After the roaring swashbuckler that was Sharpe's Challenge - set in India post-Waterloo, but using characters and situations from Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe prequel trilogy set in India in the early 1800's - I was excited to get into Sharpe's Peril, assuming it would introduce familiar characters and situations. Alas, aside from a soldier called Hakeswill (Obadiah's son, no less!) and a French officer called Joubert who in Sharpe's Peril is not the same as he was in Sharpe's Triumph, there is little even remotely similar to the novels.
Overall, the film, in which Sharpe has to escort Joubert's fiancé to a fort and ends up getting on the wrong side of a rogue cavalryman, Vladimir Dragomirov, involved in the opium trade, fell flat and failed to really strike a note with me. A weak plot, some cliched situations and a lack of relationship to the books really hurt this. Henry Simmerson has a cameo, though he is much less of an enemy than in any other instalment, which felt weird.
The creative team at ITV should have stopped after Sharpe's Challenge, which ended with Sharpe and HArper riding off into the sunset. A shame they rode into Sharpe's Peril. Not even Sean Bean, who has always been brilliant as Richard Sharpe - his career defining role, for mine - could do much with this one.
Disappointing.
Overall, the film, in which Sharpe has to escort Joubert's fiancé to a fort and ends up getting on the wrong side of a rogue cavalryman, Vladimir Dragomirov, involved in the opium trade, fell flat and failed to really strike a note with me. A weak plot, some cliched situations and a lack of relationship to the books really hurt this. Henry Simmerson has a cameo, though he is much less of an enemy than in any other instalment, which felt weird.
The creative team at ITV should have stopped after Sharpe's Challenge, which ended with Sharpe and HArper riding off into the sunset. A shame they rode into Sharpe's Peril. Not even Sean Bean, who has always been brilliant as Richard Sharpe - his career defining role, for mine - could do much with this one.
Disappointing.