Damn good series. Damn good books too. Can watch it over and over. Very impressive considering the budgets. The dialogue is often a strong suit. Always enjoy the scenes in Wellington's tent with his various spies.
For the times this show succeeded in doing something that would seem impossible making the French a intimidating foe to fight In the 90s the cultural zeitgeist was still around the Germans being the big baddies while the French were well the French 🏳️. So getting them them not just a believable foe but also intimidating one was an accomplishment in of itself the most intimidating aspect for me was the Calvary the Napoleonic era lancers were like a pack of wolves you wander off the path or find in open country with no cover they’ll appear out of nowhere chase you down and slice you up
Bernard Cornwell studied the peninsular war closely and actually visited Portugal and Spain and many of the battle sites. According to Bernard's books Sharpe saves Wellington's life in India and is made a Sargent, then later in Portugal he is made an officer. Thus the first episode of the TV series combines two different books, and this is done with a couple of other episodes because the producers didn't think the show would be a hit and last more then one season. Bernard always clarified in the books with notes of the historical facts, noting the name of various real characters that Sharpe and others are portraying. His Sharpe books are as much British army history as they are about just one soldier!
Cromwell loved Sean Beans portrayal of Sharp so much that he became a blond-haired Yorkshire man in the later novels instead of the dark haired Coutney Sharp started as. Sharp and Hornblower is some of the best TV the UK produced.
Good content, I really need to re-watch the series. I would recommend getting an avatar more suited to your french aristocratic tone of voice though :-) Good luck to you.
Damn good series. Damn good books too. Can watch it over and over. Very impressive considering the budgets. The dialogue is often a strong suit. Always enjoy the scenes in Wellington's tent with his various spies.
For the times this show succeeded
in doing something that would seem impossible making the French a intimidating foe to fight
In the 90s the cultural zeitgeist was still around the Germans being the big baddies while the French were well the French 🏳️. So getting them them not just a believable foe but also intimidating one was an accomplishment in of itself
the most intimidating aspect for me was the Calvary the Napoleonic era lancers were like a pack of wolves you wander off the path or find in open country with no cover they’ll appear out of nowhere chase you down and slice you up
Bernard Cornwell studied the peninsular war closely and actually visited Portugal and Spain and many of the battle sites. According to Bernard's books Sharpe saves Wellington's life in India and is made a Sargent, then later in Portugal he is made an officer. Thus the first episode of the TV series combines two different books, and this is done with a couple of other episodes because the producers didn't think the show would be a hit and last more then one season. Bernard always clarified in the books with notes of the historical facts, noting the name of various real characters that Sharpe and others are portraying. His Sharpe books are as much British army history as they are about just one soldier!
This my dear sir is called proper soldiering!
Cromwell loved Sean Beans portrayal of Sharp so much that he became a blond-haired Yorkshire man in the later novels instead of the dark haired Coutney Sharp started as. Sharp and Hornblower is some of the best TV the UK produced.
A delightfully pulpy series; I'm just about to start series 4 and so far it's been a blast
Good content, I really need to re-watch the series. I would recommend getting an avatar more suited to your french aristocratic tone of voice though :-) Good luck to you.
Thank you my friend :) yeah, still quite new to this so still playing around with avatars etc.