Sharpe's Sword (TV programme)
Encyclopedia
Sharpe's Sword is a 1995 British
television drama, part 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 novel of the same name
by Bernard Cornwell
, though it is set a year later (1813) than the book.
of El Mirador, Wellington's best secret agent; he is tortured into revealing the spy's identity. Then, he and two of the nuns are killed, but the youngest (Emily Mortimer
), a novice
, gets away.
Major Sharpe (Sean Bean
) and his riflemen show up and rout the French, taking a captain captive, while the colonel is killed. Sharpe finds a piece of paper filled with cryptic numbers on the prisoner and suspects that his captive is actually the colonel in disguise. However, he is unable to convince his superior, nor his fellow officer, Captain Jack Spears (James Purefoy
); the Frenchman is allowed to give his parole and is not imprisoned. The young woman, having lost her faith and being rendered mute by the horror she has witnessed, attaches herself to Sharpe.
Back at camp, Wellington's spymaster, Major Mungo Munro (Hugh Ross
), has received word that Napoleon himself has sent Colonel Leroux (Patrick Fierry) of the elite Imperial Guard to capture El Mirador. Munro assigns Sharpe the task of killing the colonel, but refuses to divulge the spy's identity. He sends Sharpe and the South Essex Regiment to the town where El Mirador is based.
The British already control the place, but there is a French-held fort close by. When the men near the town, a surprise artillery barrage from the fort causes enough confusion to allow the prisoner, who is in fact Leroux, to break his parole and escape to its safety.
Sharpe meets two people, his old enemy Sir Henry Simmerson (Michael Cochrane
), now the British representative to the town, and Father Curtis (John Kavanagh), who runs the hospital.
The regiment attacks that night, but the French have been forewarned and the assault is bloodily repulsed. Barkley is killed, leaving Sharpe in charge, though he himself is seriously wounded. While he recovers, he sends for British artillery and orders his most literate rifleman, Harris (Jason Salkey
), to decode the message he took from Leroux. During this time, the woman regains her voice and her faith.
Harris succeeds in breaking the code. The message unmasks Spears as a traitor (he had been taken captive, tortured, and then blackmailed by Leroux). However, Spears is unable to bring himself to kill El Mirador, who is revealed to be Father Curtis. When the cannon arrives, Sharpe gives the officer the opportunity for an honourable death.
After the fort is softened up by an artillery barrage, Spears charges singlehanded and plants a British flag at the fort's entrance, rousing the morale of the British soldiers, but is killed shortly after. Sharpe and the South Essex then storm the fort. When Leroux tries to surrender, Sharpe offers him a duel to the death instead; if he kills Sharpe, he can go free. Sharpe wins the swordfight.
Taking advantage of Sharpe's absence, Simmerson attempts to rape the novice (who had humiliated him earlier when he had made a crude advance), but is stopped by Father Curtis. The priest accuses Simmerson of warning the French of the first attack; when Simmerson advances on him with sword drawn, Father Curtis, an ex-soldier, unexpectedly draws his own and teaches him a very painful lesson.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television drama, part of a series
Sharpe (TV series)
Sharpe is a British series of television dramas starring Sean Bean about Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars. Sharpe is the hero of a number of novels by Bernard Cornwell; most, though not all, of the episodes are based on the books...
screened on the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network that follows the career of Richard Sharpe
Richard Sharpe (fictional character)
Sharpe is a series of historical fiction stories by Bernard Cornwell centred on the character of Richard Sharpe. The stories formed the basis for an ITV television series wherein the eponymous character was played by Sean Bean....
, a fictional British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. It is based on the novel of the same name
Sharpe's Sword (novel)
Sharpe's Sword is a historical novel by Bernard Cornwell and covers the summer campaign of 1812, and the Battle of Salamanca on July 22, 1812...
by Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell OBE is an English author of historical novels. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe which were adapted into a series of Sharpe television films.-Biography:...
, though it is set a year later (1813) than the book.
Plot
On the French-Spanish frontier, a French patrol led by a colonel of Napoleon's Imperial Guard overtakes a carriage containing a priest and three nuns. The priest is the confessorConfessor
-Confessor of the Faith:Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith, but not to the point of death. The term is still used in this way in the East. In Latin Christianity it has come to signify any saint, as well as those who have been declared...
of El Mirador, Wellington's best secret agent; he is tortured into revealing the spy's identity. Then, he and two of the nuns are killed, but the youngest (Emily Mortimer
Emily Mortimer
Emily Kathleen A. Mortimer is an English actress. She began performing on stage, and has since appeared in several film and television roles, including Scream 3, Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl, and Shutter Island....
), a novice
Novice
A novice is a person or creature who is new to a field or activity. The term is most commonly applied in religion and sports.-Buddhism:In many Buddhist orders, a man or woman who intends to take ordination must first become a novice, adopting part of the monastic code indicated in the vinaya and...
, gets away.
Major Sharpe (Sean Bean
Sean Bean
Shaun Mark "Sean" Bean is an English film and stage actor. Bean is best known for playing Boromir in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and, previously, British Colonel Richard Sharpe in the ITV television series Sharpe...
) and his riflemen show up and rout the French, taking a captain captive, while the colonel is killed. Sharpe finds a piece of paper filled with cryptic numbers on the prisoner and suspects that his captive is actually the colonel in disguise. However, he is unable to convince his superior, nor his fellow officer, Captain Jack Spears (James Purefoy
James Purefoy
James Brian Mark Purefoy is an English actor best known for portraying Mark Antony in the HBO series Rome.-Early life and work:...
); the Frenchman is allowed to give his parole and is not imprisoned. The young woman, having lost her faith and being rendered mute by the horror she has witnessed, attaches herself to Sharpe.
Back at camp, Wellington's spymaster, Major Mungo Munro (Hugh Ross
Hugh Ross
Hugh Ross may refer to:* Hugh Ross , American choral director and conductor* Hugh McGregor Ross , computing pioneer and specialist in the Gospel of Thomas...
), has received word that Napoleon himself has sent Colonel Leroux (Patrick Fierry) of the elite Imperial Guard to capture El Mirador. Munro assigns Sharpe the task of killing the colonel, but refuses to divulge the spy's identity. He sends Sharpe and the South Essex Regiment to the town where El Mirador is based.
The British already control the place, but there is a French-held fort close by. When the men near the town, a surprise artillery barrage from the fort causes enough confusion to allow the prisoner, who is in fact Leroux, to break his parole and escape to its safety.
Sharpe meets two people, his old enemy Sir Henry Simmerson (Michael Cochrane
Michael Cochrane
Michael Cochrane is an English actor who specialises in playing upper class characters, sometimes with a suaveness that hides their villainy....
), now the British representative to the town, and Father Curtis (John Kavanagh), who runs the hospital.
The regiment attacks that night, but the French have been forewarned and the assault is bloodily repulsed. Barkley is killed, leaving Sharpe in charge, though he himself is seriously wounded. While he recovers, he sends for British artillery and orders his most literate rifleman, Harris (Jason Salkey
Jason Salkey
Jason Salkey is an English actor. He played Rifleman Harris in Sharpe, and Paul Lang in The Bill. He has also been in Bergerac, Boon, Wycliffe, About a Boy, and In America....
), to decode the message he took from Leroux. During this time, the woman regains her voice and her faith.
Harris succeeds in breaking the code. The message unmasks Spears as a traitor (he had been taken captive, tortured, and then blackmailed by Leroux). However, Spears is unable to bring himself to kill El Mirador, who is revealed to be Father Curtis. When the cannon arrives, Sharpe gives the officer the opportunity for an honourable death.
After the fort is softened up by an artillery barrage, Spears charges singlehanded and plants a British flag at the fort's entrance, rousing the morale of the British soldiers, but is killed shortly after. Sharpe and the South Essex then storm the fort. When Leroux tries to surrender, Sharpe offers him a duel to the death instead; if he kills Sharpe, he can go free. Sharpe wins the swordfight.
Taking advantage of Sharpe's absence, Simmerson attempts to rape the novice (who had humiliated him earlier when he had made a crude advance), but is stopped by Father Curtis. The priest accuses Simmerson of warning the French of the first attack; when Simmerson advances on him with sword drawn, Father Curtis, an ex-soldier, unexpectedly draws his own and teaches him a very painful lesson.
Differences from the novel
The plot of this episode diverges from the novel in a number of substantial ways, particularly concerning some of the main characters.- The Marchesa was written out of the episode and instead used, albeit in a completely different role, in Sharpe's Honor. She is Colonel Leroux's sister in the book. Her part in betraying the British is played by sir Henry Simmerson, who doesn't appear in the novel.
- The character of Jack Spears was made much more sympatethic in the film. In the book, he is a gambler who lost all of his fortune at the table and is corrupted by Leroux, while in the TV movie he soccumbs to the French colonel's tortures. He dies as a hero in both the novel and the film, but in the former he is not urged to do so by Sharpe, who discovers the nobleman's betrayal only while he is already dying.
- Some characters, notably "Lass" and Major Monroe, were created for the TV movie and do not appear in the novel at all.
- Although Sergeant Harper's love for a Spanish girl is mentioned in the novel, the girl is called Isabella (not Ramona, who is a TV character only) and they do not marry. Harper is wounded both in the movie and in the novel, but in the latter his wound is much worse. Both Sharpe and Harper are wounded while trying to stop Leroux from escaping, as opposed to during the assault to the fort (which is only one in the movie, while there were three forts in the novel).