Ok, I have never heard of this series. I have not watched a single episode. How have I missed this? Is it any good, it looks good. Sean Bean is incredible. I read that the author of the books stated that now when he writes he hears Sharpe in Sean Beans voice.

Has anyone watched this series? Now I am hunting around for a DVD set that is US friendly.



P.S. I know this is a fan made trailer, but I kind of liked it.

I bought the entire set on Amazon Prime, and have watched them all. I have read almost every book by Bernard Cornwell, creator of Sharpe, that I can find. He is also the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles book series, which is being made into a British streaming series called The Last Kingdom.

His works are not up to the stellar quality of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels by any means; but they are entertaining and somewhat instructional.
I hope your viewing of Sharpe's Rifles leads you down the...oops, long and twisted path of Cornwell's books.

quote:

Originally posted by redstone:
Now I am hunting around for a DVD set that is US friendly.

It's available for streaming on BritBox. (Basically BBC's streaming service.)

You can grab a subscription for a month for $9 and stream the entire series. Or considering there's only ~15 episodes total, if you have a bunch of free time you might even be able to finish it during the 1 week free trial and be able to cancel before even paying for one month.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
He is also the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles book series, which is being made into a British streaming series called The Last Kingdom.

Just to clarify, it has already been made into a streaming series.

"The Last Kingdom", which ran from 2015-2023, is currently available in its entirety on Netflix. 5 seasons, plus an sequel/epilogue movie called "Seven Kings Must Die".

The series is well worth watching. I thought the movie was a little bit of a letdown, but if you made it that far you might as well see that too.

Great series. I should have kept the discs.

Absolutely worth watching. I read the books before I saw the series. You have to careful however if you are trying to read the series in order, because Bernard Cornwell wrote some books chronologically newer, but "earlier" in Sharpe's military service.

They are definitely worth watching. I had the VHS set way back when. I also read all the books, along with most of the rest of Bernard Cornwell's work.
He dedicated one of the later books in the Sharpes series to Sean Bean. Sean was the perfect actor for that character. Actually, there was a plethora of perfectly cast actors in that series.

Agreed.

This is one of those series worth watching and even owning (if you like re-watching series).

This is also might be where Sean Bean gets his start as "that guy."

Read many of the books and have seen most of the televised series. I originally watched them on our local PBS station. Thanks for the tip about BritBox. Looking forward to seeing them again.

Over the hills and far away..

I’ll strongly recommend reading the books. I first ran across the books in the UK and almost despaired that they wouldn’t be available in the US.

I won’t mention other authors and series which may or may not be better, but Cornwell is very, very good. The historicity of his works has always impressed me, but I enjoyed the Sharpe series most of all. Although I have seen only fragments of the videos, I enjoyed actually seeing much of what I pictured in my mind from reading. As is almost inevitable when an incredibly rich written work is translated into a visual presentation, though, things are lost. It’s the difference between grabbing an hors d’oeuvre at a party and sitting down to a gourmet meal. No matter how good the first may be, the second will almost always be better.

Added: And if you’re not already a reader, books like these are a great way to become one.

When I was a kid and limited to the fare offered by the American military libraries in France, I got hooked on the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and avidly read every one I could lay hands on. Decades later I decided it would be fun to read them again. I got about two chapters into the first and could only marvel at what I thought was good story-telling as a child, but I’ll always be grateful for them in helping me develop a life-long habit that has given me immense pleasure ever since.

I’ll second what SigFreund said, and add that if you go chronologically through the series, the high point is Sharpe at the Battle of Waterloo. As noted, Cornwell tries to be as historically accurate as possible, given the need to have his hero of the series present at every major battle. I had a much better understanding of Waterloo after reading Cornwell’s version; and a much better understanding of the time of King Alfred after reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

My favorite series of his, however, is a historical fantasy, it’s his series on King Arthur, I think called the Warlord Trilogy. It’s set in the actual time of Arthur, not in the Middle Ages, which is very ahistorical but has a long history of anachronism.

In my opinion an absolutely great series which I have repeatedly watched and enjoyed over the years. The theme song is one of my favorites.

THEME
https://youtu.be/71U0CPjkUyI

Quote from
https://sharpecompendium.net/songs/

The most well-known of the Regimental songs was that of the 95th Rifles. To this day, Over The Hills is still played by the Drums and Bugles of the Rifles as their theme song. The history of the catchy tune actually dates back to 1706, long before the Rifles adopted it as their theme and oddly enough, was extremely popular in Colonial America.

Both the books and the TV series are great - there are a couple of TV movies as well.