Chris Terrill - Commando

My relationship with the Royal Marines Commandos emanates from the close association I have been lucky enough to develop with the Royal Navy over the last dozen or so years. Since 1995 I have made a total of twelve full-length TV documentaries and written two books about the navy. These have not been shiny PR or recruitment projects but far-ranging, warts-and-all portraits of the Senior Service, both in training and on active service. My main concentration has continually been the service's most vital resource: its people from commodores, captains and commanders to stokers, gunners and cooks. What I have shown on television and written about has not always been to the particular liking of the 'top brass', but the great thing about the Royal Navy more, I think, than the other two services is that they are grown up enough to recognise that not only are they accountable to the public, but also that honest, balanced reportage and documentation, even if it does expose the occasional excrescence, is even better PR than regular PR.

Up to the summer of 2006, however, the Royal Marines were only ever an aside, a footnote or a secondary storyline in the heavily seaborne narratives of my films and books. The Royal Marines were evident on the ships I sailed in and, indeed, often crucial to their strategic roles particularly in the Adriatic during the Yugoslavian war, in the Gulf in the aftermath of the second Iraq war and even in Sri Lanka during humanitarian operations following the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. Nevertheless, my main focus was invariably on the dark blue navy rather than the khaki navy. This was not down to my own preference or prejudice far from it. Always fascinated by the culture of the Royal Marines Commandos I met on various warships and shore bases, I never had the time to invest in penetrating the very particular and extremely tight communities that they often seemed to form. It was not that they were aloof, indeed almost to a man they were friendly and outgoing, but there was an aura about them. Something that seemed to mark them out as different from other men.

It was when I spent an extended period on the gigantic assault ship HMS Bulwark that I got to know a number of Royal Marines better than I had before notably Corporal 'Rocky' Baisley, Corporal (now Sergeant) 'Merv' Oakley and Lieutenant Colonel Russell Paul. It was they who really motivated me to find out more about the special world of the navy's very own amphibious infantry, its highly trained and fearsome sea-soldiers some of the toughest hombres on the planet.

I set about trying to find a way of prising the lid off this tightly sealed world and have Captain Brian Warren, then head of the Directorate of Public Relations (Navy), and Captain Mike Davies-Marks, his successor, to thank for helping me start the long and exhausting process. Brian's good offices won me a meeting with many high-ranking Royal Marines officers who listened patiently to my pitch and, in the end, suggested they might grant me access to the corps if I came up with that most precious of things a decent TV commission that would give me time to get to know and understand just how Royal Marines tick. They were not interested in a quick, hit-and-run film but a comprehensive series that would provide real insights. So far so good.

I phoned Jim Allen, head of factual television at Granada TV, whom I recently worked with on a documentary I made on, of all people, Charlotte Church. Charlotte, bless her, is a world away from the Royal Marines of course, but I had enjoyed working with Jim. He struck me as not only a very instinctive sort of bloke and someone who would take a risk for something he believed in, but also as a man of unwavering integrity. He was, as I suspected, fascinated by the possibilities that access to the Royal Marines could open up and approached the factual department of ITV. Jim's enthusiasm was infectious and it was not long before Alison Sharman (Director of Factual) and Geoff Anderson (Controller of Current Affairs and Documentaries) offered us a commission a prime-time eight-part series. This was the magic key I needed and I was now able to open the door to the world of the Royal Marines Commandos at least the outer door. Once inside, I found there were many other doors that I had to get through, but now at least I started meeting people who were there to assist and facilitate. Captain Mark Latham was immensely helpful in first introducing me to the commando training centre at Lympstone. Thereafter, Brigadier (now Major General) Garry Robison, Brigadier Andy Salmon, Colonel Dave Stewart and Lieutenant Colonel Dave Kassapian were never anything but fully supportive and unfailingly encouraging in my bid to comprehend life as a Royal Marines Commando. Major Dave Nicholson drew the short straw by being allocated as my project supervisor (I have always imagined it must have been a punishment for some serious transgression!). As my 'minder' I was fearful at first that our relationship might become strained because I needed space and freedom to do my work. Yet Dave was nothing but supremely professional, obliging and accommodating, and I am pleased to say that, after a year working together, I count him very much as a friend (except when he beats me at squash).