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Easter eggs
Hidden details in every movie and series: 48 in total. Tap a poster to see its eggs. Titles you haven't marked as seen stay locked so nothing gets spoiled.
- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- Behind the scenesPaul McGann was cast first
The first Sharpe was Paul McGann. Two weeks into the shoot in Ukraine he hurt his knee playing soccer and had to drop out. Sean Bean stepped in a month later, on very short notice.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesSpain was really Crimea
Most of the series was shot in Crimea, with some scenes in Turkey, England, Portugal and Spain. Crimea's dry hills stood in for the Iberian Peninsula.
source ↗ - ReferenceTeresa shows up early
In the books, partisan Teresa Moreno first appears in Sharpe's Gold. TV brought her into the very first film and invented riflemen Harris and Perkins, who aren't in the novel.
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- CameoDaniel Craig in a redcoat
Lieutenant Berry, one of the officers who make Sharpe's life hell, is Daniel Craig, more than a decade before he became James Bond.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesNo eagle fell at Talavera
In real life, the British took no French eagle at Talavera. The first one was captured at Barrosa in 1811.
source ↗ - ReferenceCornwell's first book
Sharpe's Eagle was Bernard Cornwell's first published novel, in 1981. On TV, the book's Captain Lennox became a major.
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- CameoPostlethwaite as Hakeswill
Pete Postlethwaite debuts here as Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill, the fans' favorite villain. He plays him in two films.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe author's favorite
Bernard Cornwell has said the TV version of Sharpe's Company is the best of all the Sharpe films.
source ↗ - CameoHugh Fraser's Wellington arrives
Hugh Fraser, Captain Hastings on Poirot, takes over as Wellington here and stays in the role through Sharpe's Challenge.
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- CameoElizabeth Hurley among the hostages
One of the women held by the deserters is Isabella, played by Elizabeth Hurley. On TV she's an old flame of Sharpe's.
source ↗ - ReferenceBook Isabella belongs to Harper
In the novels, Isabella is Harper's wife. TV gave the name to another character and gave Harper a girlfriend named Ramona.
source ↗ - SetupA French spy steps in
Major Pierre Ducos, played by Féodor Atkine, shows up here alongside Colonel Dubreton. Remember the face: he's back later.
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- CameoAlice Krige is La Marquesa
South African actress Alice Krige, the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact, plays Helena, the marquesa who accuses Sharpe.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesNapoleon himself
The film adds an opening scene that isn't in the book: Ducos laying out his plan to Napoleon himself, played by Ron Cook.
source ↗ - ReferenceMeeting the marquesa
In the books, Sharpe meets the marquesa in Sharpe's Sword. Since that film hadn't been made yet, TV shows their first meeting here.
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- ReferenceA different gold
The book is about Spanish gold to fund the war, near Almeida, in 1810. The film keeps the title and tells a different story, with Aztec treasure.
source ↗ - ReferenceOut of order
Gold was the second book published, but TV made it after Honour. That's why the film is set in 1813, three years after the novel.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe hardest book
Bernard Cornwell wrote Sharpe's Gold as a warm-up for the series and called it the hardest book he ever wrote.
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- Behind the scenesDedicated to Sean Bean
Cornwell dedicated the 1995 novel Sharpe's Battle to Sean Bean. The film came out the same year.
source ↗ - ReferenceLoup means wolf
Brigadier Guy Loup and his gray-uniformed men are the Wolf Brigade. The French name tells you how they hunt.
source ↗ - ReferencePerkins' fate
On TV, young rifleman Perkins dies in this film. In the book, he survives. The film also ends before the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro.
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- CameoEarly Emily Mortimer
Lass, the young woman who doesn't speak and tends to Sharpe, is one of Emily Mortimer's first TV roles.
source ↗ - CameoPurefoy as a captain
Captain Jack Spears, a charming, broke aristocrat, is James Purefoy, later Mark Antony on Rome.
source ↗ - ReferenceA year after the book
The novel is set in 1812, near Salamanca. The film moves the story to 1813 and changes several details.
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- CameoThe man behind Downton Abbey
The Prince Regent is Julian Fellowes, who later created Downton Abbey and won the screenwriting Oscar for Gosford Park.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesOff-screen wedding
Abigail Cruttenden debuts here as Jane Gibbons. She and Sean Bean married for real in 1997.
source ↗ - ReferenceSimmerson again
Sir Henry Simmerson, the cowardly colonel from Sharpe's Eagle, returns as the man behind the scam. Michael Cochrane plays him across the whole series.
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- ReferenceNo American privateer
In the book, American privateer Cornelius Killick is key to the siege. The film cuts Killick and the whole naval plot.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe invented sister
Catherine, the Comte de Maquerre's sister, was created for TV. She stays at the fort and tempts Sharpe, who's already married to Jane.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe singing marksman
Daniel Hagman, the riflemen's best shot, is John Tams. He also wrote or arranged much of the show's music.
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- ReferenceNo book behind it
Sharpe's Mission isn't based on any Cornwell novel. It's an original TV story, set before Revenge.
source ↗ - CameoPre-fame Mark Strong
Colonel Brand, the war hero Sharpe rides with, is Mark Strong, long before Sherlock Holmes and Kingsman.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe shoot got its own special
The making of Sharpe's Mission got a 25-minute documentary, Sharpe's Shooting, aired in November 1996.
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- CameoBuffy's Wesley
Lord Rossendale, the man who gets close to Jane in London, is Alexis Denisof, Wesley on Buffy and Angel.
source ↗ - ReferenceDifferent duel, different brother
In the book, Sharpe duels Bampfylde and Lucille's brother is named Lassan. On TV, the duel is with Colonel Wigram and the brother becomes Maillot.
source ↗ - CameoEnter Lucille
Cécile Paoli debuts as Lucille, the Frenchwoman from Normandy who changes Sharpe's life after the war.
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- ReferenceAnother original story
Like Mission, Sharpe's Justice doesn't adapt a novel. TV created this stretch of Sharpe in England between Revenge and Waterloo.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesHome turf
Sean Bean was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, and his Sharpe always had a northern accent. This story heads right to Yorkshire.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA legend at the pub
In October 1997, ITV aired The Legend, a special in which rifleman Cooper recalls Sharpe's adventures over a pint.
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- CameoPaul Bettany, the prince
The blundering Prince of Orange, who gives bad orders all battle long, is Paul Bettany, Marvel's future Vision.
source ↗ - ReferenceThe son who wasn't born
In the book, Sharpe and Lucille already have a son, Patrick-Henri. Since TV cut the pregnancy in Revenge, the boy doesn't appear.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesMeant to be the end
Waterloo closed the original series in 1997. Cornwell once said he planned to end Sharpe with that book, then changed his mind.
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- CameoPadma Lakshmi in India
The concubine Madhuvanthi is Padma Lakshmi, later famous as the host of Top Chef.
source ↗ - ReferenceThree books in one
Challenge doesn't adapt a single novel. It blends Sharpe's Tiger, Sharpe's Triumph and Sharpe's Fortress, Sharpe's three India books.
source ↗ - ReferenceHakeswill by another name
Treacherous Sergeant Bickerstaff is modeled on Obadiah Hakeswill, Sharpe's nemesis in the India books.
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- ReferenceHakeswill's son
The prisoner Barabbas is the son of Obadiah Hakeswill, the man who killed Teresa in Sharpe's Enemy. Sharpe has to decide whether the son pays for the father.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesShot among Orchha's temples
It was filmed in India, mostly in Orchha and Khajuraho, from March to late April 2008.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe last TV Sharpe
Peril is the 16th and final film in the series. Besides the two-part broadcast, there's also a single 100-minute cut.
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