Chris Ryan's Strike Back

''Chris Ryan's Strike Back'', also known as ''Strike Back: Origins'' on Cinemax, is a six-part British television series based on the novel of the same name written by best-selling author and former soldier of the Special Air Service, Chris Ryan, and is the first series of '' Strike Back''. It was produced by Left Bank Pictures for Sky1. The cast of ''Strike Back'' is led by Richard Armitage and Andrew Lincoln, also starring Orla Brady, Shelley Conn, Colin Salmon and Jodhi May, including a variety of guest appearances including Toby Stephens, Ewen Bremner, Dhaffer L'Abidine, Shaun Parkes and Alexander Siddig. The series follows John Porter (Armitage), a former British Special Forces soldier, who is drafted back into service by Section 20, a fictional branch of the Defence Intelligence (DI) of the Ministry of Defence.

The series ran on a multi-million pound budget, and was filmed on location in South Africa, particularly in Gauteng. Ryan became a series consultant. ''Strike Back'' commenced airing on 5 May 2010 with two episodes showing a week. The first episode received unofficial overnight ratings of almost 400,000 viewers in the United Kingdom, which increased to just over one million according to the more highly regarded Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. It was met with generally positive reviews; comments of the series ranged from a positive "British action series that packs a ''Die Hard''-style thrill around every corner," to a more negative "pathetic male fantasy". It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 7 June 2010.

A 10-part second series, known as '' Strike Back: Project Dawn'', a co-production between Sky and the American network Cinemax, was first broadcast in August 2011. A third series of ''Strike Back'', also consisting of 10 parts, was released in August 2012.

Following success of the second through fourth series, Cinemax began airing the six-part series starting 25 October 2013 in the United States. It is airing as a prequel in the U.S. since Cinemax aired '' Strike Back: Project Dawn'', '' Strike Back: Vengeance'', and '' Strike Back: Shadow Warfare'' prior to the first season.

Episodes

In this table, the number in the first column refers to the episode's number within the entire series, "UK viewers in millions" refers to how many Britons watched the episode on Sky1. The series plays out as three two-part episodes.

Cast and characters

* Richard Armitage plays series protagonist John Porter. Porter served with the SAS until he was discharged after he spared the life of a boy who was believed to have subsequently killed two soldiers in his unit following a rescue operation the night before the Iraq invasion. He is brought back into service by Section 20 seven years later. He is married to Diane, and has a daughter, Alexandra. Armitage described Porter as a "damaged hero", and "sort of like Lucas North, only on some kind of go-faster drug." In order to fit into the role, Armitage performed a lot of training for about ten weeks in the UK, and then flew to Johannesburg the day after filming the eighth series of '' Spooks'' wrapped up, where he proceeded with more training. Armitage had not trained as hard as in the past; the intensity of such training almost made him pass out after the first workout, stating "filming ''Spooks'' is demanding, but nowhere near as physical as this." Armitage performed most of his own stunts.

* Andrew Lincoln plays Hugh Collinson, former soldier in Porter's unit and has since become the head of Section 20. Lincoln was signed onto the role because he thought the series was a "great story", and that his character was "completely re-written from the book." Out of the cast, the weapons instructor told Lincoln that he was the most instinctive he ever worked with.

*Orla Brady plays Katie Dartmouth, a British war correspondent who was kidnapped in Basra by the "Sword of Islam", an Iraqi terrorist group. To play Dartmouth, Brady used her inspiration from real life BBC
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