Visit the official Doctor Who website

Visit the official Doctor Who website
Look to the future

Asylum seekers...

Asylum seekers...
Refuge of the Daleks

Doctor Who picture resource

Doctor Who picture resource
Roam the space lanes!

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website
Step back in time

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood
Armed and extremely dangerous

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures
Fearless in the face of adversity

Call on Dani’s House

Call on Dani’s House
Harmer’s a charmer

Intercept the UFO fabsite

Intercept the UFO fabsite
Defending the Earth against alien invaders!

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse
Programmable agent Echo exposed!

Hell’s belles

Hell’s belles
Naughty but nice

Love Exposure

Love Exposure
Flash photography!

Primeval portal

Primeval portal
Dressed to kill or damsels in distress?

Charmed, to be sure!

Charmed, to be sure!
The witches of San Francisco

Take on t.A.T.u.

Take on t.A.T.u.
All the way from Moscow

Proceed to the Luther website

Proceed to the Luther website
John and Jenny discuss their next move

DCI Banks is on the case

DCI Banks is on the case
You can bet on it!

On The Grid with Spooks

On The Grid with Spooks
Secret agents of Section D

Bridge to Hustle

Bridge to Hustle
Shady characters

Life on Ashes To Ashes

Life on Ashes To Ashes
Coppers with a chequered past

Claire’s no Exile

Claire’s no Exile
Goose steps

Vexed is back on the beat!

Vexed is back on the beat!
Mismatched DI Armstrong and bright fast-tracker Georgina Dixon

Medium, both super and natural

Medium, both super and natural
Open the door to your dreams

Who’s that girl? (350-picture Slideshow)

Monday 25 June 2007

Look Sharpe About It!

Sean Bean returned to the role of Richard Sharpe, after a nine year absence from the small screen, a little over a year ago on ITV1 in the two-part story “Sharpe’s Challenge”. Based on three of Bernard Cornwell’s novels, this adventure is set in Jaipur one year on from Napoleon’s demise at the Battle of Waterloo. It sees Sean reunited with director Tom Clegg and sparring partner Daragh O’Malley, as Sergeant Patrick Harper, whom he sets out to find on a mission to India, but on the pretext of looking for General Burroughs’ daughter Celia, played by “Primeval” actress Lucy Brown, who has been kidnapped and is held hostage against attack at Khande Rao’s fort.


Sharpe’s opposition on this occasion is a rogue East India Company officer, Colonel William Dodd, played by Toby Stephens, able to put his fencing skills to good use again after his appearance as the villain Gustav Graves in the James Bond movie “Die Another Day”! The real power behind young maharajah Khande Rao, Dodd is aided and abetted against the English by the late maharajah’s favourite consort, Madhuvanthi, played by Salman Rushdie’s wife Padma Lakshmi. She tries to seduce Sharpe but, naturally, he’s having none of it! And, not surprisingly, Sharpe has unfinished business with the Colonel! Dodd lays a trap for the troops of the East India Company who are coerced into attacking the fort, regardless of the consequences to the indisposed General’s daughter, by General Sir Henry Simmerson, Michael Cochrane reprising his role after three previous appearances in the series. Thus, the stage is set for the final battle...

Watching the ITV3 “Behind the Scenes” documentary, after the concluding episode, it’s a wonder the programme ever got made! The number of extras, and costumes required for them, hand-built rifles and cannons, learning how to become a soldier in ten days flat, not to mention Sean and Toby going down with Delhi belly both on the same day, meant the Production team were up against it!! But, the finished product is a treat with a terrific cliff-hanger at the end of episode one which isn’t immediately spoiled in the next time trailer!!! Having infiltrated the enemy, and unrecognised by Dodd, Sharpe has to prove his new found loyalty to the young maharajah when he is ordered by the Colonel to shoot his best friend...

If you missed it last year, and want to find out whether or not Harper survives, after all Sharpe is a good shot, the best, then “Sharpe’s Challenge” is repeated on ITV1 at 9pm this Thursday and Friday! It’s worth seeing just for Peter-Hugo Daly’s performance as Sergeant Shadrach Bickerstaff, a constant thorn in Sharpe’s side, who steals every scene he is in with much accomplishment!! Meanwhile, the earlier episodes of “Sharpe” are currently being repeated on UKTV History at the same time, 9pm, five nights a week, from Sunday to Thursday!!!

2 comments:

Steve said...

Bickerstaff was a wonderful character (almost as good as Obadiah Hakeswill but not quite - who can compete with Pete Postlethwaite?) though it did amuse me that they must have asked for an actor with removable teeth!

I've always loved the Sharpe TV movies though I've read very few of the novels. A good mix of boy's own derring-do, underdog victories, heaving bosoms and stiff upper-lip gallantry. The best thing about Sharpe is that it never gets too heavy or bogged down with issues.

Sean Bean is so good in the role it's hard to believe that he wasn't the casting director's first choice!

TimeWarden said...

I agree, Steve, no one can compete with Pete Postlethwaite. Although I haven't read any of the novels, I have a feeling that Bickerstaff and Hakeswill are the same character but had to be renamed due to the TV movies not following the order of the books.

There's reference in "Sharpe's Company" to Sharpe having received 200 lashes for a crime committed in India by Hakeswill. It's this India saga that was then made all these years later and, having killed off the indestructible Obadiah, had to introduce the almost equally unstoppable Shadrach! Love the names!!

You sum the series up perfectly in your second paragraph. The episodes move at a much slower pace than today's programmes and are none the worse for it. Excitement on screen doesn't have to mean flash, flash, flash!

I wonder what 8th Doctor Paul McGann would've been like as Richard Sharpe had he not injured himself playing football on the set of the first film!