Who’s on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins 2022?

Back with a brand new line up of famous faces keen to put themselves to the test both physically and mentally - with more celebrity recruits than ever before in the longest series yet, fans want to know who's on Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins 2022?

The series opens with a feature length 75-minute episode, and is followed by six x 60-minute episodes and across the seven programmes, 14 new celebrity recruits are faced with the most brutal Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins selection course yet run by the elite team of ex-special forces operators from the UK and USA - Chief Instructor, Rudy Reyes and his team of Directing Staff (DS), Foxy (Jason Fox), Billy (Mark Billingham) and Remi Adeleke.

With their glamorous showbiz lifestyles a distant memory, we look at the celebrities set to be put through a series of gruelling tasks and interrogations in the blistering heat of the Jordanian desert...

Who's on Celebrity SAS Who Dares Wins 2022?

Maisie Smith

The 21-year-old actress shared, "SAS: who dares wins. LETS GO 🫵🏻" on her Instagram page after being unveiled as a contestant on the gruelling show. Maisie has recently enjoyed a romantic holiday with The Wanted singer Max George, after the pair were reported to be 'secretly dating'.

Jennifer Ellison

Former Brookside actress Jennifer Ellison, 39, is possibly regretting taking part in the show, she shared a snap of the full crew and captioned it, "I must be mad!!!🤦🏼‍♀️
SAS channel 4 Sunday 4th Sep 9pm! Tune in to watch me go to hell in a fast car with the best gang of people! 🥴😂 @sas_whodareswins"

She added, "I don't think you should ever, ever assume to know what you're in for until you are actually there! People just do not realise what happens when you're in there and how intense it is, how real it is. There's no break. I just thought it'd be like any other reality TV show I've done where the cameras are rolling and you get asked to do that again. Not at all. It was like you were in prison 24/7. People might think we slip off to a hotel but I can promise you we don’t, it’s as brutal as it looks!"

Calum Best

TV Personality and Entrepreneur, Calum Best, 41, is delighted he got to take part. He shared some snaps from his time in the Wadi Rum Desert in Jordan and captioned them, "Well well well !!! SAS - WHO DARES WINS Here we go then @sas_whodareswins 🤝 What an experience , one of the toughest challenges to date and so glad I took part! I thrive on this s**t 💯 @channel4 airing Sunday sept 4th @ 9pm 📺."

Pete Wicks

Former TOWIE star Pete Wicks, 33, swapped Essex for a stint in the desert but had described the experience as "amazing". He wrote, "Yeah it’s coming…👀 @sas_whodareswins on @channel4 Amazing experience with some amazing people 🖤" 

Tune in to see how well he does.

Ferne McCann

Former TOWIE star Ferne, 32, McCann swapped motherhood - looking after daughter Sunday - for the mother of all physical challenges, she said, "SAS: Who Dares Wins! 😬🥵. The news is out. I cannot wait for you all to tune in, including myself. This was one HELL of a challenge."

Fatima Whitbread MBE

The Javelin Olympic Gold Medallist, 61, is the oldest ever Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins recruit and she wants to prove she still has the physical fitness and mental stamina to participate and succeed on the course. Growing up in a children's home after being abandoned in a flat as a baby by her biological parents, she wants to show it’s possible to overcome even the most challenging adversity.

Speaking about why she signed up, Fatima explained, "It’s because I'm reaching the age now, I'm obviously 61, and as a young woman, I was always very adventurous. I always liked the rough and tumble of everything. I think that was because living in children's homes for 14 years, I had what I call quite a mischievous side to me, where I was tough and had to survive. I'm not someone who'd sit down with a little Barbie doll, if I'd had a different upbringing, maybe I would've done. Sport was my saviour because that's really where I excelled. And a sense of achievement was important to me. It gave me confidence and it gave me the ability to believe in myself. 

"So doing SAS is really only a knock on from those days. I would've liked to have done it as a young Whitbread because I think I would've cracked it wide open, but as an older lady, I’d like to think I've flown the flag really well in representation for the older generation, the middle aged, it’s not just a young person’s game. "

Ashley Cain

Ashley Cain’s daughter Azaylia died of Leukaemia aged eight months in April 2021. Ashley, 31, an ex-footballer, is dedicating his participation on the Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins course to her, wanting to make her a proud daughter and to show some of the strength she did, in her fight against cancer.

He said, "Losing my daughter was the most difficult experience of my life. I think to combat trauma you need to step outside your comfort zone and see who you really are. There’s no better way to do that than on SAS Who Dares Wins, so when the opportunity came, I took it with both hands. I really wanted to find out who I was, so I wanted to see whether I could put my money where my mouth is. 

"I said I was going to be strong for my daughter, and I was going to continue to fight for my daughter, I wanted to put that in action as soon as I possibly could." 

Amber Gill

Influencer and TV Personality, Amber Gill, 25, is used to inspiring others but she was keen to break down the stereotype of an influencer, aiming to shift the public’s preconceptions. Believing people consider her superficial, she wants to demonstrate her real values through the show's course. Regularly finding herself the victim of social media trolling, she considers herself to be mentally resilient and wants to prove this – to herself and the public.

She revealed she got some advice before starting the show, "Yeah, so I spoke to Vicky Pattison who was on the show last time. I was just like, “I don’t know what to do, what to expect!” She was just basically saying, "Get well into your training beforehand and you'll be absolutely fine. Just take each day as it comes when you're on there." 

"I did watch the show previously as well, so I had a good idea of what kind of things I could be in for, but I just don’t think you really can appreciate how tough it is until you’re living it," she added.

Amber is rumoured to be one of the celebrities taking over from Laura Whitmore as host of Love Island.

AJ Pritchard

The Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer, 27, is used to pushing his body to its physical limits and has competed since he was a teenager. His confidence, however, was recently knocked by a freak accident he caused, which injured his partner Abbie Quinnen. AJ chose to take part in the course to try and recover his mental strength. He is fiercely competitive (not least with his brother Curtis, who is also on the course) and wants to prove how strong a dancer can be, both physically and mentally.

Speaking about competing alongside his brother, he said, "I think it was really, really good. People think that as we have been brought up exactly the same, that we’ll be the same. But in reality we are two very different identities and two different people. For example, myself, I'm very OCD regarding how I would do task 1, 2, 3, whereas Curtis is very creative. He would be like, 2, 3, 1, and all over the place. You can't judge two people the same because they are family members. We are still individual people. We are all just going to have different strengths and weaknesses."

Curtis Pritchard

Professional Dancer and TV Personality, Curtis Pritchard, 26, lost the competitive edge his older brother AJ has during his teenage years and sometimes putting others ahead of his own ambitions, Curtis wants to use this opportunity to show he is also capable of pushing through and putting his own success first.

Speaking about his time on the show he said, "I had adrenaline going and I felt a buzz on everything I did. I felt nervous, I felt slightly scared about everything I did in a way. But nothing petrified me to the point where I thought  I couldn't do something or was too scared to do something. 

He warned, "There was one challenge where we had to climb through a small, tiny, tight tunnel. I was dreading that challenge. That's all I'm going to say! Watch for that!"

Dwain Chambers

Olympic Sprinter, Dwain Chambers, 44, was caught using performance enhancing drugs at the peak of his sprinting career, resulting in a two year ban on competing and huge reputational damage. He wants to prove the mistake was unrepresentative of him and that he still has what it takes to get through the Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins course. Previously struggling with controlling his temper he will use the course to test his physical stamina and mental strength.

Jade Jones OBE

Taekwondo Olympic Gold Medallist, Jade Jones OBE (29), had a disappointing result in the Tokyo Olympics, being knocked out in the first round. She would like to use the Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins course to show herself she still has the grit and determination to come back fighting at the next Olympics.

Speaking about how the experience compared to the Olympics, she said, "The Olympics obviously is such an amazing experience and winning it was such a high and that's your peak and it's an ultimate feeling when you win. 

"SAS obviously wasn't as strong as that, but it was a constant high because you're always challenging yourself and you’re always scared, and you’re always full of adrenaline, because you didn't know what was going on. And then obviously you're so nervous thinking you're not going to do it and then you do something and it was like you're on an adrenaline rush the whole time. So that's like the closest thing to the Olympics, or how it felt to be there." 

Shannon Courtenay

Professional Boxer, Shannon Courtenay, 29, was badly behaved growing up, falling in with the wrong crowd, drinking and smoking.  She has struggled with authority in the past and wants to make sure she can control the aggression that is vital to her fighting career and submit to the orders of the DS.

Speaking about her "life changing" experience, she said, "I've made best friends for life because of it. Everyone says "You're so much calmer now, Shannon." Yeah, it's changed me and I'm very grateful for that, to be honest. And I feel like the show itself is going to show who I am, which will change the public perception of me. I pray to God that it does."

Jonathan Broom-Edwards MBE

Being a parasport athlete [Paralympic HiGH jumper], Jonathan, 34, is always looking for new challenges in his career and prove himself to be as capable as any other Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins recruit. He has been training for the course by listening to screaming babies crying, whilst running, so is really committed to getting through the course.

Speaking about his disability, he explained, "So my disability's one of those harder to see disabilities. I was born with talipes equinovarus, which is otherwise known as clubbed foot, and it's a condition which is from birth within the womb. It's a hereditary condition. It's left me with a much smaller, skinnier, restricted left foot and lower leg. So my left leg is actually shorter by an inch or so. I don't have the ability to tiptoe, go up onto my left toes. There's fusion in certain areas so I haven't got the mobility, and it affects my general posture. 

"But was I worried about it going in? I mean, a little bit, yes. I'd never been under this sort of training and hardship before in terms of my left foot. So of course it was something which I was anticipating, but that's why I put as much emphasis into my training for it as I could. And over my career, I've really worked on my flexibility and my mobility to keep myself in check. And that's what really helped me throughout the course."

Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins is Channel 4 on Sunday 4 September at 9pm.

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