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SAS: Who Dares Wins new star Melvyn Downes has revealed how he went from growing up on a Stoke-on-Trent council estate to watching his friends die in the battlefield.
The newest member of the Directing Staff, or DS as they’re called on the brutal show, remains incredibly proud of his roots and describes himself as a normal bloke from Stoke .
Updated: 14 May 2021, 6:49
Rod McPhee
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MELVYN Downes’ death stare is enough to make recruits quake in their boots, so it’s easy to see why the makers of SAS: Who Dares Wins wanted him in their arsenal.
The Channel 4 show’s latest addition to the team of tough-guy taskmasters, as revealed by The Sun this month, risked his life fighting for Britain during three decades in the military 12 of them in the SAS.
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New SAS: Who Dares Wins star Melvyn DownesCredit: Pete Dadds/Channel 4
Melvyn was involved in a harrowing mission during the first Gulf War, while part of the Staffordshire Regiment, in which he came under heavy fire, so rest assured, 56-year-old Melvyn has more than earned his place.
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Powerful, evocative, timeless. At the heart of a great newspaper are its photographs, as important as the words surrounding them in defining the events of the age.
Sometimes they are even more important, as the iconic image of St Paul’s Cathedral, impervious to one of the deadliest nights of the Blitz, proves.
All this week, we have been marking the 125th anniversary of the Mail with stunning pullouts of the great moments in our history. Today we celebrate the contribution of picture power, from the pity of war to human tragedy and sporting and cultural achievement.
And if one photograph symbolised the indomitable spirit of human resilience, it was that picture of St Paul’s on the night of December 29, 1940, rising above the Luftwaffe’s hellish firestorm.
1986 – As she turned 60, Britain was tense because of its controversial support for a U.S. air strike against Libya. The Queen went to church in the morning, then to Buckingham Palace, where she was greeted by the singing of 6,000 school children from around the country. At night was a gala called Fanfare for Elizabeth at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov, Judi Dench, Placido Domingo and Anne Murray.
1987 – Charles and Diana wished her well at Windsor Castle before they left for a holiday in Spain.
1989 – To mark her 63rd year, the Queen gave new honorary titles to family, including Prince Andrew, then a Royal Navy officer, who was made colonel-in-chief of the Staffordshire Regiment, and Princess Anne, who was given the same title over the London Officer Training Corps.