The BEST episodes of SAS: Who Dares Wins
Every episode of SAS: Who Dares Wins ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of SAS: Who Dares Wins!
Selection for the SAS is one of the world's toughest job interviews and physical fitness is only the starting point. What's really being tested is psychological resilience and character as candidates undergo sleep deprivation, interrogation and a series of increasingly complex mind games. In this programme, five ex-special forces soldiers re-create tasks from the SAS's secret selection process, putting 30 civilian men through the ultimate test of their physical and - more importantly - their psychological resilience.
#2 - Interrogation
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/16/2015
The remaining recruits each face the final, notoriously gruelling stage of selection alone: 24 hours of intense interrogation without losing composure or revealing details of their mission. Between interrogations, they are locked in a cell and hooded in stress positions and are subjected to repetitive music at random intervals to maintain a state of severe fatigue. Less than 10 per cent of candidates make it through this process in the real world. Will any of the civilians make it to the end and prove they have the characteristics needed to succeed in the special forces?
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#4 - Weakness
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/14/2018
The remaining recruits are put through rounds of gruelling training by special forces instructors in Morocco's Atlas Mountains. They must abseil more than 200 feet from the top of the El Mansour Dam, and undertake a gruelling mountain climb in high temperatures while each carrying 40 pounds on their back. They are also forced to accept their own personal weaknesses and find ways to turn them to their advantage, as the instructors will be looking for those who are able to find strength in adversity.
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#5 - Brotherhood
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/21/2018
The recruits are divided into two teams for a series of challenges designed to test both their ability to bond as a group and their drive to compete against each other. They must undertake a time trial run across the Sahara Desert, transport equipment across treacherous sand dunes, and cross a remote river valley at night while being tracked by guards with dogs.
#7 - Fear
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/2/2015
Chief instructor Ant and his team play mind games on the 12 remaining recruits to see if they have the mental strength to keep going, or if anyone will voluntarily withdraw from the process. They speak to each recruit individually, giving them negative feedback on their performance so far and questioning whether they have what it takes to make it to the end. Those who can keep their resolve face one of the most intimidating tasks on Special Forces selection, diving backwards off a cliff into the freezing sea 12 metres below.
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#8 - Survival
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/9/2015
The directing staff have to whittle the group down to six from 11 and have a surprising trick up their sleeve that they think will cause some participants to instantly withdraw before the final stage. Those who make it through the cull are faced with their biggest challenge so far - an escape and evasion mission designed to prepare recruits for avoiding capture behind enemy lines. They are divided into two teams and dropped off at dusk, having to cover miles of rough terrain overnight in order to hit their first rendezvous point in nine hours.
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#10 - Oppos
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/30/2021
The recruits work in pairs as they tackle the threat of chemical warfare and execute a fast-paced extraction in near-freezing water. Then, it's time for brutal hand-to-hand combat.
#11 - Aggression
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/24/2016
Chief Instructor Ant and his elite team test whether the remaining recruits can control their aggression, with a brutal game of murderball and the fearsome non-stop 'sickener' exercises.
#12 - Interrogation
Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/10/2019
The four men and four women who have made it to the final stage face their most gruelling challenge yet - a test of their ability to resist interrogation. They are subjected to stress positions, white noise, and relentless grilling, and must prove they have the mental and physical resilience to be worthy of SAS selection. Last in the series.
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#13 - Pressure
Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/3/2019
Four men and five women remain in the competition, but the training staff are determined to throw everything at them in a final effort to expose any weaknesses before next week's final challenge. The recruits must cross a 200-metre gorge and swim beneath the ice on a frozen lake, before they are pursued by hunters with dogs through a perilous valley at night.
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#15 - Pressure
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/7/2018
Reality show in which people are put through SAS recruitment tests to see whether they can match up to the pressures the elite regiment faces. This time, the show comes from Morocco's Atlas Mountains, and chief Instructor Ant Middleton and his Directing Staff have comes up with an intensified course for the 25 volunteers.
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#16 - Equals
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/6/2019
25 men and women are sent to the spectacular and punishing Andes mountains in central Chile to see if they have what it takes to make it in the SAS.
#18 - Resilience
Season 6 - Episode 1 - Aired 5/9/2021
21 new recruits embark upon a recreation of the brutal SAS selection process, starting with an ambush, a hijack and a 100-foot abseil, which proves to be the toughest course to date.
#19 - Trust
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/27/2019
The recruits must put all their trust in the hands of a partner, as they are teamed up in pairs. The recruits face a fee-falling abseil into a rocky gorge, with their partner responsible for breaking their fall, and a plunge into freezing water.
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#21 - Survival
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/4/2018
The SAS training challenge reaches its final stage, with only seven of the 25 recruits still standing. Those who have made it this far face the most gruelling test of their physical and mental resilience so far, with the instructors pitting them against each other until only one remains.
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#22 - Weakness
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/26/2015
Following a brutal first stage, only 20 of the original 30 civilians remain and the directing staff ratchet the intensity up a notch, applying pressure to isolate and expose individuals who they think are not up to it. The remaining recruits must choose their weakest colleagues, who then lead the next exercise. And there's the 'Sickener': a series of physical challenges that won't end until five recruits give up.
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#24 - Betrayal
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/28/2018
The remaining recruits are challenged to dive backwards and blindfolded into a reservoir from a gangplank 10 metres up, before moving on to the most psychologically demanding stage of training - resisting interrogation. A simulated capture puts the friendship between two of the group to the test, as they are pushed towards betraying one another.
#25 - Strength
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/13/2019
The remaining recruits face gruelling challenges designed to test their mental and physical strength, from a 200 foot forward abseil to the infamous boxing task, where female recruits will have the opportunity to fight their male counterparts.
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