry about did you tie that guy up correctly, does he have a booby-trapped body, and you lose manpower if you have to leave a trooper or two to guard them. So they are shot. The recent Guardian article (I didn't see the programme) presented it differently - that Thatcher implied they should be shot so there would be no embarrassing court cases afterwards.

I've studied international law and don't think that this would fit very well, to say the least. Remember "Death on the Rock", killing IRA suspects in Gibraltar? However, given what terrorists do, by definition (attack innocents in order to spread terror, rather than attacking military or political targets), they bloody well deserve it, IMHO.

BJH

bros2

Chiark,

You clearly don't know what's going on in Afghanistan. Trust me, it's not what's being reported in the papers.

bros

chiark

Bros, you're right. But does Blair?

Drop me a mail if you can.

Kevin Mc

Excellent programme - they never seem to advertise stuff that's on that's interesting, just the crap. I only saw it by flicking through the channels.

Sounds like they would have topped the last terrorist too, if there weren't so many cameras!

Bros2 - I'm not being funny but what is going on in Afghanistan? I've heard very little over the last few months....

MarkCSC

****! I've been looking forward to watching this all week! Gutted I missed it.

As above, if anybody has a tape of it I would happily pay P&P and return it to the sender after viewing. E-mail address in profile

thanks

Mark

Jerome

An interesting fact (IMHO) was that each terrorist that was shot in that siege had an average of 78 bullets fired into them. Apparently 3 SAS troopers would simultaneously empty an entire 30 round magazine into them (can't be too careful you see). I imagine that would hurt a bit. Also, the SAS were a bit miffed about missing with the 12 bullets...

MattN

none of them were shot 78 times.

The most holes in one terrorist was 27. I'd imagine some of those would have been exit holes.

Very poor to unload in to one terrorist, what if there were two, you'd be shot by the second.

MarkO

Plus the SAS (and all trained army personel) use short bursts of fire, they don't just hold down the trigger and spray *****-nilly. If they used the latter method, A-Team style, their weapons would soon overheat, and they'd have to be ultra-fit just to carry the ammo!!!