Jason Fox was ‘disappointed’ with the 2021 SAS: Who Dares Wins recruits

Jason Fox has admitted he was ‘disappointed’ with the quality of the 2021 SAS: Who Dares Wins recruits at the beginning of the series. 

While the former Royal Marine conceded that the contestants improved over time, he thought they were ‘poor’ when the process began.

Jason has overseen the show this year alongside Ant Middleton, Melvyn Downes, Mark ‘Billy’ Billingham and Anthony ‘Staz’ Stazicker, but he wasn’t the most impressed with the standard.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk about this year’s set of recruits, Jason said: ‘They started off a little bit poor, but then they started to come into their own. 

‘The fourth series we had a really strong group, whereas this year they almost needed time to settle in. There were a couple of individuals that might have shone, but ultimately I was a bit disappointed at the beginning. They started terrible and they became a lot stronger once they bonded.’

Jason was speaking ahead of Sunday’s finale, which will see the remaining recruits take on some of their toughest trials yet in the interrogation-themed episode.

When asked if he thought any of the recruits could make it through real SAS military training, he added: ‘We’ve got a good handful going into the last episode [so] maybe one or two.’

Discussing the differences between what viewers see on the show and the experiences he had in real military training, Jason said: ‘If not completely different, it’s not exactly the same. 

‘We like to try and put [recruits] under the same sort of pressure and highlight the attributes that we look for in people in the real job. We don’t teach tactics. That’s another thing that you’ve got to consider when you’re in the actual course.’ 

Jason added: ‘You’ve got to think about what your next move is, what you’re doing with your weapon, all this sort of thing. We have to remove that because you can’t do it.

‘But we put the pressure on and put them in the deep end straightaway. We expect them to pick up knowledge straightaway.’

He went on to say: ‘We spot the attributes, the robustness, the ability to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations, be flexible in your mindset and not to be freaked out by change.’

SAS: Who Dares Wins airs on Sunday at 9pm on Channel 4.

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