Craig McLachlan in training for SAS Australia

Actor Craig McLachlan is the first name linked to the upcoming cast of SAS Australia, in his first television employment in 5 years.

The series, hosted by Ant Middleton, will film in the Middle East from late March.

The Daily Telegraph reports he flew out of Sydney last week to train with ex-special forces. But McLachlan, who had abdominal surgery last year, has had to pass a fitness test to qualify for the show. Partner Vanessa Scammell said it was a “race against the clock” to ensure his fitness was up to scratch.

“This season they’re going to the desert, they’re harder challenges, the heat is scorching, and it will be grittier,” Brook Hall, Seven Head of Scheduling recently told TV Tonight.

“This is a show where you confront your demons. It really breaks people down. We do have controversial cast members and that will be a part of it. But in the ‘mirror room’ reveal you’re going to see some cast that are known, but you might not think of them first.”

McLachlan was cleared of charges filed by Victoria Police in 2020 after being embroiled in indecent assault charges during a stage production of The Rocky Horror Show, although Magistrate Belinda Wallington said that while the state’s current consent laws might have yielded a different result if applied to the 2014 incidents.

He has repeatedly denied the allegations, including in an interview on 7News Spotlight.

McLachlan later launched defamation proceedings against the ABC, Fairfax Newspapers and actor Christie Whelan Browne but dropped the lawsuit several days into the trial, saying “I cannot continue to place my family under that strain, and my own mental health will not withstand the continuing pressure”.

Rocky Horror Show co-star Christie Whelan Browne currently stars in Seven sketch comedy We Interrupt this Broadcast.

SAS Australia will screen in Q4 on Seven.

Source: news.com.au