Jason Fox spent a decade in the UK Special Forces. Now the TV tough guy is taking his sometimes painful story on tour. Miranda Jessop puts him through his paces.
Feeling like one of the recruits in Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins – the quasi-military training show that puts contestants through the wringer of a modified UK Special Forces selection course – I am face to face with one of its uncompromising instructors: the tough-talking Jason ‘Foxy’ Fox. Thankfully, however, I haven’t been blindfolded and bundled into the room by a heavy-handed guard.
In fact, it’s my turn to do the grilling. Jason is currently gearing up for his 25-venue Life At The Limit nationwide tour, during which he’ll share stories from his military career as an elite operator in the Special Boat Service (SBS), as well as his personal battles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
It is an excellent opportunity to find out exactly what audiences have in store. Raised on a 1980s council estate in Luton, he joined the Royal Marines Commandos in 1992 at the age of just 16. “I hated school and wanted to leave home, and the quickest way to do that was to enlist,” he reveals. “I just wanted to see more of the world.”
Remco Jansen
At first, the reality of living away from home at such a young age hit hard. “Coming from a mum who did everything for me, it was suddenly all about the laundry, the ironing and keeping myself clean and cleaning all the equipment. But once I got my head around that, it was good. Being like a kid running around in the dirt was what I enjoyed.
Less so the parading, the pomp and the ceremony.” After nine years, he thrived as a Marine and put himself up for entry into the SBS. As far as he was concerned, the rigorous selection process was make or break. “I didn’t give myself any other options,” he explains. “If I was staying in the military, this was what I wanted and needed to do. I just focused on being there at the end of the process. It was a slog but it got done.”
Ten years in the SBS followed. During that time he had a pistol held to his head by the personal hitman of notorious Colombian warlord Pablo Escobar, survived a helicopter crash in a war zone and endured a gun battle in which over 200 enemy fighters surrounded his 30-strong squad.“I genuinely loved the job, but there was an awful lot of pressure – pressure not to fail at your task, but also the potential for being seriously injured or even not making it back home. There were lots of those moments.”
His declining mental health, he believes, was an amalgamation of several things going on in his life. One moment, however, stands out as particularly significant. “I remember on one particular mission just being in a ditch and thinking to myself: ‘This may not end well.’ We were in quite a sticky situation; one guy from our group had already been killed. I think that was a pivotal moment in my psychological approach to the job.” Not long afterwards, he was medically discharged with PTSD.
At the time, it felt like rock bottom; in fact, there was even further to fall. “I thought that leaving the military would be the turning point for me mentally, but it wasn’t to be. Things actually got worse.”
At 36, thrust back onto civvy street for the first time since leaving school, he found the mundanity of everyday life – booking dentist appointments, filing tax returns, living full-time with a partner – a bigger challenge than the life he’d known. Without the brotherhood and support network provided by the military existence, he struggled to find a new identity.
It was a struggle that led him to a clifftop car park where he contemplated ending his own life. “I was having a nightmare of a day – couldn’t see the purpose of anything. Work wasn’t good, I’d had a massive argument and I just felt: ‘What’s the point?’ I’d been in the military for 20 years. I used to be awesome at something, and without that I felt that maybe my usefulness on the planet was over.”
Looking back, he isn’t really sure what stopped him. He thinks, however, that he just wasn’t quite ready to give up. “I had a word with myself, realised things had to change, and that flash of honesty was a real defining moment. Being on the clifftop was definitely the lowest point, but I probably needed to experience it to find the drive to stay here and fight on.”
So began his mental health recovery. Serious about finding the right path and becoming a better person, he set about finding people to help him progress. It was a process that led to SAS: Who Dares Wins, on which he has worked since it launched in 2015. “It definitely helps to fill the gap left from military life,” he says. “
When we’re out filming, there’s a team of people all working together to get a job done under some tough conditions. Nothing like as tough as in the Special Forces, but we are still working 24-hour days in extreme environments, pulling together, challenging ourselves.” No one is more surprised by the success of the show. “Initially, the programme was a bit of an experiment – no one knew how, or even if, it would work, or how people taking part would respond to it.
It’s been phenomenal to watch both civilians and celebrities throw themselves into the show over the years. I am surprised at how big it’s become and very proud of it too.” Is he as tough as he appears on TV? “I’m just a normal person,” he laughs. “It’s the same as when I’ve run courses for the military in the past. They’re supposed to be hard and tough, so that’s the person I’ll be.
Pete Dadds
I’ll make sure that people are pushed to their limits because that’s the only place you’re ever going to develop – that’s what happened to me. On the other hand, I will always be the person to encourage and make light of situations when it’s appropriate.” And his favourite part of the process?
“Seeing people genuinely develop and learn something about themselves. It’s not as if that ‘something’ wasn’t already there – we’ve just put them in a situation where it can actually come through. A situation that is perhaps a bit tough and mean. I love seeing that.” Nor is the show all about the participants: Jason himself has learned valuable lessons along the way.
“Yes, I’ve learned not to judge people – to give them another chance,” he reflects. And so to his next extreme challenge: sharing his tales of derring-do with live audiences up and down the country. “When I first toured Life At The Limit, that experience of a live audience was totally new to me, but I settled into it. To be visiting another 25 towns and cities, and sharing my story with yet more people, is such a huge honour.
“There’s a real mix in the show. Some stories are funny, some tragic, some brutal. But every one of them is real and they make for a no-holds-barred account of my life so far. “I just hope I can continue to inspire people through my long and, at times, difficult journey.”
Jason Fox – Life At The Limit tour dates include: Dorking Halls, January 19; Richmond Theatre, February 12; Tickets: nothird.co.uk/live-shows/jason-fox
