'SAS: Who Dares Wins' Will Feature Female Contestants For First Time

Do you enjoy watching a bunch of strangers punish themselves physically and mentally, all from the comfort of your sofa?

Of course you do, that's what TV is for.

Well, good news - SAS: Who Dares Wins is returning to the gogglebox this weekend, and for the first time ever, you will be able to enjoy the suffering of both male and female contestants.

The show will follow a mixed group of 25 contestants as they travel to the Andes Mountains in Chile and are put through their paces in a gruelling 11-day course.

Former soldier and TV hardman Ant Middleton will preside over their training as chief instructor, with fellow former soldier and TV hardman Jason Fox as his right-hand man.

The inclusion of women contestants is in keeping with a move by the Ministry Of Defence, which sees 2019 representing the first time recruitment into the SAS has been open to women.

Channel 4

In the programme, all contestants will eat, sleep and wash together, with no allowances made for gender.

Chief instructor, Ant Middleton, said: "I don't really take gender into play. It's a case of 'come on my course, there's no gender, everyone's the same'.

"Everyone's just a number to me. They're not a name, just a number, and it doesn't matter if you're male or female, you need to prove yourself to me.

"You come on my course and enter my world, I don't care who you are or where you're from, you're a number until you prove yourself otherwise."

Directing staffer Jason Fox agreed that everyone was treated as equals on the programme.

He said: "During filming, we didn't care about gender. Whether someone was male or female was irrelevant - it was about someone being able to do a job.

"I thought introducing women into the series worked well. They are just another group of individuals. Some were strong and some weren't, exactly like the men.

"I always knew some of the women would do well and some wouldn't. On the course, I didn't see them as male or female, I saw each of them as their own individual person."

The show airs at 9pm on Sunday on Channel 4 and will comprise of six one hour episodes, aired each Sunday thereafter.

Topics: TV and Film, UK Entertainment

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey