Ant Middleton
Anthony Middleton is a former British soldier, adventurer and television presenter. He is best known as the Chief Instructor on the Channel 4 television series . Middleton also appeared as the captain in the adventure/reality-show Mutiny and the survival show Escape. In 2018 he climbed Everest for the TV show Extreme Everest with Ant Middleton.
Career
Military service
Middleton joined the army in 1998 at the age of 17 where he served in the 9 Parachute Squadron RE and served tours of duty in Northern Ireland in 1999 and North Macedonia in 2001. After leaving the army he later enlisted in the Royal Marines in 2005. He passed out of his commando course in January 2006, winning the King's Badge, and was posted to B Company, 40 Commando. In 2007, he did his first tour in Afghanistan. In 2008 he joined the Special Boat Service, serving for four years. In this time he completed two further tours in Afghanistan and reached the rank of L/Cpl.Television
Middleton is the Chief Instructor on SAS: Who Dares Wins, a reality quasi-military training television programme produced by Channel 4, which was first broadcast in 2015. The show propelled Middleton into celebrity limelight, and since its screening Middleton's popularity has increased significantly, allowing him more TV opportunities. Mutiny, an adventure/reality crossover show, screened on UK television in February 2017, with Middleton starring as boat captain alongside eight volunteering participants. The show was a re-enactment of the infamous Mutiny on the Bounty and Middleton described the experience as, "... mentally speaking, the hardest thing I've ever done."Publications
In 2017, Middleton co-authored his first book, SAS: Who Dares Wins: Leadership Secrets from the Special Forces, with his fellow TV presenters and Special Forces colleagues Jason Fox, Matthew "Ollie" Ollerton and Colin Maclachlan.Middleton's autobiography, First Man In: Leading from the Front, was published in 2018, becoming a Number 1 Sunday Times best-seller.
His second book,The Fear Bubble: Harness Fear and Live Without Limits, was published in 2019, and was also No.1 on The Sunday Times best-seller chart.
Other
In 2018 Middleton climbed Mount Everest.In November 2019 Middleton was appointed as Chief Cadet in the Royal Navy's Volunteer Cadet Corps.
Personal life
Middleton was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and brought up in France.In 2013, as a result of a "nightclub bust-up" in Chelmsford, Essex, Middleton was convicted of the unlawful wounding of one police officer, PC Christopher Brooksbank, and common assault upon a second, PC Katherine Alison. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison, of which he served four months.
During the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 he was heavily criticised for encouraging the public to ignore government social distancing advice. Later that year in June 2020, Middleton was criticised for calling Black Lives Matter protestors "absolute scum", something which he later apologised for.
| Ribbon | Description | Notes |
| General Service Medal |
| |
| NATO Medal for North Macedonia | ||
| Operational Service Medal for Afghanistan | ||
| Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal |