In May 2019, it emerged that the creator of Peaky Blinders is adapting the story of the birth of the Special Air Service as a television drama. Here, John O'Sullivan examined the life and times of Col Robert Blair "Paddy" Mayne - an original member of the service and an Irish rugby international with a reputation as a hard-drinking, free-swinging firebrand.

It was 3am. The Rev George Cromey had recently extinguished a bedside light when the door to the room splintered. Peering through the darkness he recognised the towering figure of Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne, framed in the threshold, wearing a white dress suit, cummerbund and a broad grin, with what appeared to be a dead Springbok draped over his shoulders.