SAS: Who Dares Wins S5: Interview with Mark/Cybil War #7
Category: Press Pack ArticleAge: 31
Profession: Marketing Manager and Drag Queen
Hometown/Region: London
Background
Mark’s dad was in the army from the age of 18 with a large proportion of that time serving in the SAS. His dad’s life revolved around being a member of the armed forces and SAS and although Mark is a different character to him, he would like to see if he has the same “fire” as his dad to pass SAS selection.
Mark moved to New York in 2014 with his job. It’s there he discovered the drag scene and it opened his eyes to a whole new way of being and what it meant to be a queer person. It allowed him to build amazing relationships with people and embrace who he is as a gay man and create another persona – Cybil War. Mark has two sides to his personality which he taps into – “by day I'm responsible for how we position and package the company’s software and the training of the sales team to maximise revenue. By night, I am the matriarch of a drag/artist collective. I am a club promoter, DJ, host and face of a monthly queer club night that is entering its third year regularly bringing together over 400 LGBT people.”
Tell me about your experience on SAS: Who Dares Wins?
I loved every single second of it. It was honestly one of the best experiences of my life and it’s something that I wish I could do again.
Did you find it difficult? Was it more difficult than you expected?
It was as difficult as you expect it to be. If you’ve seen the show before you know it’s going to be brutal and you’re prepared for that but what I wasn’t expecting was all the stuff they don’t show. The lack of food, the lack of sleep, the endless waiting and not knowing when the next task would come or how hard it would be put me on edge at all times and that’s what I wasn’t expecting and found the hardest for sure.
Were you surprised to find out this course was taking place in the home of the SAS – Scotland?
YES! I was fully expecting it to be somewhere hot this year after the last year’s snowy mountains but Scotland was incredible and for sure made it harder than any of the previous series. Scotland is so unforgiving and the weather and terrain made it even harder.
How did you cope with the harsh Scottish weather conditions? Did the weather conditions play a part in how hard you found the course?
Completely. The first few days the weather was great and it seemed like it was going to be amazing but as soon as the true Scottish weather set in, it made everything so much harder. There wasn’t a latch on the bard door of our sleeping quarters and all through the night it would just bang and the wind would be blowing through. I struggle in the cold and having to put up with that, along with managing being wet most of the time really took a toll on me.
Did spending so much time in freezing water make the course more difficult for you?
I love being in the water so that wasn’t much of an issue for me. Being fully clothed made it so much harder but the cold and water didn’t have much of an affect on the difficulty… Once you’re wet, you aren’t getting much wetter so I just kinda got on with it.
You were the first recruits to take part in weapons training. How did you find that?
It was really interesting. I’ve never fired a gun and it was interesting experiencing that but not something that I’d be doing again any time soon!
Have you ever done anything like this before?
I think there are very few people who have ever done anything like this before and I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to go through this experience.
What made you sign up?
My father was SAS so it’s something that I’ve always known about in the periphery of my life growing up but I knew nothing of it. Watching the first four series of the show it just became my favourite show and when you’re sat at home watching it you think, “I could do that,” so I thought well… I’d better prove it then.
What training did you do in preparation for this course?
Not a huge amount specifically. I did some open water swimming on holiday the week before we went away but other than that I just carried on with my usual CrossFit training, which I think put me in really good stead for the course.
Now that you have this experience, would you like to join the real Special Forces?
My dad would never let me! Haha! I’ve always said I’m far more of a lover than a fighter and that’s not changing any time soon!!
What was the best part of the series for you?
Honestly, it was getting to know the other recruits and sharing this experience with them. I have made some incredible friends and it was knowing that I was suffering alongside them that made it possible to withstand everything that was thrown at me.
What was the hardest part of the series for you?
THE WAITING AROUND!!! I had no idea how hard I would find the waiting around and not knowing when we’d be called to do the next task. It meant that I could never relax, so I wasn’t sleeping and was constantly on edge when we weren’t doing a task. I was just exhausted. I wish we could have just been doing tasks the whole time!
Were you surprised to find one of your ‘fellow recruits’ was a mole?
Not in the slightest! There’s a reason we all called him Jamie Lannister from the start. We all knew there would be a mole from day one and the only surprising bit was that Jay became a new DS rather than just being a mole.
Did getting to know Jay as a recruit make it difficult for you to have the same respect for him once he became one of the DS?
Once you’re with the DS they are in charge and it doesn’t matter how well you know them.
What were Ant, Foxy, Ollie, Billy and Jay like?
Ollie and Billy are genuinely lovely and you can tell that they want to get to know you. We all know at the end of the day that a lot of the tasks were fun and that they want you to enjoy it and get everything out of the course that you can.
Foxy is just the single most gorgeous human being in existence and it was distracting being around him!
Jay is the ultimate wind up merchant and has such a dry sense of humour so it was great getting to know him.
Ant is terrifying. He never breaks character and he’s the one you’re scared of. Nothing will change that!
Would you ever do it again?
YES! I’m actually already thinking I’m going to try my luck at applying for next year and if that doesn’t work, I’m just going to have to find a way of getting famous enough so that I can do the celebrity version!