Roman is not called Rambo for nothing! His time in the Bay has been full of incidents and life or death situations. More often than not he has been the hero, so here we look back at his best (and worst) action man moments.
'Cliffhanger'
When Reverend Hall escaped from the hospital, Roman was entrusted with keeping guard at Irene's house. However, Annie slipped out to see Hall without Roman noticing. Geoff and Roman then set off on a mission and located them in a car on some cliffs. Roman wanted to handle it himself but Geoff insisted that he would be able to talk Hall around. Roman's plan was for Geoff to distract Hall while he grabbed Annie. The plan worked to a certain extent, as Roman led Annie to safety, but Hall then tried to push Geoff off the edge of the cliff with the car. Just as Hall was seeming calmer, Jack arrived which caused Hall to freak out and he ended up struggling with Geoff. Roman intervened and managed to wrestle Hall to the ground with some 'special moves' but Hall got free and went over the edge of the cliff. Roman held onto him but he refused to grab his hand. Jack then helped to pull him up and Hall was taken back to the hospital from treatment. The whole town was impressed by Action Man Roman's antics, all except one person, Irene, who was livid that he let Annie get past him and that he didn't tell her what was going on.
Action Man Rating: 3/5 - Roman did well to bring Hall down and save him from falling to his death, but loses marks for letting Annie get past him in the first place!
'The Bodyguard'
When Johnny escaped from custody to exact revenge for Rocco's death, Roman helped to protect Sally. He told her that she shouldn't be alone and drop her guard as it would make her vulnerable. This only worried her more but Roman admitted to Leah that this was intentional. When Roman walked Sally back to school he talked her into letting Pippa stay with Leah that night as it would simplify the task of protecting her seeing as it was Miles and Roman's turn to be Sally's bodyguards. Roman took his task seriously and insisted on checking the whole house which impressed Colleen but made Sally slightly confused. Miles felt that Roman should tell her about his background so he told her about the SAS and "doing things ordinary people wouldn't understand". In the middle of the night Miles was asleep downstairs and Roman was sat on guard outside Sally's bedroom door. They suddenly heard Colleen scream and Miles rushed to the door. Roman bolted down the stairs and yelled at Miles not to open the door but it was too late, Johnny was already in the house with Colleen as a hostage. Sally emerged from upstairs and tried to talk to Johnny. Several times Roman tried to creep towards Johnny but he shouted at him to back off. Just as Sally looked as though she was getting through to Johnny, Miles suddenly pounced. Roman did his best to restrain him but it was too late, Johnny let Colleen go and took his chance to stab Sally! Johnny then sped out of the house and Roman attended to Sally who, after a few near death moments, made a full recovery.
Action Man Rating: 1/5 - Roman did his best to prevent the situtation from happening but two mistakes from Miles unfortunately made Roman fail in his task to protect her from harm.
'Titanic'
To try and prove Martha's innocence, when she was accused of murdering Sam, Roman enlisted the help of his old SAS colleagues to search for the boat Sam used to row out to sea. Roman started by studying charts of the Bay to narrow down the area of search and Martha and Morag arrived to see them off on their mission. Roman seemed nervous but admitted to his mate, Adam, that it was because 'this one's personal'. Despite searching in several places the team failed to find the boat and the mission was aborted due to poor visibility. Roman ordered them to take the boat back in and was very annoyed with himself for letting Martha down. Almost immediately it became apparent why they didn't find the boat as it had washed up on a nearby beach. Despite them not finding the boat, everyone was still impressed by their efforts.
Action Man Rating: 2/5 - Roman's determination, diving action and help from his colleagues went in his favour but he failed to find the boat and ended up looking a little silly when it turned up on a nearby beach.
'Rambo'
When Roman told Elliott the 'truth' about what happened to his brother, Mark, in Afghanistan he thought that was the last he would see of him. But Elliott had other ideas. He kidnapped Nicole and left a video message for Roman. He told him that he had to drink what was in the flask to find out where Nicole was. Roman did just that and woke up to find himself dangling over a cliff on a rope. In the meantime Elliott had left Nicole and Geoff to fend for themselves in the ocean. Roman eventually dragged himself up the rope and set out to find Elliott and Nicole. Making his way through the bush he was soon the victim of Elliott's archery practice but battled on through the pain, the falling rocks and Nicole's tape recorded cries of help. Visibly distraught, Roman demanded Elliott tell him where Nicole was but unfortunately stumbled upon a a tripwire. Elliott appeared and imnsinuated that Nicole was dead. He then left Roman and the tripwire to their fate. Fortunately our hero knew what he was doing and carefully used a broken arrow to evade the explosion. Just as Elliott was making his escape, Roman appeared and decked him! He forced Elliott to tell him where Nicole was and, after a frantic search, her and Geoff were eventually found safe and well.
Action Man Rating: 5/5 - Roman's finest hour! It was quite an ordeal that Roman went through and despite numerous deadly obstacles, he managed to outwit Elliott in the end and was successful in rescuing Nicole and Geoff!
'Baywatch'
Action Man Rating: 4/5 - Almost top marks for Roman this time. His bravery and determination to take no notice of any orders was to his credit as without him Annie and Charlie may never have made it. However, he does lose one mark for failing to prevent Charlie being swept out into the ocean in the first place.
'Mexican standoff'
When Roman's old SAS buddy, Gardy, arrived on the scene it was the beginning of the end for Roman. Gardy blackmailed him into committing a series of robberies starting with one on a bottle shop. However, it didn't go as planned when a customer had a heart attack and Roman had to perform CPR before making his escape. Gardy then told him about his bigger and better plans to rob a warehouse and, even though Roman had the chance to go to the police, he insisted on handling it himself. When the time came to carry out the robbery, Roman got a message to Miles who called the police. However, Gardy and his gang managed to get away in time and lived to fight another day. As Gardy could feel the net closing in on him he decided he and Roman should finish the job they started so bashed Roman over the head and took him to the warehouse. When they went in they immediately locked the workers in a room, then Roman pulled a gun on Gardy. A fight broke out which resulted in a mexican standoff. Roman shot first but his gun didn't go off so Gardy shot him in the shoulder. Gardy left Roman bleeding on the floor for a while but, when he returned, Roman was gone. When Gardy found him another struggle ensued and Roman looked like he had strangled Gardy. Unfortunately Gardy was faking and soon burst into life again. Just at that moment Xavier arrived at the warehouse and Gardy took him hostage. When they got outside, Hugo fired a speargun at Gardy causing him to release Xavier. Just as Gardy was about to shoot at Hugo and Xavier, Roman shot him in the leg. However, when they weren't looking, Gardy managed to escape.
Action Man Rating: 3/5 - Overall, given the outcome, Roman didn't handle this situation very well at all. However, there were flashes of inspiration at times such as the saving the heart attack woman, protecting Nicole, foiling the first robbery and eventually shooting Gardy, despite carrying a bullet wound himself!
Was Roman a good action man?
Most definately yes!! He was probably the best Action Man we've ever seen on the show and very few characters are given the kind of scenes that Roman had, especially when Elliott forced him to do his best 'Rambo' impression! Roman's background was always going to help him in these action type scenarios and, in most cases, he tried to prevent situations from turning bad. However, when they inevitably did, he was cool, calm and collected and there was usually a positive outcome. He was usually hindered by things or people beyond his control so we can't mark him down too much for that! Overall he gave his all in every scenario and we can't ask anymore than that!