TomDCPetch

Speed. Aggression. Surprise. The Untold Truth Behind the Story.

Society EN ↓ 6 episodes

Host Tom Petch - former SAS officer turned filmmaker - goes behind the headlines with officers, soldiers, war correspondents, and insiders who lived the real story. No PR. No spin. Just the brutal, complex, often uncomfortable truth about war, politics, and the people caught in between. From elite operators to front-line journalists, each episode cuts through the noise to ask: What really happened? Who decides how we remember it? And what does it cost to tell the truth?

Author

TomDCPetch

Episodes

“What a Sniper Really Sees” – Ted Shirley on Killing, Memory, and the Cost of Pulling the Trigger 27.03.2026 1:54:00

What does a sniper actually see? Not a silhouette. Not a target. A person. In this episode, Ted Shirley — former British Army sniper and author of Afghanistan Sniper — speaks openly about the reality behind the shot. “You’re looking at a human being… and the impact of a round flying toward them.” From the battlefield in Helmand to the aftermath that followed, this is a conversation about: • The in...

“Frog-Marched at Dawn” – Captain Rachel Webster on Lawfare, Service, and the Cost of Speaking Up 20.02.2026 1:29:30

Tom Petch sits down with former British Army officer CaptainRachel Webster , whose 24-year career spanned Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan - only to end in a dawn arrest she describes as “the most horrendous experience” of her life. From becoming one of the first female welders at British Steel to serving in some of the most complex theatres of modern conflict, Rachel’s care...

Sir Laurie Bristow: Kabul, Collapse, and the Last Days of the War 06.02.2026 1:08:51

In this episode, Tom Petch speaks to Sir Laurie Bristow , the UK’s last Ambassador to Afghanistan, about the final months, weeks, and days before the fall of Kabul in August 2021. Drawing on his unique position at the intersection of diplomacy, military planning, and crisis decision-making, Bristow offers a forensic, unsparing account of how a 20-year campaign unravelled at extraordinary speed. He...

“We Were Told It Would Be Easy” – Colonel Stuart Tootal on the Truth of Afghanistan 16.01.2026 1:36:06

Colonel Stuart Tootal commanded 3 PARA on the British Army’s first major combat tour of Helmand Province in 2006. What followed was not peacekeeping - it was a full-scale insurgency. In this episode of Speed. Aggression. Surprise. - The Untold Truth Behind the Story , Tom Petch sits down with one of the most honest and uncompromising commanders of the Afghanistan war. Tootal describes how British...

“Cut Out the Cancer” – Billy Billingham MBE QCB on War, Witch Hunts & What Really Happens in the Dark 18.11.2025 1:06:33

Billy Billingham MBE QCB joins Tom Petch for one of the rawest conversations yet - from being stabbed at 15 and nearly going off the rails, to the Para Regiment, SAS selection, Bosnia, bodyguarding Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and the brutal truth behind today’s investigations into British soldiers. Billy also talks about his latest book, Further, a powerful continuation of his life story and the...

“Are We the Evil?” – SAS Commander Richard Williams on the Legal War Against the Regiment 17.10.2025 57:07

Tom Petch sits down with Richard Williams, former commander of the SAS, for a raw, no-holds-barred conversation. Williams breaks his silence on the legal and political firestorm engulfing Britain's most secretive unit. From operations in Afghanistan to legacy cases in Northern Ireland, he explores how soldiers are being abandoned, what "lawfare" really looks like on the ground, and why some of the...