SAS Rogue Heroes: Sheffield's Dom West stars in BBC One drama by creator of Peaky Blinders

‘SAS: Rogue Heroes’ is the story of how the Special Forces was founded, based on the novel of the same name by Ben Macintyre.

The six-part drama is written and produced by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, fresh off the heels of the series’ hotly debated finale that aired in April.

The BBC One show, which aired earlier this evening (October 30), co-stars Sheffield’s own Dominic West as Dudley Clarke, a British spy and pioneer of military deception during the war who defined tactics such as fictional orders of battle, visual deception and double agents.

It comes in the same year Dom, who became a household name for his roles in The Wire and The Affair, also bagged a leading role as a 1920s Hollywood actor in the sequel to the Downton Abbey film.

Jack O’Connell and Connor Swindells also star in the WWII drama.

The six-part drama will focus on how warfare was changed after one officer – David Stirling (Swindells) – decided to form his own squad to infiltrate enemy lines.

A synopsis for the show reads: “Cairo, 1941. David Stirling (Connor Swindells) - an eccentric young officer, hospitalised after a training exercise went wrong - is bored.

“Convinced that traditional commando units don't work, he creates a radical plan that flies in the face of all accepted rules of modern warfare.

“He fights for permission to recruit the toughest, boldest and brightest soldiers for a small undercover unit that will create mayhem behind enemy lines.

“More rebels than soldiers, Stirling's team are every bit as complicated, flawed and reckless as they are astonishingly brave and heroic.”

The SAS was formed as a commando force that fought behind enemy lines during the North African campaign in the Second World War.

It was launched with five officers and 60 other men, with their first mission seeing them dropped in by parachute to support Operation Crusader in 1941.

The operation ended in disaster. In their first skirmish, 22 men were killed or captured. However, their second mission was marked as a huge success, where the SAS destroyed 60 aircraft over three airfields.