BAD LADS ARMY: EXTREME part 5

03 August, 2006 by The_Boss

ITV1 Tuesday 15th August 2006 9:00pm to 10:00pm

Thirty more lads face an almighty battle to turn their lives around with a dose of 1950s National Service training.

In Bad Lads Army: Extreme, the recruits face the most daunting challenge to date – training to be Paras and a terrifying 3,500 foot solo parachute jump.

The bad boys selected this time around are the toughest, lippiest, baddest bunch yet. With thieves, vandals, fraudsters and ASBOs in their midst, the 18-24 year-olds lined up for the show have notched up over 2000 days in prison, 2,500 hours of community service and over £30,000 in fines.

Their criminal way of life has cost the tax-payer more than £1 million – that’s the equivalent of four extra Bobbies on the beat for every police force in Great Britain.

Tasked with turning the lads around will be Company Sergeant Major Julian Whatley and Platoon Sergeant Alastair Rae who will be supported by fearsome corporals Joe Murray and ‘Nooky’ Richard Nauyokas.

In Episode Five:Mental Strength This week on Bad Lads Army: Extreme the wasters are taught a little bit of mental strength, culminating in their hardest, darkest challenge to date - brutal interrogation.

On the way the lads are shown different forms of mental strength. The mental strength needed on the battlefield is powerfully hit home with a trip to an abattoir where the lads witness cows being slaughtered, skinned and disembowelled. For Private Mercer it’s too horrific to bear - feeling humiliated and angry, he trashes the billet when back at camp and is promptly thrown in the clink.

As an ongoing test the lads are put under a 24-hour cigarette ban. Private Burke finally discovers his airborne initiative and hides cigarettes all over camp in advance. But at stage two of his plan he fails miserably – while sneaking a quickie he totally fails to hide himself and is spotted by the Corporals. Doh!

Blues are once again having trouble with Private Sam Bruce-Angland. He kicks off, saying he wants to have a scrap with Corporal Nauyokis in the billet. Jail is inevitable; not so Nauyokis’ sympathy. He coaxes him back to the billet and takes him under his wing. Little does Bruce-Angland know it’s because he is one of six lads marked for the weeks terrifying final test.

One by one the six are snatched in the middle of the night, bagged and thrown into the back of a truck. Hooded and bound, they are driven around for an hour then off-loaded at a deserted building in the middle of a thunderstorm. They are stripped, searched, and held in stress positions, unable to see or hear anything. For as long as they can last they are subjected to brutal questioning by a team of professional army interrogators, men who know every trick in the book and will do anything to elicit the information they want.

It’s the Heart of Darkness of paratrooper training.

Against all the odds Bruce-Angland lasts the longest. He wins the cup for Blues and for a while at least is accepted back by them.

The episode also contains a shock twist - Bin Day. In a stunning kick up the arse the military summarily boot off camp the four weakest members of the platoon. They may have done nothing wrong – their crime is simply not being good enough.

Grubby Private Jimson, reeking with trench-stench is given a regimental bath in honour of the occasion – but it doesn’t save him from the chop.

The others better shape-up or they could suffer the same fate.


Tasked with turning the lads around are Company Sergeant Major Julian Whatley and Platoon Sergeant Alastair Rae who are supported by fearsome corporals Joe Murray and ‘Nooky’ Richard Nauyokas.

New staff in this series include pretty Provost Sergeant Clerk Susan Tucker, Physical Training Instructor (PTI) Jack Newton, Relief Corporal James Bush and Medical Clerk Jennifer Jane Adams.

The lads are split into two sections – Red and Blue - in the fictional regiment making up the Pegasus Platoon (motto: Fugite fures fures omnes which means "Fly all ye thieves"). Blue Section is led by Corporal Nauyokas, Red Section by Corporal Murray. The climax of the training – and the series – will be the terrifying parachute jump. But with no more than 15 seats on the plane, only one of the Sections will be able jump to glory and redemption in the final episode.


More details click here

BAD LADS ARMY: EXTREME is produced by Twenty Twenty Television for ITV1.

The executive producers are Tim Carter, Claudia Milne and Sue Davidson and the series producer is Duncan Coates.