6 Days

During the real siege, when the SAS attacked PC Trevor Lock and the terrorist leader fought him, it was PC Lock who was on top and had his weapon pressed against the terrorist's head.

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Rusty Firmin also wrote a book about the siege titled "Go, Go, Go!".

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This was Tim Pigott-Smith's final role.

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The HK sling system used by the SAS in the film is an older method, common at the time, in which the weapon hangs on the strong side and is thrown back when a Commando transitions to his pistol. The now-preferred method is to sling the weapon on the weak side, which allows the user to drop the weapon easily and to "shift" it toward the weak-side hip and shoulder for an easier transition to the pistol and safer use of the primary weapon, since he does not have to sweep it aside and cover friendly forces with the muzzle.

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In the opening scenes of the "killing house", the location is shown as Stirling Lines, RAF Hereford. During the siege, the Regiment was based at Bradbury Lines, an old Royal Artillery depot south of the town of Hereford. It was renamed Stirling Lines in 1984 in honour of the Regiment's founding father, David Stirling. The Regiment did not move to the former RAF site until 1999.

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'Box 500', cited at a political meeting as a critical intelligence source on one of the embassy terrorists, is the Civil Service nickname of the British Security Service (MI5).

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In the SAS, filling a Browning High Power magazine with more than 12 rounds to improve its reliability was considered a serious breach of common sense. Modern magazines, springs and heat-treatment technology have largely eliminated this practice, but it is still common.

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In the 1970s, a 21-round "extension" magazine became widespread for the special use of the SAS, SBS and 14 Intelligence Company. Carried on the pistol and kept low, this weapon offered somewhat better capacity and sustained rate of fire. In Northern Ireland, drivers operating in high-threat environments would often place a Browning with a 21-round magazine under the driver's seat for quick access inside a vehicle. This became preferable after Captain Anthony Pollen of 14 Intelligence was killed in 1974 while observing a funeral in Derry, when a crowd of 150 Republican sympathisers got into the vehicle and killed him. Operators were taught to fire through windows, doors and the windscreen, and their vehicles were also fitted with remotely controlled stun grenades and CS canisters to disperse the crowd.

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For the 22 SAS Counter Revolutionary Warfare Wing, the standard SAS issue is the HK MP-5 9 mm submachine gun, widely known at the time as "the Hockler". The pistol issued was the Browning High Power 9 mm, modified by SAS armourers for reliability and accuracy.

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The British SAS has a sister unit called the SBS, or Special Boat Service, which already draws personnel from the elite Royal Marines.

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