Falkirk man stars in BBC series Soldier following new recruits training to join the Army

But Christopher Dean is not one of the recruits, he’s one of the trainers putting them through their paces in the new BBC series Soldiers.

Corporal Dean, 31, started training at the Infantry Training Centre in 2009 before joining 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland in 2010. He has attended countless overseas exercises from Kenya to the Falklands, Kuwait, Afghanistan and around the UK.

He can be seen in the series teaching vital skills to the group hoping to join the Army.

The first episode airs on BBC One at 9pm on Thursday with the five part series charting the transformation of the recruits as they leave friends and family behind for the Army’s Infantry Training Centre in Catterick, North Yorkshire.

The 45 recruits – which include an ex-aspiring footballer, a former fast-food restaurant worker, a 20-year-old whose mother is a pacifist and an 18-year-old woman who hails from a military family – tackle punishing obstacle courses, handle and fire weapons, undergo rigorous inspections and crucially, learn how to kill at close quarters using only a bayonet.

Under the watchful eyes of Lieutenant Wahab, Sergeant McIntosh, Corporal White – and Corporal Dean – recruits face the reality of what it means to be a frontline soldier at a time when war is raging in Europe for the first time in a generation.

Corporal Dean said the series will “show the army in a new light”. He said: “People will be more open-minded. They will look at the army as a positive rather than the sort of negatives we hear in the news. They will see that this six-month course helps turn these young people in to adults.

“Everyone used to watch those old war films where it would just be shouting constantly, but that’s not the case at all. You hear it all the time – people say, ‘I couldn’t be doing wtih that shouting in my face all the time’. But the reality is not how they perceive it.

"I hope our series might help change a lot of people’s minds and show them the truth of what happens during basic training.”

Commenting on his own experiences in the army, Corporal Dean said: “What I’ve really enjoyed is travelling to different places and meeting different people and experiencing different cultures. You also make friends for life. No matter what sort of course you’re going through in the army, you always meet someone that you can get on with and you’ll probably stay in touch with.

"There are people who I have probably not seen in a long time, but if we were to bump into each other we would be able to talk for hours. There’s a natural camaraderie in the army. You always pick up where you left off.”

Soldier is on BBC One at 9pm on Thursday, October 5. The full series box set will also be available to watch on iPlayer.