Review: An Evening with Ant Middleton, Ipswich Corn Exchange

I went into the show with high expectation, as I was already a fan of Ant, and I can safely say I wasn’t let down.

Ant Middleton is probably best known for being chief instructor on Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins and taking up the role of Captain William Bligh on Channel 4’s Mutiny, where along with his fellow crewmen he recreated the amazing 4,000 mile expedition.

What is only vaguely known about Ant is how he got to this position.

Ant went through a detailed history of his military career, starting as a young man growing up in rural France at the age of 16. He joined the Royal Engineers and then 9 Parachute Squadron Royal Engineers (qualifying best in class).

He then explained when he left and how he found himself in front of an advisor at the jobcentre who promptly told him to reenlist. He joined the Royal Marines and then the SBS, achieving the ‘Holy Trinity’ of the UK’s Elite Forces (P Company, Commando Course, UK Special Forces Selection)

The rest of the evening was made up of story telling of his military, TV career and a great selection of his personal experiences, which Ant was able to relay as life-coaching tips. My personal favourite, which I will now use, was “the Fear Bubble”.

Overall, the show, in my opinion, was well-executed and in the words of Ant himself you could literally hear a pin drop, which is power to his ability to hold the attention of the audience.

I think this is one of, if not the best, “an evening with...” shows I have attended. I could not recommend it enough. Thank you, Ant.

Ant has a book coming out on May 31, First Man In, now available to pre-order.