Chris Ryan's Strike Back

Six-part fairly loose adaptation of the novel of the same name (only the first two episodes are based on it and move the setting from Lebanon to Iraq) by "Chris Ryan" (a pseudonym) MM, former SAS member involved in the Bravo Two Zero mission, starring Richard Armitage and Andrew Lincoln.

2003. Sergeant John Porter (Armitage) of the SAS leads a mission into Basra, Iraq, that goes very wrong indeed for him and Captain Hugh Collinson (Lincoln), an intelligence officer. As a result, Porter leaves the military in disgrace. Seven years later, now-Major Collinson is head of an MI 6 department and Porter is working as a security guard. He's given the chance to go back to Iraq and redeem himself when a journalist (and daughter of a former British minister) is abducted by Islamic fundamentalists and evidence turns up that links the kidnapping to the botched Basra mission...


 * America Saves the Day: Inverted.  Even Non-American viewers may find the depiction unneedingly demonizing towards America. Makes the second series' playing it straight with the focus on the American soldier a little ironic really.
 * Ass Shove: In the first two episodes, John Porter takes a moment (before walking into a terrorist trap) to wrap a swiss army knife in cling-wrap and insert it into his ass. After being captured and verifying that the terrorists are holding the woman he's trying to rescue, he removes the knife and uses it to escape his cell.
 * Body Double: Robert Mugabe had a body double as plot for episode 3, season 1.
 * Mr. Fanservice: Richard Armitage. Of course, he gets his shirt off.
 * Get Into Jail Free
 * Every Helicopter Is a Huey: Even British ones, apparently, though the British army have never used them.
 * Ho Yay: Gerald Baxter and John Porter. Invoked by Baxter saying they've got a fine "bromance" going.
 * Intimate Psychotherapy
 * Location Doubling: Filmed in South Africa
 * The War on Terror
 * Zerg Rush: Near the end of episode 4, season 1, Zimbabwean special forces try to kill off Felix and Porter somewhere near the Zimbabwe/South Africa border.