Sharpe's Waterloo (TV programme)
Encyclopedia
Sharpe's Waterloo is a British
television drama, part of a series
that follows the career of Richard Sharpe
, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars
. The adaptation is based on the novel of the same name
by Bernard Cornwell
.
on Elba
. Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean
) cannot resist the chance to finally see his enemy and breaks his promise to his French lover Lucille (Cécile Paoli
) to fight no more. However, unlike his adulterous wife Jane (Abigail Cruttenden
), she forgives him and accompanies him to the battlefield.
Sharpe then scouts far south of Quatre Bras. He spots French troops and sends a Dutch cavalryman on patrol to alert the Allied command. However, the cavalryman and his patrol are attacked and killed by French cuirassier
s (who were pursuing Sharpe).
Sharpe then returns to the Prince of Orange's camp. There, he is reunited with his former sergeant major and best friend, Patrick Harper (Daragh O'Malley
), and two of his long-time "chosen men", Hagman (John Tams
) and Harris (Jason Salkey
). Sharpe finds employment as a lieutenant colonel
on the staff of Prince William of Orange
(Paul Bettany
).
Sharpe scouts the French forces, while a contingent of Dutch musketeers holds a French column off. He then alerts Lord Wellington
(Hugh Fraser
) at a ball
in Brussels
that Napoleon is on the move. As Sharpe is leaving, he runs into his wife and her lover, Lord Rossendale (Alexis Denisof
); he chases Rossendale and causes a scene in front of the guests. He extracts a promise that he will get back the money Jane stole from him. Previously, Jane had persuaded Rossendale that he must kill her husband during the coming battle.
Sharpe is sent to command the defence of a crucial farmhouse at La Haye Sainte
, which is manned by the King's German Legion
and the 95th Rifles. He saves a King's German Legion officer, Macduff. Believing that La Haye Sainte has fallen, Prince William orders an English regiment to form line and re-capture the farm. However, French cavalry are nearby and, with the British in exactly the wrong formation, destroy the unit and capture its colours, while Sharpe watches in disgust.
Sharpe witnesses more instances of the absolute military incompetence of Prince William. The last time, it costs the lives of Harris and Hagman. Furious, Sharpe shoots the prince at long range from a secluded spot, but only succeeds in wounding him. (The real William of Orange played a large role in and was wounded at the Battle of Waterloo.) Meanwhile, on another part of the battlefield, Rossendale is killed fighting French cuirassiers.
Sharpe then rejoins his old unit, the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers
, taking over when its commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ford, becomes a casualty. At the crucial point of the Battle of Waterloo
, Napoleon sends in his elite Imperial Guard. Sharpe repels the last-ditch assault, much to Wellington's delight. Wellington gives Sharpe command of the regiment and tells him to pursue the retreating enemy. Whilst advancing, Sharpe glimpses Napoleon as he rides off in defeat.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television drama, part of a series
Sharpe (TV series)
Sharpe is a British series of television dramas starring Sean Bean about Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars. Sharpe is the hero of a number of novels by Bernard Cornwell; most, though not all, of the episodes are based on the books...
that follows the career of Richard Sharpe
Richard Sharpe (fictional character)
Sharpe is a series of historical fiction stories by Bernard Cornwell centred on the character of Richard Sharpe. The stories formed the basis for an ITV television series wherein the eponymous character was played by Sean Bean....
, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. The adaptation is based on the novel of the same name
Sharpe's Waterloo (novel)
Sharpe's Waterloo is a historical novel by Bernard Cornwell set during the 1815 Waterloo campaign.-Characters in Sharpe's Waterloo:*Lt. Col...
by Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell OBE is an English author of historical novels. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe which were adapted into a series of Sharpe television films.-Biography:...
.
Plot
In 1815, war breaks out once more as Napoleon returns to France from exileHundred Days
The Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...
on Elba
Elba
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...
. Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean
Sean Bean
Shaun Mark "Sean" Bean is an English film and stage actor. Bean is best known for playing Boromir in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and, previously, British Colonel Richard Sharpe in the ITV television series Sharpe...
) cannot resist the chance to finally see his enemy and breaks his promise to his French lover Lucille (Cécile Paoli
Cécile Paoli
Cécile Paoli is a French actress who is also well known on British television from the series Sharpe, Bergerac and Holby City.She played Isabelle de Chamonpierre in the 1989 television serial The Ginger Tree, based on the novel by Oswald Wynd. In Sharpe, she portrayed Lucille Castineau.-External...
) to fight no more. However, unlike his adulterous wife Jane (Abigail Cruttenden
Abigail Cruttenden
Abigail Cruttenden is an English actress.Cruttenden played opposite Sean Bean as his character's onscreen wife Jane in several episodes of Sharpe. The couple wed in real life in 1997 and had a daughter, Evie. Three months later they started divorce proceedings, and divorced in 2000. In 2003,...
), she forgives him and accompanies him to the battlefield.
Sharpe then scouts far south of Quatre Bras. He spots French troops and sends a Dutch cavalryman on patrol to alert the Allied command. However, the cavalryman and his patrol are attacked and killed by French cuirassier
Cuirassier
Cuirassiers were mounted cavalry soldiers equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. They were the successors of the medieval armoured knights...
s (who were pursuing Sharpe).
Sharpe then returns to the Prince of Orange's camp. There, he is reunited with his former sergeant major and best friend, Patrick Harper (Daragh O'Malley
Daragh O'Malley
Daragh O'Malley is an Irish film, theatre and television actor, best known for his portrayal of the much loved and ever faithful but rather fearsome Patrick Harper in the legendary Sharpe TV series along side Sean Bean...
), and two of his long-time "chosen men", Hagman (John Tams
John Tams
John Tams is an English actor, singer, songwriter, composer and musician.- Folk musician :John Tams was a member of Derbyshire folk group Muckram Wakes in the 1970s, then worked with Ashley Hutchings as singer and melodeon-player on albums including Son of Morris On, and as a member of the...
) and Harris (Jason Salkey
Jason Salkey
Jason Salkey is an English actor. He played Rifleman Harris in Sharpe, and Paul Lang in The Bill. He has also been in Bergerac, Boon, Wycliffe, About a Boy, and In America....
). Sharpe finds employment as a lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
on the staff of Prince William of Orange
William II of the Netherlands
William II was King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and Duke of Limburg from 7 October 1840 until his death in 1849.- Early life and education :...
(Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany is an English actor. He has appeared in a wide variety of films, including A Knight's Tale, A Beautiful Mind, and The Da Vinci Code...
).
Sharpe scouts the French forces, while a contingent of Dutch musketeers holds a French column off. He then alerts Lord Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
(Hugh Fraser
Hugh Fraser (actor)
Hugh Fraser is an English actor and theatre director.-Early life:Born in London but raised in the East Midlands, Fraser studied acting at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art...
) at a ball
Duchess of Richmond's ball
The Duchess of Richmond's ball was held in Brussels on 15 June 1815, the night before the Battle of Quatre Bras. The Duchess's husband Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond was in command of a reserve force in Brussels, which was protecting that city in case Napoleon Bonaparte invaded.Elizabeth...
in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
that Napoleon is on the move. As Sharpe is leaving, he runs into his wife and her lover, Lord Rossendale (Alexis Denisof
Alexis Denisof
Alexis Denisof is an American actor who is known for playing Wesley Wyndam-Pryce in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel.-Early life:...
); he chases Rossendale and causes a scene in front of the guests. He extracts a promise that he will get back the money Jane stole from him. Previously, Jane had persuaded Rossendale that he must kill her husband during the coming battle.
Sharpe is sent to command the defence of a crucial farmhouse at La Haye Sainte
La Haye Sainte
La Haye Sainte is a walled farmhouse compound at the foot of an escarpment on the Charleroi-Brussels road. It has changed very little since it played a very important part in the battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815...
, which is manned by the King's German Legion
King's German Legion
The King's German Legion was a British Army unit of expatriate German personnel, 1803–16. The Legion achieved the distinction of being the only German force to fight without interruption against the French during the Napoleonic Wars....
and the 95th Rifles. He saves a King's German Legion officer, Macduff. Believing that La Haye Sainte has fallen, Prince William orders an English regiment to form line and re-capture the farm. However, French cavalry are nearby and, with the British in exactly the wrong formation, destroy the unit and capture its colours, while Sharpe watches in disgust.
Sharpe witnesses more instances of the absolute military incompetence of Prince William. The last time, it costs the lives of Harris and Hagman. Furious, Sharpe shoots the prince at long range from a secluded spot, but only succeeds in wounding him. (The real William of Orange played a large role in and was wounded at the Battle of Waterloo.) Meanwhile, on another part of the battlefield, Rossendale is killed fighting French cuirassiers.
Sharpe then rejoins his old unit, the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers
South Essex Regiment
The South Essex Regiment, later the Prince of Wales' Own Volunteers, is a fictional infantry line regiment in the British Army that was created by Bernard Cornwell in the Sharpe series of books.-Fictional history:...
, taking over when its commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ford, becomes a casualty. At the crucial point of the Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, Napoleon sends in his elite Imperial Guard. Sharpe repels the last-ditch assault, much to Wellington's delight. Wellington gives Sharpe command of the regiment and tells him to pursue the retreating enemy. Whilst advancing, Sharpe glimpses Napoleon as he rides off in defeat.