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It’s known as one of the toughest shows on TV, and the recruits for Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins 2026 have admitted they were taken aback by just how gruelling it was. For the first time in the Channel 4 challenge, recruits are split into two teams for an England vs. Australia series.
Celebrities might be used to the red carpet and goody bag treatment, but there’s no difference between the civilian series and the celeb spin-off as far as the no-nonsense directing staff (DS) are concerned. As Mark “Billy” Billingham told Yahoo UK: “There’s no real concessions for anybody… The bar didn’t change for civilians or celebrities.”
The new series launching on 4 January has a particularly tough start even by SAS terms. The recruits arrive in the Moroccan desert in blistering heat and are ordered off their minibus with bags over their heads before being lined up on a terrifyingly high bridge.
Olympic swimmer Mack Horton began the series by having to urinate in the line of celebrities while waiting to have the bag taken off his head, explaining: “I was actually just busting. I put up my hand a couple of times, and no one had said ‘Fine go to the bathroom’, so I was like, whatever.”
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins put the famous recruits through some tough paces. (Channel 4)
However, things were about to get even tougher for the recruits, as their first challenge involved being strapped into a plane submerged in water. In addition to the near-impossible physical tasks, they also had to face a grilling from the DS on their biggest personal hang-ups and failings.
These were some of the toughest moments in the Celebrity SAS journey for this year’s recruits.
Gabby Allen finds DS interrogation ‘a hard watch’
Love Island star turned personal trainer Gabby Allen loves a physical challenge, but the emotional demands of Celebrity SAS were far trickier for her. She told Yahoo UK and other press of the mirror room with the DS: “My first interrogation was a s*** show. I actually am dreading watching it back because I’m not used to being vulnerable. When I was pulled into the room, I just didn’t know how to cope with that at all. I’m quite a private person…I think that’s going to be a hard watch.”
She added, “It is really hard to get yourself into that headspace to be able to open up like that, especially with people that you don’t know. That’s so intimidating. When you’re with your mates with a glass of wine, it’s a bit different. But when you’re sat in this room, looking like you’ve been dug up, it’s not great.”
Natalie Bassingthwaighte’s worst nightmare
Natalie Bassingthwaighte took a punch from Gabby Allen. (Channel 4)
Neighbours star Natalie Bassingthwaighte confessed that the first time she was asked to do the show, her condition was only if she didn’t have to fight anyone. However, the actor was informed that there was no option to sit out the milling challenge, which involves pairs of celebrities competing against each other in close-contact combat.
Bassingthwaighte took on Allen, calling it “really intense”, and was shown vomiting after the fight. She explained: “I’ve never hit anyone. I’ve never been hit before, so it was a lot. Gabby was a beast, but super lovely. I won’t lie. She was just divine, came up and just said, ‘God, I hope you’re OK’. It was definitely horrific. I wouldn’t want to go back and do it again, that’s for sure… Take me back to yoga and Pilates. That’s where I belong.”
Allen found it equally tough from her side: “It’s just so hard because you just have no choice unless you VW, which means take your band off and say that you’re not doing it, you just have to do it. You have no choice but to give it your best shot. I’ve never had fights before…You have to find some way to make it make sense in your head to be able to do this.
Natalie Bassingthwaighte said milling was her worst experience. (Channel 4)
“I don’t recommend fighting to anybody. That whole challenge to watch actually was quite hard because you have to watch everybody go against each other.”
The Love Islander added that she worried Neighbours fans would be upset at her over the fight, but Bassingthwaighte, who played Erinsborough homewrecker Izzy Hoyland, laughed: “No, they’ll love you because you hit Izzy. ‘Yes, what a b****!'”
Allen told her: “I’m sorry, I was absolutely traumatised afterwards,” but Bassingthwaighte reassured her co-star: “I didn’t die. It’s all good.”
Dani Dyer tackles water terror
Fighting might have been Bassingthwaighte’s worst nightmare, but for Dani Dyer, it was water that had her quaking in her boots.
It wasn’t long before she had to face her fear, as episode one opens with the group pairing off to be strapped into a plane and submerged in water, with Dyer pulling the plug just seconds in. “If you said to me now, Dani, go on the wall and hold your breath, I feel like I would be able to do it, but I don’t know if it was just in that moment, and you feel like you can’t breathe.
Dani Dyer and Ryan Moloney did the water challenge together. (Channel 4)
“I do definitely think I did get in my head on multiple occasions. That first challenge was literally one of my hardest things.
“With my kids, it’s definitely pushing me more to get them to swim. I think it’s one of the most important things ever. I definitely don’t want them to see I’m scared of water.”
But her challenge partner, Neighbours’ Ryan Moloney, told her, “I think in all fairness, though, it’s not being scared of water. It’s being strapped into a chair when you’re in the water. The feeling that you were trapped… it’s meant to make you feel like you’re gonna drown.”
Despite taking on all manner of gruelling SAS activities, it was Strictly Come Dancing training that injured Dyer, ruling her out of the 2025 series. She revealed: “My foot is a lot better. Just a really bad, silly accident. It’s just so unlucky. Listen, I would absolutely love to do Strictly again, but it is up to the gods. It’s not up to me.”
Ryan Moloney faces mental hurdles
Ryan Moloney found the mental and emotional challenge tough. (Channel 4)
Neighbours legend Ryan Moloney was clearly steeled for any physical challenges thrown his way, but from episode one can be seen getting frustrated with the group as he tries to make sure they are prepared with full water bottles and organised kit at all times.
He explained to Yahoo UK: “I wanted everyone to be able to do their best and to be able to stick around for as long as they can. As soon as we f*** up and don’t do something right, then we get drilled. That’s when people quit. So it was wanting people to be able to stay there for as long as they could, taking it for the team in a way.
“I live by the mantra of if not you, then who and if not now, then when. I had to speak up and say, hey guys, we should be doing this, we should be doing that. And if people crack the s***s because of that, well, then okay, cool.
The soap star aired some frustrations. (Channel 4)
“I’ve probably got a bit frustrated because I felt like a lot of the time that I was on everyone’s team but it didn’t feel like there was a lot of people on mine.” Dyer told him, “That’s horrible, that you felt that way.”
Viewers will see Moloney open up on his ADHD and he said: “I spoke with the psychologist afterward, and he was like, ‘It’s designed to get you into fight or flight straight away, and clearly, you were already in that mode before you even turned up’.
“What I was experiencing was actually uncontrollable waves of emotion, that I had no idea what the hell they were even about.”
DS tough love
DS Billy didn’t go easy on the recruits. (Channel 4)
Any SAS: Who Dares Wins viewer will know that the actual challenges are only a small part of what makes the show so tough – what the recruits really have to contend with are the DS, including Mark “Billy” Billingham, Jason “Foxy” Fox, Rudy Reyes and Chris Oliver.
Social media star Cole Anderson-James admitted their spiky way of communicating came as a shock, as he had never seen the show before: “There’s definitely no off switch (with the DS), and because I had never watched the show before, I’d never seen previous episodes. When I did (watch them), they seemed a lot nicer in the last ones, where they would give words of encouragement or sometimes break a smile. I feel like none of us got any words of encouragement, which was really hard because I like recognition for work, and when I put everything into a task, they’ll just say you’re s***.”
He added, “I know they’re doing it on purpose to try and break you, but when you feel like you’ve worked so hard, if they don’t bring you in and tell you to carry on, to keep trying, then it was the most difficult thing because I thought I wasn’t doing well.”
Cole Anderson-James and Toby Olubi both found the lack of encouragement tough. (Channel 4)
Bobsleigh Olympian and Gladiators star Toby Olubi, aka Phantom, agreed that the DS had cut him no slack in the mirror room interrogations.
“They were very strict with me in that. They weren’t friendly at all,” he said. “I was doing my best, but they just wanted to push me to another level, which I guess worked in the end, but it wasn’t gentle by any means.
“I guess you can call it a sort of tough love…I clashed with them at certain points because it’s hard for me to let go of my autonomy and give someone control over the situation, especially when they come at me with aggression. It was a learning curve for me.”
Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins returns to Channel 4 at 9pm on Sunday, 4 January.