WHO DARES WINS ….. OUR HEROIC SPECIAL AIR SERVICE (SAS) & BEYOND HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL

ABOVE IS A COPY  OF A NUMBERED LIMITED EDITION PRINT OF THE ARTWORK ENTITLED “OPERATION NIMROD” – STORMING OF THE IRANIAN EMBASSY , ON THE 05TH MAY 1980 , WHICH HAS BEEN SIGNED BY A GREAT NUMBER OF THE LEADING FIGURES INVOLVED . A LABOUR OF LOVE TO HAVE EVEN GOT SO MANY SIGNATURES IN THE 1ST INSTANCE  FROM A SERVING SAS SOLDIER .CERTAINLY A FABULOUS ITEM NOW ON DISPLAY TOO HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION, LITTLEDEAN JAIL .

OT FORGETTING OF COURSE OUR OTHER UK SPECIAL FORCES . PAST AND PRESENT. HOPEFULLY WELL WORTH A VISIT FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN THIS SUBJECT MATTER .

HERE BELOW ARE SOME INTERESTING AND EDUCATIONAL IN DEPTH DOCUMENTARY FOOTAGE INTO THEIR ROLE IN COUNTER TERRORISM HERE IN THE UK

ABOUT THE SAS

The SAS (Special Air Service) Regiment is a corps of the British Army and a part of the United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF) commanded by the Director Special Forces. The SAS Regiment actually refers to three regiments known as the 21st SAS Regiment, 22nd SAS Regiment and 23rd SAS Regiment. The 22nd SAS Regiment is a part of the Regular Army, while the 22nd and 23 regiments are a part of the reserve Territorial Army.

History of the SAS Regiment dates back to the Second World War when David Stirling founded the so-called L Detachment, Special Air Service Brigade which was used to operate behind the enemy lines in North Africa. It was not a paratroop regiment with a number of units like its name suggested but it was intentionally given a misleading name so that the Axis would think that they are dealing with a number of units rather than one commando unit. For most of the war, the Stirling’s unit operated in North Africa and the Greek islands although it also fought in Sicily and Italy, and later in Western Europe. However, it was reorganized several times by 1944 when it supported the Allied advance towards Germany and meanwhile got a new commander – Paddy Mayne. He replaced David Stirling who was captured by the Germans in Tunisia in 1943. Stirling was held prisoner by the end of the war although he escaped several times before the Germans moved him to an “escape-proof” castle in the town of Colditz, Germany.

After the end of the Second World War, the British government decided that there is no need for a special air service regiment any longer and disbanded the existing 1st and 2nd SAS regiments joined in the SAS Brigade. However, the government soon changed its mind and a new SAS regiment was raised in less than two years after the end of the war. In 1952, the British government also decided to form a Regular Army SAS regiment and added the Squadron 2 (Malay Scouts) to the army list as the 22nd SAS Regiment. In 1959, another regiment – the 23rd SAS Regiment was formed and became a part of the reserve Territorial Army.

From its formal formation in 1952, the 22nd SAS Regiment carried out a number of operations in many parts of the world. But its best known action was the so-called Operation Nimrod which was carried out during the Iranian Embassy Siege in London in 1980. In a 17 minute action, the soldiers of the SAS Regiment rescued 24 from the remaining 25 hostages and killed 5 out of 6 terrorists without losing a single man.

The members of the 22nd SAS Regiment are recruited from the UK armed forces although most of the SAS soldiers come from the airborne forces. In order to be accepted to the Regiment, the candidates have to pass a number of tests and exercises during a five-week long selection process that is held twice per year in Sennybridge in Brecon Beacons. From about 200 pre-selected candidates, only about 30 pass the selection process. The selection for the 21st and 23rd SAS regiments is less difficult although the standards for admission are quite high as well.

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R.I.P MICHAEL CLARKE DUNCAN – ICONIC STAR OF THE EQUALLY ICONIC 1999 FILM – THE GREEN MILE

R.I.P MICHAEL CLARKE DUNCAN … A BRILLIANT ACTOR 

WE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL HAVE LONG FEATURED THE GREEN MILE AS PART OF OUR  FAVOURITE PRISON AND PENAL SYSTEM BASED FILMS , WHICH ALSO INCLUDE McVICAR, SCUM , SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, ALCATRAZ AND HOUSE OF WHIPCORD (WHICH WAS FILMED HERE AT THE JAIL )

THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF VARIOUS SIGNED ITEMS RELATING TO ALL OF THE ABOVE HERE ON DISPLAY IN AMONGST OUR TRUE CRIME COLLECTIONS HERE

• Michael Carlson
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 September 2012 13.46 BST

Michael Clarke Duncan, right, as John Coffey, with Tom Hanks, centre, in The Green Mile. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Warner Bros

Every character actor who has ever been typecast dreams of a role that will transcend the cliches of his image. For Michael Clarke Duncan, who has died aged 54 of complications from a heart attack suffered in July, that breakout role also drew on the hidden truth of his own personality, and the results were spectacular.

Duncan was nominated for an Oscar as best supporting actor in The Green Mile (1999), the film of the Stephen King story in which he plays John Coffey, a gentle giant with extraordinary powers, on death row for raping and killing two young girls. The film’s climax, when Coffey, innocent of the crimes but having punished the real killer and an evil guard, goes to the electric chair telling Tom Hanks not to put a hood over his head because he is scared of the dark, left few dry eyes in any audience.

Born in Chicago, Duncan, 6ft 5in and usually weighing about 20 stone, was himself a gentle giant. His father left when he was six, and his mother Jean’s reluctance to allow him to play American football led to his deciding he wanted to become an actor instead.

He played basketball at Kankakee (Illinois) Community College, but when his mother became ill, he dropped out of his communications studies atAlcorn State University, a historically black university in Mississippi. After returning home, he supported his mother and sister, Judy, by digging ditches for a gas company and working as a bouncer at night.

He moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting, again working as a bouncer before getting into the “private security” trade. He had acted as a bodyguard for such entertainment figures as Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx and LL Cool J before breaking into films in 1995 with a bit part in the Ice Cube vehicle Friday. His early film roles, including Warren Beatty’s Bulworth (1998), saw him typecast as bouncers and bodyguards, often billed as Michael “Big Mike” Duncan. He gave up his day job as a real bodyguard for good in 1997, when the rapper The Notorious BIG was murdered on the first day Duncan was assigned to him.

Duncan’s break came following a part in Armageddon (1998) alongside Bruce Willis, who recommended him to director Frank Darabont for The Green Mile. He went on to work with Willis in three more films: two comedies – Alan Rudolph’s adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions (1999) and The Whole Nine Yards (2000) – and the noirish blockbuster Sin City (2005).

Although he never found another role with the impact of John Coffey, Duncan remained in demand with substantial parts in blockbusters such as Planet of the Apes (2001), The Scorpion King (2002) and perhaps his best later work as The Kingpin, in Daredevil (2003). To play the comic-book villain he went from weighing less than 20 stone to more than 23.

His career blossomed, as his look made him easily cast for supporting roles in films and frequent guest parts in television series, and his resonant baritone voice made him a popular choice for animation voice-overs, in films such as Cats & Dogs (2001), George of the Jungle 2 (2003), Dinotopia (2005) and Kung Fu Panda (2008). He starred in the comedy The Slammin’ Salmon (2009), as a boxer turned restaurant-owner who stages a competition between his waiters to pay off a debt to Japanese gangsters, and was the villain, Erlik, in the straight-to-video Cross (2011), a supernatural action film that also featured Vinnie Jones as a Viking named Gunnar transplanted to the present.

In 2010 Duncan undertook something of a reprise of his Coffey role in Redemption Road, as a man with a secret who brings home an alcoholic for his father’s funeral. His last television role was a recurring part in the crime series Finder.

In 2009 Duncan converted to vegetarianism. The following year, he met his fiancee, the Rev Omarosa Manigault, in the aisles of a Whole Foods supermarket in Los Angeles. Manigault, a considerable presence in “reality” television, made her name as a controversial participant in the American version of The Apprentice with Donald Trump, and feuded with Piers Morgan in The Celebrity Apprentice.

In May this year, Duncan made a film for the animal-rights group Peta, talking about his conversion to a vegan lifestyle, and how he had thrown away $5,000 worth of meat when he did. Two months later, he suffered a massive heart attack.

He is survived by his mother, sister and fiancee.

• Michael Clarke Duncan, actor, born 10 December 1957; died 3 September 201