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Who Dares WinsPublic interest in the British Army's elite Special Air Service reached fever pitch in 1982 when incisive operations during the Falklands War bolstered the secretive regiment's near mythical reputation. But it was a televised raid on the Iranian Embassy in London two years before that really captured the nation's imagination. This fictional movie (named after the force's motto) was directly inspired by that engagement, and climaxes with a stunning 20 minute sequence that the producers claimed would explain what went on behind those stucco walls in Princes Gate.
Driven by Roy Budd's funky score, the film hurtles headlong towards this dizzying finale. Brilliant SAS operative Captain Peter Skellen (Lewis) goes undercover to infiltrate a left-wing terror cell led by hard-nosed toff Frankie Leith (Davis). Despite her wary comrades' protestations, Frankie falls for Skellen almost immediately, and before you can whistle 'The Professionals' theme tune she's sharing her bed with him along with details of her organisation's daring plan.
Bizarrely for a bunch of CND-style activists, they intend to seize the American Embassy, take US Secretary Of State Arthur Currie (Widmark) hostage, and demand that the British Government drop an atomic bomb on the navy's nuclear submarine port in Scotland. But just how far will they get before Skellen calls in the cavalry?
The SAS rescue mission during the film's celebrated finale may or may not have been informed by those in the know (end credits keep the production's military advisers 'Anonymous'), but it hardly matters. The hair-raising, claustrophobic action, filmed in part as a P.O.V. from within a soldier's gas-mask, is bound to get the pulse racing. And although the storyline that gets us there is at times risible (and wildly right-wing), it's tough and lean and moves along at a fair old crack. Just like Collins, in fact.
Filmed while 'The Professionals' was still in full swing on ITV, Who Dares Wins allowed the actor to bring all of Bodie's sardonic charm and square-jawed virility to the big screen. Okay, so at times he looks like Action Man posing in a C&A catalogue, but it's a treat to see him roughing up the bad guys again. There was talk at the time that Collins would take over from Roger Moore as James Bond. Maybe he was a bit too much of a wideboy for 007, surely he would have been better than that big girl's blouse Timmy Dalton.
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