Sharpe's Rifles (TV programme)

Infobox Television Film
bgcolour =
name = Sharpe's Rifles


caption = "Title screen of Sharpe's Rifles".
format = Military drama
runtime = 100 minutes
creator =
director = Tom Clegg
producer =
writer = Eoghan Harris
starring = Sean Bean
Brian Cox
Daragh O'Malley
Assumpta Serna
music = Dominic Muldowney
John Tams
country = UK
language = English
network = ITV
released = 1993
first_aired =
last_aired =
num_episodes =
preceded_by =
followed_by = Sharpe's Eagle
website =
imdb_id = 0108108
tv_com_id = 197764
amg_id =

"Sharpe's Rifles" is the first of the "Sharpe" television dramas, based on the Bernard Cornwell novel of the same name. Shown on ITV in 1993, the adaptation stars Sean Bean, Daragh O'Malley and Assumpta Serna. It began a long series of successful and critically acclaimed television adaptations of the novels.

The drama tells the story of Richard Sharpe, an ambitious and hardened soldier from Yorkshire. The story follows the exploits of Sharpe and his band of "chosen men" through Spain after they survive an ambush by French cavalry of the 95th Rifles.

Filming took place in Crimea, Portugal and England, during which Paul McGann (the original casting for Sharpe) broke his leg playing football and was replaced with Sean Bean.

Plot summary

In 1809, Sir Arthur Wellesley (David Troughton), the commander of the British army fighting the French in Portugal, is saved from three pursuing French cavalrymen by Sergeant Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean). Sharpe is rewarded with a field promotion to lieutenant and put in command of the "chosen men", a handful of sharpshooters led by Rifleman Patrick Harper (Daragh O'Malley). The two men take an instant dislike for each other.

Wellesley has no money left to pay his men; however, he has arranged for a loan from the Rothschild family. James Rothschild has set out from Vienna with the badly needed bank draft, but is overdue. Sharpe, his men, and a company under Major Dunnett (Julian Fellowes) are sent out to look for him. While Sharpe's men are out scouting the terrain, the company is surprised and wiped out by enemy cavalry led by Colonel de L'Eclin (Malcolm Jamieson) and a mysterious man in black civilian clothes (Anthony Hyde).

The men want to go back. When Sharpe tries to bully them into continuing with the dangerous mission, he and Harper end up fighting and are taken unawares by a band of Spanish guerrillas, led by Commandante Teresa Moreno (Assumpta Serna) and Major Blas Vivar (Simón Andreu). They join forces for mutual protection since they are headed in the same general direction. Sharpe begins to bond with his men and also with Teresa. Along the way, they encounter the Parkers, a Methodist missionary couple and their daughter, whom they take under their protection.

Major Hogan, Wellesley's chief of military intelligence, shows up and orders Sharpe to assist Vivar with his mission to rouse the people, Sharpe then promotes Harper to sergeant. The Spaniard has brought a thousand-year-old family heirloom with him - the Golfalon of Santiago or "Banner of Blood". Legend has it that Santiago (Saint James) himself will appear to defend Spain when the flag is raised over the chapel in the town of Torrecastro. Sharpe, Teresa, Vivar and their men fight and defeat the French garrison. Vivar crosses swords with the man in black, who turns out to be his own brother, the Count of Matamoros, and kills him. He then raises the flag. At the end of the battle, Colonel de L'Eclin is about to shoot an unarmed Sharpe who is debriefing his men, but is shot and killed by Rifleman Perkins. Sharpe rewards the young Perkins by making him a "Chosen Man".

Sharpe reports back to Wellesley. When the general expresses his disappointment that Sharpe didn't find Rothschild, Sharpe reveals that "Mrs. Parker" is the banker in disguise, to Wellesley's delight. Afterwards, Sharpe and Teresa make love, before she leaves to continue fighting the French.

Cast

ee also

* 95th Regiment of Foot
* Over the Hills and Far Away (traditional)
* Sharpe's Rifles (novel)

External links

*
* [http://www.sharpefilm.com/rifles/index.html Sharpe's Rifles at SharpeFilm.com]