The Scarlet Pimpernel (TV series)

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The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel 1999 title card.jpg
Series one title card
Starring Richard E. Grant
Martin Shaw (series 1)
Elizabeth McGovern (series 1)
Caroline Carver (series 2)
Theme music composer Michal Pavlíček
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series2
No. of episodes6
Production
Running time90 minutes
Production companies London Films
A&E Television Productions
BBC Birmingham Productions
Original release
Network BBC One
Release24 January 1999 (1999-01-24) 
1 November 2000 (2000-11-01)

The Scarlet Pimpernel is a series of television drama programmes loosely based on Baroness Emmuska Orczy's series of novels, set during the French Revolution.

Contents

It stars Richard E. Grant as Sir Percy Blakeney, and his alter ego, the eponymous hero. The first series also starred Elizabeth McGovern as his wife Marguerite and Martin Shaw as the Pimpernel's archrival, Paul Chauvelin. Robespierre was played by Ronan Vibert.

It was filmed in the Czech Republic and scored by a Czech composer, Michal Pavlíček.

Cast

Episodes

Series 1

Episode #TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal airdate
1"The Scarlet Pimpernel"Patrick Lau Richard Carpenter 24 January 1999 (1999-01-24)
2"Valentine Gautier"Patrick LauRichard Carpenter31 January 1999 (1999-01-31)
3"A King's Ransom" Edward Bennett Richard Carpenter7 February 1999 (1999-02-07)

Series 2

Episode #TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal airdate
1"Ennui"Graham Theakston Matthew Hall 18 October 2000 (2000-10-18)
2"Friends and Enemies" Simon Langton Alan Whiting 25 October 2000 (2000-10-25)
3"A Good Name"Simon Langton Rob Heyland 1 November 2000 (2000-11-01)

Awards

Caroline Carver won a Royal Television Society Best Actress Award for her performance as Claudette in "A Good Name".

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The Scarlet Pimpernel is a 1934 British adventure film directed by Harold Young and starring Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, and Raymond Massey. Based on the 1905 play by Baroness Orczy and Montagu Barstow and the classic 1905 adventure novel by Orczy, the film is about an eighteenth-century English aristocrat (Howard) who leads a double life, passing himself off as an effete aristocrat while engaged in a secret effort to rescue French nobles from Robespierre's Reign of Terror. The film was produced by Alexander Korda. Howard's portrayal of the title character is often considered the definitive portrayal of the role. In 1941, he played a similar role in "'Pimpernel' Smith" but this time set in pre-WWII Germany.

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The Scarlet Pimpernel is a 1982 British romantic adventure television film set during the French Revolution. It is based on the novels The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) and Eldorado (1913) by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, and stars Anthony Andrews as Sir Percy Blakeney/the Scarlet Pimpernel, the protagonist, Jane Seymour as Marguerite St. Just, the love interest, and Ian McKellen as Chauvelin, the antagonist.

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