Background
It was co-created by Chris Ryan, a former British SAS soldier who was a member of the famous Bravo Two Zero patrol during the 1991 Gulf War, with the show produced by Bentley Productions. As well as his behind the scenes role, Ryan appeared as a SAS soldier in the first series of the show playing Blue Troop leader Johnny Bell.
The show features British television star Ross Kemp as its central character, the hard-boiled Staff Sergeant Henry 'Henno' Garvie. The show was a star vehicle for Kemp, who had been lured away from the BBC to ITV with a multi-million pound contract. Kemp appeared in every episode of the four series.
Domestically, the change of format seemed to produce diminishing returns for ITV; series three was abruptly taken off air by the network midway through the run, only to return a few weeks later. The show was then moved to Saturday night at 9 pm. A similar fate awaited series four, which was pulled after just two episodes. The three remaining episodes of series 4 were not originally shown on ITV, but shown on ITV4, in January and February 2007. The main ITV network showed the remaining three episodes of the series over a year later, starting on 18 May 2008 at 9pm, and finishing on 1 June 2008. A DVD of the fourth series was released on 25 September 2006 in the UK.
ITV then announced there would not be a fifth series, partially due to low ratings - hence the cutting of series three and four midway through their runs - whilst many of the stars moved onto other projects. Ross Kemp went on to host a series of documentaries following the progress of British Army troops in Afghanistan, whilst both Sam Callis and Christopher Fox joined ITV's police serial drama The Bill.
Read more about this topic: Ultimate Force
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