Meet the celebrity contestants of SAS: Who Dares Wins for SU2C

But who exactly are the famous faces taking on the challenge? Here’s all you need to know...

Victoria Pendleton

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Now a jockey, Pendleton is best known as a former Strictly Come Dancing star and twice Olympic-gold-medal-winning cyclist, having picked up medals in both Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

She has also won nine world cycling titles and was appointed as an MBE in 2009.

Despite her athletic prowess, Victoria admits this is one of the toughest things she’s ever had to do.

“The biggest thing about this is whenever I’m training or going into a competition, I know it’s got a start and an end and what I have to do,” she said. “With this, we had no idea. You’re on edge the whole time.”

Camilla Thurlow - WITHDRAWN

Twitter: @CamillaThurlow ‏

Instagram: @camillathurlow

The Love Island star could be more than capable of taking on this challenge. Although she’s most famous for coupling up with Jamie Jewitt in the ITV2 villa, Thurlow's day job is in the field of Explosive Ordnance Disposal.

That means she’s had plenty experience travelling to wartorn countries to safely detonate bombs left in zones of conflict. Tougher than your average reality star.

Camilla’s fellow SAS castmates said her quiet nature and steely determination to get through tasks saw her battle on in the most pressing times.

“Camilla was so resilient. She never moaned,” said Sam Thompson. “I was the most impressed by her. She’s quiet but that’s how she handles stuff.”

However, Camilla chose to withdraw from the process after sustaining a severe hand injury, which saw her requiring stitches.

Wayne Bridge

Twitter: @WayneBridge

Instagram: @waynebridge03

Retired footballer Bridge played at left back for the likes of Southampton, Chelsea and Manchester City. He also made 36 appearances for the England national team and was selected for two World Cup squads.

And he's is no stranger to gruelling reality TV contests, having competed on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! in 2016, finishing in sixth place.

Asked what his wife, former Saturdays singer Frankie Bridge made of his decision to take part on the show, Bridge said, “Frankie thinks I’m crazy anyway. She loves the show but I don’t think she’ll ever do it, she wouldn’t want to push herself that much.”

Jeremy Irvine

Instagram: @jeremy.irvine

Irvine is an actor you’ll probably recognise if you’ve seen the War Horse film: he played the lead, Albert Narracott. He’s also starred in Great Expectations, The Bad Education Movie and in Mamma Mia!, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, where he portrayed the younger version of Pierce Brosnan’s Sam Carmichael.

Irvine is no stranger to pushing his body to the limit either, he lost two stone and allowed himself to be subjected to actual waterboarding torture for fact-based war film The Railway Man.

Despite having been a long-time fan of the show, Jeremy said he was shocked at just how difficult he found it.

“It doesn’t even come close to what it’s like because you only see a minute,” he said. “The minute you show a crack of weakness, they jump on it.

“You’re in extraordinary pain, you can’t even think about the cameras.”

AJ Odudu

Twitter: @AJOdudu ‏

Instagram: @ajodudu

TV presenter Odudu is best known for co-hosting Big Brother's Bit on the Side – alongside Emma Willis and Rylan Clark – in 2013. She now hosts 4Music show Trending Live!

AJ really struggles in the second episode, passing out after one task.

“For me it was a scary moment but the worst thing in that situation was that it was a massive confidence knock,” she said.

“I feel like I’ve had a headache the whole time, you’re constantly arguing with yourself.

“But you see your team mates doing it and you’re like, ‘I can’t let the side down.’ This survival instinct kicks in. You surprise yourself every single task.”

Jeff Brazier

Twitter: @JeffBrazier ‏

Instagram: @jeffbrazier

Brazier first became known for the original version of Channel 4’s Shipwrecked in 2001. He’s also appeared in Celebrity Wife Swap with then-girlfriend Jade Goody and their two sons.

Brazier has since gone into TV presenting, co-hosting the likes of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! Now and Sunday Scoop. In 2011, he competed on Dancing on Ice, finishing fifth in the contest.

Believing that he’d lost “a part of himself” before he entered the show, Jeff now feels the course put him more in touch with himself than ever before.

“I found far more than I bargained for,” he said. “You’ve got fear rife and coursing through your veins but you have to put one step in front of the other.

“I’ve got a 14 and a 15 year old and Ant Middleton and the other DS’s (directing staff) are the sort of people I want them to aspire to be with the values they hold.”

Heather Fisher

Twitter: @Hfisher2012

Instagram: @heatherfish29

Fisher is a rugby union and rugby sevens player who has played for England in two Women's Rugby World Cups. She also narrowly missed out on Olympic bronze, after her rugby sevens team lost the third-place play-off match to Canada.

Sam Thompson described Fisher as "the glue" of the team.

"If you didn’t have her, it would have been a s*** tonne harder," he told RadioTimes.com.

"She works in a team and you can really tell that. If I was struggling, or someone else was struggling, she would be like, ‘You’ve got this.’ That does really help you get past any hurdles. She's a sweet and nice soul."

Ben Foden

Instagram: @ben_foden

Another rugby union star, Foden is best known for playing as a fullback or scrum-half for Northampton Saints. He currently plays in America, having signed for team Rugby United New York in 2019.

You might also know him for his singing – Foden appeared on the celebrity special of BBC1's All Together Now. During his rugby days, he was nicknamed ‘Pops’ for missing the first day of training one season to audition for reality TV contest Pop Idol.

But it seems Ben had a talent other than singing during the challenge.

“He was known as the radiator,” Jeff explains. “We were always in the back of the van being thrown about, freezing cold. He’d be one side with all the girls that were literally huddled around him trying to keep warm.”

Louise Mensch – WITHDRAWN

Twitter: @LouiseMensch

Under her maiden name Louise Bagshawe, Mensch was a hugely successful 'chick-lit' novelist, but she's now arguably best known for her brief stint as a Conservative MP and her outspoken views against phone-hacking. Although elected to Parliament in 2010, she resigned in 2012 to move to New York City to live with her husband, American music manager Peter Mensch.

While she knew she wasn’t going to be much good at the course, Louise said it was “an honour” to stand in front of the other DSs.

“When a producer rang and asked why I thought I’d be good in the special forces, I replied, ‘I won’t be, I’m not a moron!’” she joked. “But for most of us it was about the honour to be in front of guys who had risked so much for this country.”

Mensch was forced to pull out of the show at the end of the first episode, after sustaining an injury following the show's first task, which saw the celebrities throwing themselves out of a helicopter into a body of water.

“I had to go to hospital and I had a three and a half centimetre rip in the back of my muscle,” she told RadioTimes.com and other journalists at the press day for the programme. “Literally every step was painful.

“I had to quit,” she explained. “I didn’t want the team to have to keep taking punishments for me [slowing them down].”

Andrea McLean - WITHDRAWN

Twitter: @andrea_mclean ‏

Instagram: @andreamclean1

The Scottish TV host is most recognisable for fronting ITV’s Loose Women since 2007.

McLean originally started out as a weather presenter on GMTV before hosting daytime shows such as Our House and LK Today.

As the oldest person in the show’s history to have tackled the course, Andrea said she took it on to prove what women of a certain age are capable of.

Celebrity SAS: Andrew McLean suffers hypothermia after gruelling challenge

“I’m 50 this year,” she said. “I run a website and it’s all about empowering women and letting them know that even though we’re halfway through life it doesn’t mean we’re halfway done. I’m always telling women to push themselves.

“I thought, I can’t tell people to push themselves out of their comfort zone unless I do it myself.”

The second episode saw McLean dramatically collapse after struggling with the freezing cold temperatures of the Chilean mountains.

After being diagnosed with hypothermia, McLean decided she had "made peace" with the process, and chose to voluntarily withdraw.

Speaking about her experience, McLean explained, “There were so many times during where I knew I wasn’t going to be the fittest or the strongest."

She added jokingly, “The menopause does make it a struggle to regulate your body temperature. So it wasn’t my fault!”

Dev Griffin - WITHDRAWN

Twitter: @dev_101

Instagram: @dev

Radio 1 listeners will know Dev as the presenter of its afternoon weekend shows. Part of the station since 2009, he regularly covers both Scott Mills and Greg James when the two presenters are away.

After finishing the course, Dev said what he missed most was the close personal friendships he had formed.

“It’s a bonding experience like no other,” he said. “There were times where we were huddled together to try and keep warm and we were looking out for other people .

“Coming out of it that’s what I missed the most: feeling close to people around me.”

Dev chose to voluntarily withdraw from the programme after struggling with the interrogation training, which saw him break down in tears following four hours of tortuous techniques.

"I haven’t cried for 15 years about anything. But I just felt so alone. Is it over?” he said.

Sam Thompson

Twitter: @SamThompsonUK

Instagram:@samthompsonuk

Entering Made in Chelsea as the cheeky younger brother of Louise Thompson, Sam has since grow out of his sibling’s shadow. As well as MIC, Thompson has become a favourite on the likes of Celebs Go Dating and Celebrity Big Brother 2017.

Sam’s jokey nature and his posh-boy Made In Chelsea persona made him an easy target for the DSs, he claimed.

“Being a reality person, don’t really know how I got on that show! I was with Olympic athletes!” he joked. “How I dealt with it, I crack gags to try and make things a light-hearted thing from a bad situation. That doesn’t go down very well with the DSs.”

SAS: Who Dares Wins - SU2C Celebrity Special will air later in 2019 on C4