Basic Training

Joining the Royal Marines is a challenge that only the toughest young men should take on. As one of the most prestigious regiments in the British Forces, becoming a Royal Marine Commando is achieved only by the best.

Platoon Sergeant Col Wilson, called Bulldog, knows all about achievements, and with the responsibility for the recruits at Lympstone, he is adamant that despite the highest drop-out rate in the Forces, his boys should pass basic training to the highest standards.

Yet Sgt Wilson’s world of work, gym, training and discipline is heaved out of its angles when the new platoon arrives with Chris Thompson amongst them. A promising, picture-perfect recruit: twenty-one, handsome, tall, a university graduate and a triathlete, and … openly gay in an environment of institutional homophobia.

Col finds himself thrown into turmoil that is nothing like any conflict he’d ever encountered, nor any operational theatre he’d ever fought in. When this particular battle becomes personal, he has to ask himself who is the enemy.