FOR a show which takes a group of people and puts them through a gruelling series of special forces recruitment tests, pushing them time and time again to within breaking point, you’d think it would take a lot to shock the hardcore fans of Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins.

But Sunday’s episode has sparked an unprecedented reaction from viewers across the country as a brutal man-on-woman boxing fight saw midwife Louise Gabbitas bloodied and battered.

The fourth series of the reality show has seen women get thrust into the unsparing environment of SAS recruitment for the first time, in line with the MOD’s landmark decision to allow women into the real-life SAS recruitment process.

One man who had a ringside seat was Wilmslow lawyer and contestant on this year’s show, Rick Stevens.

“It’s incredibly brutal. You’re watching guys fight girls and near enough knocking them out,” Rick said.

Rick, known as recruit number 18 on the show, is yet to feature prominently in the opening two episodes, but will be called in for questioning in episode 3, aired on Sunday.

He says the gender issue on the show, which has been a huge talking point in the media, wasn’t much of an issue for the contestants.

“My take on it is that gender went out of the window pretty quickly. After that first day I think you just looked at everyone as a fellow recruit,” he said.

“Each and every person in there was there on merit and that’s how I saw it. I really don’t think gender had that much of a role - it quickly became a non-issue.

"The purpose of the SAS selection process is to see if the person is good enough to do the job, so allowances can’t be made for anyone.”

Having watched all previous three series of the show, the 33-year-old dad-of-one thought he knew exactly what to expect and was sure his intense cross fit training was more than enough to get through the drills.

But it was perhaps aspects that he hadn’t given much thought to beforehand that proved to challenge Rick the most.

“I’ve watched all of the series of the show, and when you see it on TV, you know it’s hard, but I always said ‘I could do that’. But when you get there, you realise almost immediately that it’s 10 times harder than it looks,” Rick said.

“The physical challenge of it is what you focus on when you watch it, but that’s just a small aspect.

"The main thing that you struggle with is all the other aspects of it – the fact you only ever get around two or three hours’ sleep each night, the fact that they’re gradually reducing the amount of food you get each day, and the fact that you’re continuously in a state of anxiety waiting for the next beasting.

“It’s not just a TV show, it’s not like the cameras go off and then we’re all having a cup of tea and good laugh, what you see is exactly how it is constantly for the time you’re in there.

“It’s so intense that everyone’s just fighting to get through the next hour, not the next day, but the next hour because it’s so tough you can’t focus on further than that, a day is too long.”

This year, the course that former Marine and Special Boat Service Sniper Ant Middleton, along with his fellow directing staff (DS) have designed.

The 12-day course is the longest the show has ever done, but, setting up camp more than 3,000 metres above sea level in the Andes mountains of Chile, the high altitude provides the sternest test.

“It was freezing, and the cold conditions were difficult, but the hardest element was the altitude by far,” Rick added.

“We were more than 4,000 metres above sea level at some points during the show and that’s getting towards Everest Base Camp level -and we only had one day to acclimatise to it.

“So for the first few days we were struggling badly and that’s why we’ve seen in the first couple of episodes, people have dropped out because of it.

“It’s the kind of thing that can affect anybody, no matter how fit and strong you are, if you’re struggling with breathing because of the high altitude, and you’re dizzy and have that constant blinding headache, there’s not much you can do about it and it’s frustrating.

"I mean we’ve seen Victoria Pendleton last year attempt to climb Everest and she had to abandon it because of severe altitude sickness – and this is someone who has nine World Championship gold medals and two gold medals at the Olympics.”

So far, Rick has endured some of the toughest of physical tests in high altitude, as well as psychological challenges from having to forward abseil down a rock face, to being awoken in the middle of the night and ordered to pour water over his head in freezing temperatures.

But we’re two episodes in, and the Wilmslow dad is not broken yet.

Catch the third episode on Channel 4 at 9pm on Sunday.