week, then Lloyd gave the job of writing a script to Reginald Rose. According to director Ian Sharp he was "handed a script that needed a lot work". Sharp flew to the United States to work on the script with Rose, but they "never got to a really strong plot." The action scenes were rewritten by Sharp. The budget was raised by pre-selling the film to multiple territories. Lloyd's investors were willing to go with a lesser name actor as star. The producer considered a number of options before going with Lewis Collins, then best known for The Professionals TV show. Collins trained intensively for the part. Judy Davis was cast on the strength of her performance in My Brilliant Career. She said she did not base her character on Patty Hearst as she felt Hearst was ultimately not serious about politics; she was inspired by Bommi Baumann and his book Terror or love? Filming The production began in September 1981. The film had advisers who had worked in the SAS which led to some concerns from the Ministry of Defence that the film could breach the Official Secrets Act. However, Lloyd said the ministry eventually gave its "tacit approval" to the film after two small changes to the story were made; "after that they opened the door quite widely and even provided three military helicopters", the producer said. According to the DVD commentary, the film was made with the help of the 22 SAS Regiment at Hereford, although their commanding officer Peter de la Billière had initially refused to help in a pre-production meeting with Euan Lloyd. Director Ian Sharp, who was hired due to Lloyd's liking of his direction in the TV series The Professionals, was invited to SAS headquarters at Stirling Lines where he met some of the troops who assaulted the Iranian embassy. With the co-operation of the SAS achieved, production moved ahead swiftly. During one of his visits to Stirling Lines, Sharp had met a Fijian trooper who had a mishap during the Iranian embassy assault. The trooper told how he got caught up in his descent and his uniform caught fire due to the explosives used for their forced entry. Inspired by this, Sharp had a similar scene inserted. The first scenes were shot in Portobello Road market in January 1982. The concert, speech and subsequent fight were staged at the Union Chapel in