From the latter it inherits a sense of low-stakes jeopardy. Steven Knight, the show’s creator is, curiously, the progenitor of both Peaky Blinders and Who Wants to be a Millionaire? From the former, SAS Rogue Heroes takes an anachronistically punky soundtrack and a riotously playful aesthetic. If Swindells feels a touch green to lead the regiment, O’Connell and Allen – both actors with a pleasing madness in their eyes – bring a roguish intensity. The SAS? “Sounds like a branch of the f***ing Post Office,” comes Paddy’s earthy verdict. Together, they will found the SAS, via a series of alcohol-fuelled shenanigans. It’s 1941, Egypt, and this is the story of three men: David Stirling ( Sex Education’s Connor Swindells), a toff burdened with horrific levels of self-confidence (or, in the words of his commanding officer, a “drunken, insubordinate malcontent”), Jock Lewes ( Game of Thrones’s Alfie Allen), a “mad martinet”, and Paddy Mayne ( Starred Up’s Jack O’Connell), an Irishman with a reckless propensity for chaos. In point of fact, SAS Rogue Heroes is something of a prestige drama – albeit one imbued with a streak of deep tackiness that befits its title. The BBC’s new Sunday night thriller – SAS Rogue Heroes, based on the book by prolific popular historian Ben Macintyre – is saddled with a name so naff that it conjures images either of video game stealth missions or Ant Middleton dangling celebrities off cliffs by their toenails. Never judge a book by its cover, they say, and perhaps the same is true for TV.

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