Sharpe.... TV series and books
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p_p_man
The 'Euro' European
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It's a Hornblower on land...
Takes place during the Napoleonic wars and Sharpe starts off as an ordinary foot soldier but through the patronage of the Duke of Wellington and by commiting various heroic deeds on the way works his way up the ranks.
A must read if you like romance, war, spies, history, politics and more romance (more than in Hornblower anyway).
Great series of novels and a great TV series as well...
lavender said:
Takes place during the Napoleonic wars and Sharpe starts off as an ordinary foot soldier but through the patronage of the Duke of Wellington and by commiting various heroic deeds on the way works his way up the ranks.
A must read if you like romance, war, spies, history, politics and more romance (more than in Hornblower anyway).
Great series of novels and a great TV series as well...
OUTSIDER
Devil's in the detail
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Great series, and don't forget that in one episode a young Liz Hurley (sp) get's her tit's out......YAY.
BTW the guy who plays the mad sargent is the same guy who played the lawyer in "The Usual Suspects".
I recomend this programme to all Lit members for the following reasons-
1. great stories.
2. it treats its viewers like adults with brain's.
3. Shaun Bean is the star and the ladies will love him by the end and the guy's will want to be him by the end.
BTW the guy who plays the mad sargent is the same guy who played the lawyer in "The Usual Suspects".
I recomend this programme to all Lit members for the following reasons-
1. great stories.
2. it treats its viewers like adults with brain's.
3. Shaun Bean is the star and the ladies will love him by the end and the guy's will want to be him by the end.
Re: Absolutely brilliant...
His name is Pete Postlethwaite, and he's from the North-East of England - same as me. A very good actor, he appeared as the Big Game hunter in Jurassic Park 2 and has played some very good parts on UK TV.
Yes, he played that part very well - it was eerie the way he had a stolen picture of a woman stuck inside the top of his hat, convinced it was his mother... The way he took the hat off and spoke to "his mother" when he was stressed or in a rage was very spooky! It puts Norman Bates WAAAAAY down in the psychotic league
Glad to help
Styphon
p_p_man said:
His name is Pete Postlethwaite, and he's from the North-East of England - same as me. A very good actor, he appeared as the Big Game hunter in Jurassic Park 2 and has played some very good parts on UK TV.
Yes, he played that part very well - it was eerie the way he had a stolen picture of a woman stuck inside the top of his hat, convinced it was his mother... The way he took the hat off and spoke to "his mother" when he was stressed or in a rage was very spooky! It puts Norman Bates WAAAAAY down in the psychotic league
Glad to help
Styphon
OUTSIDER
Devil's in the detail
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yeah in one episode Sharpe has to deliver her someplace and she has a barney with him and pulls open her top and pops out her jubley's for him to see, you will need to video it and use the pause button though as she well quick about it
Weird Harold
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OUTSIDER said:
You forgot it's very historically accurate in the depiction of the Napoleonic Wars.
I've forgotten just how many books there are in the series, but my local library has all of them, and they make for a very entertaining and educational weeks read. (for me, maybe a months read for slower readers.
The author is Bernard Cornwell.
p_p_man
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OK I see now...
just a flash, no time to sit and drool, still sounds good to me.
And Weird Harold is right the books are very historically accurate followed faithfully by the TV series.
America played her bit though during the Napoleonic Wars. You decided to have a bloody revolution. Tsk..tsk..
I seem to remember a vague reference to that in one of the episodes. It was when Sharpe and his Irish friend were involved in persuading the Irish troops that the English were not destroying their homeland whilst they were fighting on the English side against the French (reports were coming from forged copies of American newspapers distributed by the Spanish partisans led by a man called The Wolf) and the reference was just a line comparing your Revolution of a few years before to a possible Irish uprising sometime in the future.
If you coughed you would miss it but that's how good the series is. Big world events brought down to the level they were really were, a little local difficulty. AND I've just read what I've written, it is not meant as a snipe at anyone just a comment on the Sharpe series.
After all most of his campaign took place in Spain. And not much is taught in UK schools about the Napoleonic Wars even taking place in Spain. To our kids it was all fought in France or Belgium.
OUTSIDER said:yeah in one episode Sharpe has to deliver her someplace and she has a barney with him and pulls open her top and pops out her jubley's for him to see, you will need to video it and use the pause button though as she well quick about it
just a flash, no time to sit and drool, still sounds good to me.
And Weird Harold is right the books are very historically accurate followed faithfully by the TV series.
America played her bit though during the Napoleonic Wars. You decided to have a bloody revolution. Tsk..tsk..
I seem to remember a vague reference to that in one of the episodes. It was when Sharpe and his Irish friend were involved in persuading the Irish troops that the English were not destroying their homeland whilst they were fighting on the English side against the French (reports were coming from forged copies of American newspapers distributed by the Spanish partisans led by a man called The Wolf) and the reference was just a line comparing your Revolution of a few years before to a possible Irish uprising sometime in the future.
If you coughed you would miss it but that's how good the series is. Big world events brought down to the level they were really were, a little local difficulty. AND I've just read what I've written, it is not meant as a snipe at anyone just a comment on the Sharpe series.
After all most of his campaign took place in Spain. And not much is taught in UK schools about the Napoleonic Wars even taking place in Spain. To our kids it was all fought in France or Belgium.
Still crankin' them out
I'm a HUGE Sharpe fan. I was up late one night and the History channel was running one of the episodes and I stayed up till 4AM watching it. Then I went out and read all the books and bought all the movies & I've watched them over & over. Great romantic adventure stories, you get to learn a lot about the Napoleonic Wars, and what it was like to be a foot soldier in those days (pretty horrible).
Bernard Cornwell orignially wrote novels from the time Sharpe and the British Army landed in Portugal up to the battle of Waterloo, but now he's started writing prequels as well, detailing Sharpe's service in India and how he became an officer. The last one just came out, it's called "Sharpe's Trafalgar", and Cornwell manages, as always, to get his hero in the middle of everything.
Cornwell said he started writing the Sharpe series because he loved the Hornblower novels as a child and wanted to write books that told the story of a foot soldier, since the Royal Navy always seemed to get all the credit. And I also read and loved the Hornblower books. The movies they've made on A&E have been pretty good, but not as good as the Sharpe movies. Has anyone heard if they plan on making movies of these latest Sharpe novels, the ones set in India?
I'm a HUGE Sharpe fan. I was up late one night and the History channel was running one of the episodes and I stayed up till 4AM watching it. Then I went out and read all the books and bought all the movies & I've watched them over & over. Great romantic adventure stories, you get to learn a lot about the Napoleonic Wars, and what it was like to be a foot soldier in those days (pretty horrible).
Bernard Cornwell orignially wrote novels from the time Sharpe and the British Army landed in Portugal up to the battle of Waterloo, but now he's started writing prequels as well, detailing Sharpe's service in India and how he became an officer. The last one just came out, it's called "Sharpe's Trafalgar", and Cornwell manages, as always, to get his hero in the middle of everything.
Cornwell said he started writing the Sharpe series because he loved the Hornblower novels as a child and wanted to write books that told the story of a foot soldier, since the Royal Navy always seemed to get all the credit. And I also read and loved the Hornblower books. The movies they've made on A&E have been pretty good, but not as good as the Sharpe movies. Has anyone heard if they plan on making movies of these latest Sharpe novels, the ones set in India?
Let's see, so far there's been Sharpe's Tiger, about the battle of Seringpatham, Sharpe's Triumph, where is about the battle of Assaye, where Sharpe becomes an officer, Sharpe's Fortress, where he and the British, uh, attact a fortress, and the aformentioned Sharpe's Trafalger, where Sharpe manages to play a role in Nelson's great victory. How a soldier managers to get in the middle of a sea battle thousands of miles away is actually somewhat believable. I like how Cornwell, in his author's notes at the end of each book, candidly admits that there's no way his hero should have been at this or that battle, but for drama's sake, he had to cheat a little. But he always makes it at least possible.
These early books are a bit weird, because Harper and the other Riflemen aren't there. Sharpe is on his own, though he makes a number of allies throughout. And his main enemy in these early books is Obadiah Hakeswill, who appears in two of the later Sharpe novels. I saw an interview with Cornwell where he said that he loved Hakeswill's character, and I'd bet that having the chance to write more with Hakeswill got him motivated to write these India books.
And there's also one Sharpe novel AFTER Waterloo, called Sharpe's Devil. He and Harper go to South America to look for Don Blas Vivar, who Sharpe met in "Sharpe's Rifles", the first book Cornwell originally wrote. It's not among my favorites, but it was good to see Sharpe and Harper back in action, with a few pounds added on (in Harper's case, anyway).
The potential is there for many, many more Sharpe novels. Trafalgar has a very, very open ending, and in the author's notes Cornwell also says that Sharpe will march again. But there are a lot of things left open at the end of the series as well. What happened to his wife Jane, and the bastard child she was carrying for Lord John Rossendale? What about Sharpe's daughter, Antonia, who was raised in Spain. And, in case you don't know, Cornwell wrote a series of Civil War novels (which I haven't read yet) which features a character named Patrick Lassan, a French cavalry officer, who happens to be the son of Richard Sharpe. So, there's a lot left to look forward to.
Oh, one more thing! Cornwell wrote a few Sharpe short stories that were published in Britain, and I read them on the 'Net somewhere. Type in "Richard Sharpe" or "Bernard Cornwell" and I think there's an official site that has the stories on them. They were pretty good.
These early books are a bit weird, because Harper and the other Riflemen aren't there. Sharpe is on his own, though he makes a number of allies throughout. And his main enemy in these early books is Obadiah Hakeswill, who appears in two of the later Sharpe novels. I saw an interview with Cornwell where he said that he loved Hakeswill's character, and I'd bet that having the chance to write more with Hakeswill got him motivated to write these India books.
And there's also one Sharpe novel AFTER Waterloo, called Sharpe's Devil. He and Harper go to South America to look for Don Blas Vivar, who Sharpe met in "Sharpe's Rifles", the first book Cornwell originally wrote. It's not among my favorites, but it was good to see Sharpe and Harper back in action, with a few pounds added on (in Harper's case, anyway).
The potential is there for many, many more Sharpe novels. Trafalgar has a very, very open ending, and in the author's notes Cornwell also says that Sharpe will march again. But there are a lot of things left open at the end of the series as well. What happened to his wife Jane, and the bastard child she was carrying for Lord John Rossendale? What about Sharpe's daughter, Antonia, who was raised in Spain. And, in case you don't know, Cornwell wrote a series of Civil War novels (which I haven't read yet) which features a character named Patrick Lassan, a French cavalry officer, who happens to be the son of Richard Sharpe. So, there's a lot left to look forward to.
Oh, one more thing! Cornwell wrote a few Sharpe short stories that were published in Britain, and I read them on the 'Net somewhere. Type in "Richard Sharpe" or "Bernard Cornwell" and I think there's an official site that has the stories on them. They were pretty good.
Hello, All 
I must admit to loving the "Sharpe" books, and I'd like to recommend another series.
They are the "Flashman" books, by George McDonald Fraser, and they have a great deal of historical background to which the adventures of Harry Flashman are set.
He was the bully that featured briefly in "Tom Brown's Schooldays" and it details his life after he was expelled from Rugby. He is a coward and lecher, as well as a bully, and he fornicates and farts in terror through such great events as the Charge of the Light Brigade (and The Heavy Brigade!), Custer's Last Stand, The Indian Mutiny and the American Civil War (where he fought on both sides!) and he ends up as General Sir Harry Flashman, VC
They are a very funny series of books, as no matter how cowardly he has been, he always gets seen as being the hero. Thay also have extensive notes at the back of the book for history buffs, so "Sharpe" lovers should like them
Enjoy!
Styphon
I must admit to loving the "Sharpe" books, and I'd like to recommend another series.
They are the "Flashman" books, by George McDonald Fraser, and they have a great deal of historical background to which the adventures of Harry Flashman are set.
He was the bully that featured briefly in "Tom Brown's Schooldays" and it details his life after he was expelled from Rugby. He is a coward and lecher, as well as a bully, and he fornicates and farts in terror through such great events as the Charge of the Light Brigade (and The Heavy Brigade!), Custer's Last Stand, The Indian Mutiny and the American Civil War (where he fought on both sides!) and he ends up as General Sir Harry Flashman, VC
They are a very funny series of books, as no matter how cowardly he has been, he always gets seen as being the hero. Thay also have extensive notes at the back of the book for history buffs, so "Sharpe" lovers should like them
Enjoy!
Styphon
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