Sharpe's Regiment (TV programme)

Last updated

Sharpe's Regiment
Based on Sharpe's Regiment
by Bernard Cornwell
Screenplay by Charles Wood
Directed by Tom Clegg
Starring Sean Bean
Daragh O'Malley
Abigail Cruttenden
Theme music composerDominic Muldowney
John Tams
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
Producers Malcolm Craddock
Muir Sutherland (exec.)
Editor Keith Palmer
Running time101 minutes [1]
Original release
Network ITV
Release1 May 1996 (1996-05-01)
Related

Sharpe's Regiment is a British television drama, the ninth of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. This episode is based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.

Contents

Plot

It is 1813. The First Battalion of the South Essex Regiment has suffered terrible losses in the fighting in Spain and the entire regiment is in danger of being disbanded as a result. Major Sharpe (Sean Bean) and Sergeant Major Harper (Daragh O'Malley) are sent back to England to find out why replacements have not been sent. Sharpe is told that the Second Battalion of the South Essex is drawing pay for over 700 soldiers, but when he arrives at the Second Battalion's barracks, he finds only eleven men, even though there is regular recruiting for the regiment. Sharpe is determined to get to the bottom of things.

During an audience with the dimwitted Prince Regent (Julian Fellowes), Sharpe is introduced to Lord Fenner (Nicholas Farrell), the man responsible for the regiment's troubles. Fenner insists that the Second Battalion exists only on paper as a means of paying troops who have been scattered for various reasons until they can be placed into a proper unit. Fenner sends Lady Anne Camoynes (Caroline Langrishe) to sleep with Sharpe and ascertain his intentions. When Fenner finds out, he sends assassins to solve his potential problem, but Sharpe and Harper dispose of them instead. Their bodies are tossed into a river, and Sharpe sees to it that rumours are spread that it was he and Harper who have been killed.

Meanwhile, the two men "enlist" in the Second Battalion to find out what happens to the recruits. They are trained by the brutal and effete Lieutenant Colonel Girdwood (Mark Lambert) and his underling Sergeant Lynch and then auctioned off to other regiments by Sharpe's old enemy, Sir Henry Simmerson (Michael Cochrane), with Fenner getting a kickback. Simmerson's niece, Jane Gibbons (Abigail Cruttenden), helps Sharpe and Harper escape afterwards.

Sharpe goes to Horse Guards to see the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, the Duke of York, but learns that the Duke is not in London. Sharpe sees his old friend, Sir William Lawford, in whom he confides. Lawford, on his own initiative, approaches Fenner and proposes a solution—the South Essex gets its men and Sharpe is given command of a rifle battalion and sent to North America. Lady Camoynes overhears and contacts Sharpe. She tells him that he needs proof of the sales and tells him that she wants to ruin Fenner, who gets sexual favors from her as a way of paying off the debts of her late husband, whom Fenner ruined.

Sharpe and Harper return to Girdwood's training camp on Foulness Island and take over, placing Girdwood under arrest, but they are unable to find any paperwork documenting the sales. Sharpe instructs Harper to complete the necessary paperwork, officially making the recruits part of the South Essex.

Girdwood escapes and goes to Simmerson's estate, where he collects the incriminating paperwork, and then heads to Simmerson's London house. Sharpe arrives at Simmerson's house too late to stop Girdwood, but he sees an invitation to a party hosted by the Prince Regent. Sharpe also learns from Jane that Simmerson regularly beats her (her father was a lowly saddler), and Sharpe rashly proposes marriage as a way of enabling her to escape Simmerson's abuse. Jane agrees to try to steal the paperwork from Simmerson's house. Sharpe forms up the recruits of the Second Battalion and takes them to London, where they march in on the Prince Regent's party, with Sharpe bearing the eagle he took at Talavera. The Prince gleefully claims them as his own, making the regiment the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers, instead of the South Essex.

Sharpe confronts Lord Fenner, but does not have any proof, as Simmerson gave the paperwork to Fenner, who ordered it burnt. Just in time, Lady Camoynes shows up with ledgers—which she saved from the fire—detailing the crimes and uses them for blackmail for herself and for Sharpe. Simmerson, due to his influential friends, once more escapes prosecution. To shelter Jane from Simmerson's wrath, Sharpe becomes engaged to her.

Thanks to Lady Camoyne's blackmail of Fenner, Sharpe gets the men he came for and goes back to fight in Spain, saving the regiment from being deleted from the army list. The regiment is now under the command of Colonel Girdwood, which Sharpe also specifically requested. In Spain, Girdwood has a close encounter with a French artillery round during an attack on the French border and suffers a mental breakdown as a result. Attempting to desert during the battle, Lynch is killed by vengeful British troops. Girdwood is invalided home, and Sharpe takes command of the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers, leading them on to victory.

Cast

Soundtrack

Related Research Articles

Sharpe is a series of historical fiction stories by Bernard Cornwell centred on the character of English soldier Richard Sharpe. The stories formed the basis for an ITV television series featuring Sean Bean in the title role.

<i>Sharpe</i> (TV series) British television historical drama series (1993–2008)

Sharpe is a British television drama series starring Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars, with Irish actor Daragh O'Malley playing his second in command, Patrick Harper. Sharpe and Harper are the heroes of the Sharpe series of novels by Bernard Cornwell; most, though not all, of the episodes are based on the books. Produced by Celtic Films and Picture Palace Films for the ITV network, the series was filmed mainly in Crimea, with recordings of other episodes in Turkey, England, Portugal and Spain. The two final episodes were filmed in Jaipur, India.

<i>Sharpes Regiment</i> 1986 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe's Regiment is the seventeenth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1986. The story is set in England as Sharpe tries to find out why replacements have not been sent to the dangerously depleted South Essex Regiment in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars.

The South Essex Regiment, later the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers, is a fictional infantry line regiment in the British Army that was created by Bernard Cornwell in the Sharpe novel series.

<i>Sharpes Eagle</i> 1981 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe's Eagle is a historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1981. The story is set in July 1809, in the midst of the Talavera Campaign during the Peninsular War. It was the first Sharpe novel published, but eighth in the series' chronological order.

<i>Sharpes Company</i> 1982 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe's Company is a historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1982. It was the third in the series to be published, but is thirteenth in chronological order. The story covers January to August 1812, featuring the Siege of Badajoz during the Peninsular War.

<i>Sharpes Escape</i> 2004 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe's Escape is the twenty-third historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, published in 2004. Sharpe is embroiled in the British retreat through Portugal in 1810 from the defence of the ridge at Bussaco to the Lines of Torres Vedras, where the French offensive is successfully halted.

Sharpe's Rifles is the first of the Sharpe television dramas, based on Bernard Cornwell's 1988 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.

Sharpe's Eagle is the second in the series of Sharpe historical war television dramas, based on the 1981 novel of the same name. Shown on ITV in 1993, the adaptation stars Sean Bean, Daragh O'Malley and Assumpta Serna.

Sharpe's Revenge is a British television drama, the 12th of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. The adaptation is based on the 1989 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.

Sharpe's Mission is a British television drama, the 11th of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. Unlike most of the other installments of the series, this episode was not based on a novel by Bernard Cornwell.

Sharpe's Sword is a 1995 British television drama, the eighth of a series screened on the ITV network that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. It is based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell, though it is set a year later (1813) than the book.

<i>Sharpes Justice</i> British television film

Sharpe's Justice is a British television drama, the 13th of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. Unlike most of the other instalments of the series, this episode was not based on a novel by Bernard Cornwell. A key scene in the story is based on the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, reset here to Keighley in Yorkshire, in 1814.

Sharpe's Company is a British television drama, the third of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. This episode is based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.

<i>Sharpes Challenge</i> 2006 British TV series or programme

Sharpe's Challenge is a British TV film from 2006, usually shown in two parts, which is part of an ITV series based on Bernard Cornwell's historical fiction novels about the British soldier Richard Sharpe during the Napoleonic Wars. Contrary to most parts of the TV series, Sharpe's Challenge, as well as the follow-up Sharpe's Peril, is not based entirely on one of Cornwell's novels, but it uses and adapts some characters and storylines from Sharpe's Tiger (1997). Both are set in 1817, two years after Sharpe has retired as a farmer in Normandy, so chronologically they come after Sharpe's Assassin (1815) and before the final novel Sharpe's Devil (1820–21). Some of the events in the film are inspired by events in the first three novels of the series. In Sharpe's Challenge and Sharpe's Peril, Sharpe and his comrade in arms, Patrick Harper, have been temporarily called out of retirement and asked to go to India.

Sharpe's Enemy is a British television drama, the fourth of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. This episode is based on the 1984 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.

<i>Sharpes Enemy</i> 1984 historical novel by Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe's Enemy: Richard Sharpe and the Defence of Portugal, Christmas 1812 is the fifteenth historical novel in the Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, first published in 1984. The story is set in 1812 during the Napoleonic Wars.

Sharpe's Waterloo is a British television drama, the 14th part of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars. The adaptation is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Bernard Cornwell.

<i>Sharpes Peril</i> 2008 British television film

Sharpe's Peril is a 2008 British TV film, usually shown in two parts, which is part of an ITV series based on Bernard Cornwell's historical fiction novels about the English soldier Richard Sharpe during the Napoleonic Wars. Unlike most parts of the TV series, Sharpe's Peril and the preceding Sharpe's Challenge are not based on Cornwell's novels. Both are set in 1817, two years after Sharpe has retired as a farmer in Normandy, so chronologically they come after Sharpe's Assassin (1815) and before Sharpe's Devil (1820–1821). In Sharpe's Challenge and Sharpe's Peril, Sharpe and his comrade-in-arms, Patrick Harper, are called out of retirement and asked to go to India.

References

  1. "SHARPE'S REGIMENT". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  2. "Marching through Rochester"