Trivia / Ultimate Force

• Cancellation: ITV cancelled the series because it was too expensive to produce.
• Creative Differences: Chris Ryan left the series after two seasons due to this. He particuarly objected to the presence of female SAS operatives. He later referred to the series as Ultimate Farce.
  I hated it. That's why I pulled away from a lot of normal TV programming in terms of drama. It was too fake...But we don't allow girls to do SAS selection, it's a well-known fact - I was just wasting my time. You'd get on set and the actors wanted to over-act, because that's their perception of an SAS soldier. I found it too hard. So when Strike Back came out, I just signed everything over and said, "Don't say I'm your consultant".
• Creator Backlash:
  • Ross Kemp was unhappy at the decision to jettison half the cast.
  • The reason Dotsy leaves during the second season was that Jamie Bamber was unhappy with the show and wanted out. He ended up on Battlestar Galactica (2003).
  Ultimate Force was a project I had grand hopes for because the SAS is an amazingly intriguing institution in the U.K. It's influenced the way that commando style regiments operate throughout the world. It's been copied all over the world, and nobody knows that much about it, so to me it was a tremendous opportunity. I was very disappointed by the production and the producers and the release of the show. So the character that I began to play was a "Rupert", what we would call in public school, private school in the U.S., a very priviledged solider who has come to a position as a Captain in the SAS. And the contradiction between him and maybe the more rough and ready men that he has to command, who don't necessarily respect him. I really found that interesting, but they were just interested in caricature really, they weren't really interested in really fleshing out what this experience would be. These guys all live in a tiny community in Hereford, which is in the middle of nowhere, and it's fascinating, dramatic concept, but they sensationalized it and made it hokey I thought. So I wanted to get out of that show, and they obliged me, and I'm grateful to them because I ended up doing Battlestar [Galactica].
• Creator Cameo: Chris Ryan is SAS operator Johnny Bell.
• The Danza: Jamie Draven as Jamie Dow.
• Doubling for London: Locations that are supposed to be an area of London (or in one case Northern Ireland) are locales in the sunny town of Slough. Also the backlot (and some of the offices) of Pinewood Studios stand in for Hereford.
• Enforced Method Acting: In one scene in "Communication", Danny Sapani (Ricky) angrily rams a knife into his own hand.
  I was practicing hitting my mark on the table and getting more adept. Then, I put my knife straight through my finger and nailed it to the table. I didn't feel how painful it was at first because of the shock. It was almost a surreal moment. I looked up at Ross and he freaked, then I eventually got a bit more scientific and pulled the knife out. It wasn't during a take, but my finger wouldn't stop bleeding, so the blood on the table is my actual blood and our shocked expressions are genuine. Afterwards, I became known as Danny the dangerous actor.
• Executive Meddling: This program can be used as a case study in how executives can end up screwing not just a show but the entire network itself through bungled meddling.
  • The show was originally meant to focus on Jamie Dow and how the rookie would grow into becoming a seasoned SAS trooper. The focus quickly shifted to Henno Garvie because ITV had lured Ross Kemp away from The BBC with a record 800,000 pound contract and needed to put him in something to justify the cost.
  • The third series premiere killed off most of the cast and a more politically correct one was brought in (including a woman), with plots now focusing more on over the top action rather than the tension and suspense that can occur during high stakes operations.
  • The fourth series switched to a feature-length episode format because someone at ITV thought that they could release them in cinemas in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia to increase profits. That didn't happen and the series itself never got properly broadcast in the UK.
• Fake Brit: Sendhil Ramamurthy is an American playing a Brit and does a really good job of it.
• Money, Dear Boy: Ross Kemp jumped ship from the BBC to ITV thanks to an 800,000 pound contract, only for the channel to realize that they didn't have anything for him to star in, resulting in Kemp being shoehorned into Ultimate Force so that the executives who made the deal could justify the cost of hiring the actor.
• Star-Derailing Role: The program went completely off the rails after Series 2 and episodes were broadcast with huge gaps between them, resulting in lower and lower viewing figures. This killed Ross Kemp's career as an actor and he had to reinvent himself as an investigative journalist in order to keep working. Although he's chosen to host The Bridge Of Lies for Spring 2022.

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