leads casting arrangement for the new show. Having cast the actor Martin Shaw, Clemens found in the first week of filming that the initial partnership he had arranged for the recording of the pilot episode with the actor Anthony Andrews lacked personal on-screen chemistry due to the similarity of the acting styles of Andrews and Shaw. He thought of Collins as an alternative after seeing a recently filmed episode of The New Avengers, in which Collins and Shaw (both trained at LAMDA) had appeared alongside one another and there had been a noticeable dynamic tension between them, both in their acting style and off-screen private personalities. After a screen test of Collins, he replaced Anthony Andrews as 'William Bodie'. Although not getting on particularly well with one another personally, the good-humoured antagonism and bravado between Collins and Shaw on-screen worked well and the series was highly successful on British television for the next six years, making household names of them both. The production came to an end in 1981, although new episodes continued to be shown onscreen until early 1983. Military career Collins was a private in the 10th Battalion Parachute Regiment of the British Army (a Territorial Army unit) from 1979 to 1983. In 1983, he applied to join the Territorial SAS, but was rejected because of his celebrity status, despite passing the entrance tests. From 15 to 23 March 1980 Collins with several volunteers from the Parachute Regiment, along with the British boxer John Conteh, took part in a forced march in military service conditions from London to Liverpool up the A41 road, the funds raised from the event being donated to a charity for disabled children. Acting career (1980s–1990s) In the 1980s, he auditioned for the role of 007 with Eon Productions, the producers of the James Bond cinema franchise, to succeed Roger Moore, but the audition with its producer Cubby Broccoli did not go well and he was rejected as being "too aggressive". Collins regarded this failure in retrospect as the key missed opportunity of his acting career. In 1982 he moved into cinema starring in the role of a British Army officer confronting terrorists in the film Who Dares Wins. As the 1980s progressed Collins attempted to maintain a cinematic career. An initial plan to continue to make feature films with the Who Dares Wins producer Euan Lloyd, including one set in the Falklands War