It's probably 20 years since I last saw "Sharpe's Gold", but I've just viewed it again. My main recollection was of the two stupid women riding unescorted around Spain without any supplies or equipment looking for their father/husband who disappeared some months before - and of the daughter just happening to spot "Dada's" paintbox in the middle of nowhere.
By halfway through my latest viewing last night I had begun to think that this to be a very inferior episode - and then I read comments here on IMDB and realised that I wasn't the only one.
What a ham-fisted way for Sharpe to deliberately lose the shooting contest - by dropping the bullet he was loading. How could an ace rifleman completely miss the target? It would have been far more believable for him to have missed the bull by two or three inches.
Would senior members of Dublin society fraternise with private soldiers?
El Casco's cooing at Ellie was puzzling and embarrassing to watch.
The Aztec element has been derided in other reviews. And why blow up the caves where the Aztec gold was hidden? Wouldn't it have been an useful addition to Britain's war chest?
I can understand Wellington wishing to pardon the deserters to fill his depleted ranks, but were we meant to taken their spontaneous cheering as an indication that they would become dependable soldiers (or were they just relieved not to be hanged or flogged).
The only bright spot was Peter-Hugo Daly's role as the villainous Sergeant Dodd (he was to return as the even more evil Sergeant Bickerstaff in "Sharpe's Challenge").
By halfway through my latest viewing last night I had begun to think that this to be a very inferior episode - and then I read comments here on IMDB and realised that I wasn't the only one.
What a ham-fisted way for Sharpe to deliberately lose the shooting contest - by dropping the bullet he was loading. How could an ace rifleman completely miss the target? It would have been far more believable for him to have missed the bull by two or three inches.
Would senior members of Dublin society fraternise with private soldiers?
El Casco's cooing at Ellie was puzzling and embarrassing to watch.
The Aztec element has been derided in other reviews. And why blow up the caves where the Aztec gold was hidden? Wouldn't it have been an useful addition to Britain's war chest?
I can understand Wellington wishing to pardon the deserters to fill his depleted ranks, but were we meant to taken their spontaneous cheering as an indication that they would become dependable soldiers (or were they just relieved not to be hanged or flogged).
The only bright spot was Peter-Hugo Daly's role as the villainous Sergeant Dodd (he was to return as the even more evil Sergeant Bickerstaff in "Sharpe's Challenge").