Andy McNab - Post-military Career

Post-military Career

McNab assumed his pseudonym while writing Bravo Two Zero. When he appears on television to promote his books or to act as a special services expert, his face is shadowed to prevent identification. As Larry King put it, when McNab appeared on the Larry King Live show on CNN: "We have Andy in shadows. He's wanted by terrorist groups." According to the book The Big Breach, by Richard Tomlinson, a renegade MI6 spy, McNab was part of a special training team after the Iraq war, training MI6 recruits in sabotage and guerrilla warfare techniques.

Due to the extremely sensitive nature of his work while serving with the SAS, McNab has a legally binding contract obliging him to submit his writings to the British Ministry of Defence for review. He is still believed to be wanted by a number of the world's terrorist organisations; he therefore chooses not to reveal either his face or his current location.

After leaving the Army, McNab developed and maintained a specialist training course for news crews, journalists and members of non-governmental organisations working in hostile environments. He spent time in Hollywood as a technical weapons advisor and trainer on Michael Mann's film Heat, helping to engineer how the master-thief played by Robert De Niro would go about pulling off robberies on an armoured car and a bank, and how the policeman played by Al Pacino would go about tracking him down and stopping him. He was also the technical advisor on the 2005 crime film Dirty.

In February 2007, McNab returned to Iraq for seven days as The Sun newspaper's security advisor with his old regiment, the Royal Green Jackets. There, he researched the background for Crossfire (2007).

McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in three best-selling books, Bravo Two Zero (1993), Immediate Action (1995), and Seven Troop (2008). Bravo Two Zero sold over 1.7 million copies, with Immediate Action selling 1.4 million in the UK. It has been published in 17 countries and translated into 16 languages. The CD spoken word version of Bravo Two Zero, narrated by McNab, sold over 60,000 copies and earned a silver disc. A BBC film of Bravo Two Zero, starring Sean Bean, was shown on prime time BBC One television in 1999 and released on DVD in 2000. Immediate Action, McNab's autobiography, spent 18 weeks at the top of the bestseller lists following the lifting of an ex-parte injunction granted to the Ministry of Defence in September 1995.