50 Fun Facts About Sharpe (TV Series)

Which actor plays Richard Sharpe, the soldier raised from the ranks, in every film of the TV series Sharpe?

Sean Bean kept his own accent for the part, and Sharpe brought him his first mainstream success years before he played Boromir and Ned Stark.

Which actor was first cast as Richard Sharpe but had to withdraw after injuring his knee playing football?

Paul McGann had to withdraw from Sharpe's Rifles, and his replacement was hired because he was the only suitable actor free at short notice.

Which actor played Obadiah Hakeswill, the thieving sergeant who torments Richard Sharpe in Sharpe's Company?

Pete Postlethwaite's Hakeswill returns in Sharpe's Enemy at the head of a band of deserters, mortally wounds Sharpe's wife and ends the film in front of a firing squad.

Which traditional song, given new words for the TV series Sharpe, serves as the drama's theme?

Over the Hills and Far Away dates back to at least the late 17th century, and the Sharpe films fit fresh verses to the story of each episode.

Which actor, long before worldwide fame, played the bullying Lieutenant Berry in the second Sharpe film?

Daniel Craig played Berry, who shoots Sharpe from behind on a night patrol, more than a decade before he first appeared as 007.

Which actress played Lady Farthingdale, the hostage Richard Sharpe rescues from deserters in Sharpe's Enemy?

Elizabeth Hurley's Lady Farthingdale is no stranger to her rescuer: the film reveals that she is a former lover of Sharpe's.

Which actor, later a celebrated screenwriter, plays both Major Dunnett and the Prince Regent in Sharpe?

Julian Fellowes leads the doomed riflemen in Sharpe's Rifles and returns as royalty in Sharpe's Regiment, years before he created Downton Abbey.

The Spain and Portugal of the Sharpe TV films were mainly filmed in which distant location?

Crimea stood in for the Iberian Peninsula through most of the 1990s run, with other films shot in Turkey, England, Portugal and Spain.

Which novelist, also the author of The Last Kingdom books, created the soldier Richard Sharpe?

Bernard Cornwell published the first Sharpe novels in 1981 and has said that he now hears the television actor's voice when he writes the character.

Sharpe's Challenge and Sharpe's Peril bring Richard Sharpe out of retirement to serve in which country?

India is where Sharpe's Challenge shows him serving as a sergeant back in 1803, and both films were shot there on location years after the original run ended.

Which actor plays Sergeant Patrick Harper, Richard Sharpe's best friend and right-hand man?

Daragh O'Malley was the first actor cast for the series, and he later founded a children's charity that carries the hero's name.

At which battle does Richard Sharpe win the trophy that makes him famous throughout Britain?

Talavera is where Sharpe steadies a regiment whose own colonel has fled, then outflanks the wavering French column and sends it into a rout.

The dying Major Lennox asks Richard Sharpe to wash away the shame of the lost colours by capturing what?

An Imperial Eagle was the standard Napoleon gave his regiments to carry at their head, and Sharpe plants the one he captures on the grave of the man who asked for it.

In Sharpe, which colonel sends Major Lennox across a bridge, where he dies and the colours are lost?

Sir Henry Simmerson then panics and blows the bridge with his own men still across it, yet he keeps turning up to plague Sharpe as late as the last film.

Which Spanish guerrilla leader, played by Assumpta Serna, becomes Richard Sharpe's first wife?

Teresa Moreno first meets Sharpe when her guerrillas break up his fistfight with Harper, and she goes on fighting the French after their daughter is born.

Which woman marries Richard Sharpe, then takes his fortune to London and becomes Lord Rossendale's lover?

Jane Gibbons is given power of attorney over Sharpe's 10,000 guineas before a battle, and runs off to spend them when he breaks a promise by fighting a duel.

After the wars, the TV hero Richard Sharpe retires to farm in which region of France?

Normandy is home to Lucille, the French widow who wounds Sharpe by mistake when they first meet and falls for him while he recovers.

Which well-read rifleman was invented for the TV series Sharpe, inspired by a real soldier's published memoirs?

Harris was added because the producers wanted a clever one; the real soldier behind him could not read or write, yet dictated his recollections of the war.

Which folk musician played the rifleman Daniel Hagman in Sharpe and co-wrote the music for the series?

John Tams also wrote the new words sung over the theme tune, and in 1996 he and Dominic Muldowney released an album of music from the films.

Whose life does Sergeant Richard Sharpe save from three French cavalrymen, earning a battlefield commission?

Sir Arthur Wellesley rewards the rescue on the spot by making Sharpe a lieutenant, then keeps handing him the army's most dangerous errands.

Which future Hollywood star played the blundering Prince of Orange in Sharpe's Waterloo?

Paul Bettany's Prince throws away so many lives at Waterloo that Sharpe shoots him from a hidden spot; Bettany went on to make his film debut in Bent.

Which actor played Colonel Brand, the decorated hero unmasked as a French spy in Sharpe's Mission?

Mark Strong's Brand wins his men's devotion with a staged rescue under French fire, an early villain for an actor who later menaced Sherlock Holmes.

Which actor, a Bond villain in Die Another Day, played the turncoat officer Dodd in Sharpe's Challenge?

Toby Stephens plays Dodd, who slaughters a garrison for its payroll while a young Sharpe survives by playing dead, and who is finally killed by Sharpe.

Which model, later a long-running American TV host, played the scheming regent Madhuvanthi in Sharpe's Challenge?

Padma Lakshmi played the late rajah's favourite concubine in the same year she began hosting Top Chef, a job she kept until 2023.

Which actress played Richard Sharpe's second wife and then married the actor who played Sharpe in real life?

Abigail Cruttenden met her co-star during filming, and they married in 1997, the year the original run of films came to an end.

Which Scottish actor, later Logan Roy in Succession, played the spymaster Major Hogan in Sharpe?

Brian Cox gave Sharpe his first missions as the army's intelligence chief, then left after two films and was replaced by a different spymaster.

In Sharpe's Rifles, the missing banker carrying a loan to pay the army belongs to which famous family?

Rothschild turns out to be hiding in plain sight: the banker has been travelling with Sharpe all along, disguised as a missionary's wife.

In Sharpe's Rifles, Major Vivar's guarded chest holds a banner of which saint, said to appear and defend Spain?

St James, Santiago to the Spanish, is said to appear when the flag flies over a chapel, and Sharpe dismisses the legend until he is ordered to help raise it.

Which Spanish fortress town, where Sharpe's baby daughter is hidden, do the British storm in Sharpe's Company?

Badajoz is breached but the first assault falters; Sharpe rallies the men, leads them into the town and wins back his captaincy.

In Sharpe's Enemy, Richard Sharpe slips into the deserters' village to free the hostages on which night?

Christmas Eve is picked because the deserters will be drunk and distracted, and Sharpe gets in with help from one of their own number.

In Sharpe's Enemy, the cavalry lancers that shatter the French attack turn out to be what kind of unit?

A rocket artillery company is disguised as Lancers so that the French infantry bunch into tight formation against a charge, which makes them an easy target.

In Sharpe's Siege, the besieged riflemen burn a cellar of oyster shells to make which blinding weapon?

Powdered lime, tipped from the walls as the ammunition runs low, blinds the French as they funnel through the open gate of the castle.

In Sharpe's Siege, which fever medicine does Sharpe give an enemy's mother rather than keep for his wife?

Quinine was captured with a French doctor who was already taking it to the sick woman, and her grateful daughter repays Sharpe with a trick that saves the castle.

In Sharpe's Gold, El Casco's murderous partisans believe they are descended from which shipwrecked people?

Aztecs supply the film's grisly twist: the partisans cut out their prisoners' hearts, and their cave turns out to be full of treasure.

Which screenwriter, creator of Quatermass, adapted Sharpe's Gold and kept almost nothing of the novel?

Nigel Kneale said he used only the first ten pages of the book before he had an idea that would be more fun, and the story ended up all about magic.

A key scene in Sharpe's Justice, where yeomanry cut down a public meeting, is based on which real event?

The Peterloo Massacre of 1819 took place in Manchester; the film moves it back to 1814 and has an officer defy Sharpe's orders to start the bloodshed.

To match the lead actor's accent, the TV hero Richard Sharpe was given a boyhood in which English county?

Yorkshire entered the story because the novelist was so impressed by the television Sharpe that he expanded the London-born hero's backstory to fit.

In Sharpe's Sword, a rifleman needs a copy of which Voltaire novel to break a captured French code?

Candide is the cipher key, but the squad's own copy has been destroyed by mistake, and the code is broken only when another turns up in a hospital library.

In Sharpe's Peril, Colonel Dragomirov's slave workers produce which valuable commodity?

Opium is behind the killings Sharpe uncovers: Dragomirov wipes out a garrison and a village for the harvest and lets bandits take the blame.

Sharpe's Challenge borrows characters and storylines from a 1997 Richard Sharpe novel, titled Sharpe's what?

Sharpe's Tiger sends a young Sharpe into an enemy fortress posing as a deserter, the same ruse the film gives him years later with Harper at his side.

Richard Sharpe and his riflemen stand out from the redcoat infantry by wearing jackets of which colour?

Dark green was the real uniform of the 95th Rifles, worn with black facings and black belts where the line infantry wore bright red and white.

What name does the TV series Sharpe give the handful of sharpshooters Richard Sharpe commands?

The Chosen Men begin by defying their new officer, and a youngster earns his place among them by shooting a French colonel who has Sharpe at his mercy.

In Sharpe's Regiment, the delighted Regent claims Sharpe's recruits and gives the South Essex which new name?

Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers is the title bestowed when Sharpe marches the missing recruits into a royal party, carrying his most famous battle trophy.

Which action director, a veteran of The Sweeney, was responsible for directing the Sharpe films?

Tom Clegg directed the films from Sharpe's Rifles to Sharpe's Peril, a span of fifteen years, after making his name on police dramas.

Sergeant Patrick Harper's signature weapon in the Sharpe films is which seven-barrelled firearm?

The Nock gun was built for the Royal Navy, but firing all its barrels at once produced a recoil that could injure or break a sailor's shoulder.

In Sharpe's Justice, the mill-town agitator Matthew Truman turns out to be what relation to Richard Sharpe?

His brother is news to Sharpe, who knew Truman only as a close childhood friend until a woman who was kind to him as a boy tells him the truth.

Which bespectacled French spymaster frames Richard Sharpe for stealing Napoleon's treasure in Sharpe's Revenge?

Major Ducos steals the treasure himself when the war is lost, and is tracked down through the Paris craftsman who made his spectacles.

At Waterloo, Richard Sharpe commands the defence of which farmhouse held by the King's German Legion?

La Haye Sainte was really held by about 400 men of the Legion, and in the film Sharpe saves the life of one of its officers there.

Captain Frederickson of the 60th Rifles, Richard Sharpe's scarred one-eyed ally, goes by which nickname?

Sweet William is his men's name for him: a facial wound cost Frederickson his left eye and several teeth and left him with a permanently smug look.

In Sharpe's Sword, Harper wins Richard Sharpe a new blade from Father Curtis by agreeing to do what?

Marry his sweetheart, Ramona, is the priest's price, and he later tricks Harper into going through with the wedding on the battlefield, watched by the whole regiment.