Sharpe (TV Series)

Sharpe's Challenge (2006)

Sean Bean: Sharpe

Quotes 

• Davi Lal : [Sharpe is asking him to steal from two merchants]  But that would be stealing sahib. How am I to be a good British soldier if you make me into a thief again?

  Richard Sharpe : It isn't thieving when you're hungry, Davi. That's the first thing any soldier learns. Now go on.

• General Sir Henry Simmerson : You should be wary of this one, McRae. He thinks because Wellington raised him up from the sewer that it somehow makes him a gentleman. Don't know your place, do you Sharpie?

  Richard Sharpe : Maybe not, but I know how to stand before a French column. I know how to face fire without soiling my breeches and turning tail.

• Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff : Easier to be brave, with rank and new sunlight behind! I hope you sleep light, Colonel, lest you find some morning you wake up to find your throat slit!

  Richard Sharpe : Is that a threat, Sergeant?

  Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff : You take it as you please.

  Richard Sharpe : Oh, I do. So come on, let's sort it out here and now, just you and me.

  Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff : [laughs]  I weren't born yesterday neither, Colonel. 'Tis a hanging offense to strike an officer!

  Richard Sharpe : But like you said, I'm no company officer.

  Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff : All the same, I'll not hit a man wearing the King's Uniform.

  Richard Sharpe : No? No? Well that's easily remedied.

  [starts unbuttoning his uniform when Bickerstaff sucker punches and kicks him in the face] 

  Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff : Officers?

  [laughs as he walks away] 

  Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff : I've shat 'em!

  Richard Sharpe : Shadrach.

  [Bickerstaff turns and Sharpe knocks his teeth out] 

• Richard Sharpe : [after knocking Bickerstaff to the ground]  Next time I give an order, you bloody jump to. Understand?

  Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff : [groans incomprehensibly; as Sharpe walks away, he pulls a knife from his boot and charges] 

  Patrick Harper : [notices the ambush]  Richard!

  Richard Sharpe : [Sharpe turns and headbutts him in the face]  Come at me with a knife, will ya? You little gutless bastard!

  [pummels him before being pulled off by Harper] 

  Richard Sharpe : Had enough, Shadrach?

• Patrick Harper : Come on now lads... three to one? That's not fair odds.

  Richard Sharpe : They don't want fair odds, Pat.

• Patrick Harper : How long do you think the outer wall will hold?

  Richard Sharpe : It's not meant to hold. It's meant to *come down*!

  Patrick Harper : There's nothing more teasing to a besieging army than a great bloody breach...!

• Richard Sharpe : [grabs Bickerstaff while the sergeant is beating an Indian soldier]  Damnit! Stand off!

  Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff : Mind your damn business!

  Richard Sharpe : I'm not going to tell you again.

  Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff : Who in the bloody hell are you to give me orders? You're no company officer!

  Richard Sharpe : No, Sgt. Bickerstaff, I'm not. I'm from a proper army, that knows how to deal with bullying bastards like you!

• Richard Sharpe : I thought you were dead, Pat!

  Patrick Harper : I can't be watching your arse if I'm dead, now can I?

• Richard Sharpe : Bad powder! Good trick, that. I'll remember that one.

  William Dodd : Be sure that you do.

• Richard Sharpe : What do you reckon then, Pat? This Khande Rao can be taken?

  Patrick Harper : Well, he has a reputation of being a real monster.

  Mohan Singh : [comes up from behind a tent]  If he is a monster, Mr. Harper, then he's one of British making.

  Richard Sharpe : How's that, Captain?

  Mohan Singh : The Company have only maintained the peace here by keeping the princes at each other's throats. Khande Rao's father: he feared his neighbours more than he hated the British. And so it was your country that kept him supplied with arms.

  Patrick Harper : That sounds just like the English, getting someone else to do its dirty work!

  Mohan Singh : The son is not the father, however. Khande Rao wants you out of our country, once and for all. It is a view with which I cannot say I do not have some sympathy.

  Richard Sharpe : So why are you fighting with us?

  Mohan Singh : Khande Rao is... a sworn enemy of my blood. And that makes you my enemy's enemy, and therefore, a necessary evil. Good day to you

  [inclines his head] 

  Mohan Singh : both.

  [Leaves] 

  Patrick Harper : I don't think I like the sound of that. A necessary evil...

  Richard Sharpe : Have we ever been else?

  Patrick Harper : Oh... and there was me thinking we were always on the side of the angels.

• General Sir Henry Simmerson : Sharpe! I see time has done nothing to improve a want of etiquette in you. Still the same, whore-mongering, gutter trash of memory!

  Richard Sharpe : Aye, and you're still the same cruel, flogging bastard!

  General Sir Henry Simmerson : Cruel, sir? I calls it discipline!

• Richard Sharpe : [examining the Indian guns]  Rusted dog screw. Would you say this is good enough, Corporal Harper?

  Patrick Harper : That I wouldn't, Sergeant. No, that I wouldn't!

• Harper : [after Sharpe and Harper just escaped from the prison cell, only to be facing Dodd's professional killers]  Out of the frying pan...!

  Sharpe : it's just not our bloody night, Pat!

• Simmerson : The second rule of war, Sharpe, which you'd know if you'd ever learned anything beyond insolence towards your superiors, is: never reinforce failure!

  Sharpe : Oh, i know that rule. Though judging by that birchet on your shoulder, it seems *this* army is resolved to prove you its living exception!

• Sharpe : [trying to get official permission to leave on a special mission]  If Captain Singh and his Lancers help me, Mr. Harper and I should prove sufficient to the job.

  Simmerson : You and Harper, eh? - I don't mind if you do die, Sharpe. It's long past your time, ain't it?

  Sharpe : If that's permission...

  Simmerson : Oh, by all means. Go and die, Sharpe!

• Richard Sharpe : It's a right bloody mess. Simmerson's attack failed, Khande Rao's men are still all over the woods - and Gudin has recommended me for a medal for my part in the victory.

  Patrick Harper : Well, it wasn't an entirely unprofitable evening, then!

• Celia Burroughs : [Trying to persuade Sharpe to stay]  How might *General* Sharpe sound?

  Richard Sharpe : No disrespect to your father ma'am, but I think this place has seen enough generals for a while!

• Gudin : [inquiring as to where Sharpe is going]  And yourself?

  Sharpe : We've got a bloody army to save!

• Patrick Harper : So, wait a minute - you and me, we're gonna stop a rebellion, just the two of us?

  Richard Sharpe : Well, I see no bugger else.

  Patrick Harper : Yeah... that sounds just about right, just as long as you let me know!

• Richard Sharpe : Dodd. 'General Dodd will insist', Gudin said.

  Patrick Harper : Who is he?

  Richard Sharpe : The Company renegade you've been trying to find, for one.

  Patrick Harper : And for two?

  Richard Sharpe : A murdering bastard.

  Patrick Harper : Do you know him?

  [Sharpe nods] 

  Patrick Harper : - Does *he* know *you*?

  Richard Sharpe : He had a lot on his mind that day at Chaselgaon.

  Patrick Harper : Chaselgaon? - Shite! I'll take that as a 'Let's hope not', then.

• Crosby : [ln a flashback to 1803, when Sharpe was still a Sergeant with the33rd Regiment in India]  It's a six day's' march! How the devil do you expect to transport 80,000 cartridges? On your back?

  Sharpe : [Deadpan]  Bullocks, sir!

  [as Major Crosby reacts] 

  Sharpe : - Ox-carts, sir.

  Crosby : Which you mean to hire with what? Promises?

  Sharpe : With money, sir.

  [Indicates the bag on his belt] 

  Crosby : Oh! Speak the language, too, do you? - Sergeant, banker and interpreter?

  Sharpe : Brought an interpreter, sir!

  Crosby : Did you? - Did you?

  [Eyes Sharpe with disapproval. Sarcastically] 

  Crosby : Every inch the Crown soldier! - Go and find your damn carts, Sergeant Sharpe, and let me know when you're ready!

• Richard Sharpe : You got your throne. How does it feel, your Majesty?

• Sharpe : Now will you take me to Wellington, or should I dig the bugger out myself?

  Rawlinson : Splendid! Splendid!

  [they enter Wellington's study] 

  Wellington : What's this nonsense I hear? You've turned swords to plowshares and become a farmer in France?

  Sharpe : Aye, it's true enough, Your Grace.

  Wellington : Suits you, this life?

  Sharpe : Well, no buggers trying to shoot me the livelong day, so aye, suits me!

• Mohan Singh : Where are you going?

  Richard Sharpe : [points at the scene of the massacre]  After the bastards that did this, where do you think?

• William Dodd : Sergeant. Can you use a sword?

  Richard Sharpe : Aye sir, sometimes sir, when I need to.

  William Dodd : Good, then oblige me. It's been a while since I matched steel with an Englishman.

  Richard Sharpe : Begging your pardon sir, but - I'm drilled as a rifleman, and no match for your Generalship.

  William Dodd : I'll be the judge of that, choose your blade.

  Richard Sharpe : I'd sooner not, sir, if it's all right with you.

  William Dodd : ...Choose your blade.

  [Sharpe goes to the table of swords] 

  William Dodd : So what brings you to His Highness's service?

  Richard Sharpe : [sets down a blade and picks up another]  As we told Colonel Gudin, sir...

  William Dodd : [Dodd lunges and Sharpe barely blocks with the still-sheathed sword]  You weren't ready for me.

  Richard Sharpe : No, sir.

  William Dodd : Well let that serve as a lesson to you. The enemy won't announce his intention to strike, and neither will I!

  [Sharpe unsheathes his sword and they begin dueling] 

  William Dodd : That's better, Sharpe, much better.

  Richard Sharpe : I learn fast, sir.

  William Dodd : So it seems.

• Richard Sharpe : [Dodd slashes Sharpe across the stomach during their duel]  I thought this were just practicing!

  William Dodd : You're holding back. Is that how you'll fight the redcoats when it comes to close quarters? Test me, man! Test me!

• Richard Sharpe : It's a poor bloody spot for a tea party, Captain. Bandit country, and that one picket horse along the track, might call that reckless.

• Richard Sharpe : You want me to go back to India?

• Richard Sharpe : There's me thinking, for once all that blood was about something more than making rich men richer.