''Sharpe's Waterloo'' is a British

television drama In film and television show, television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or docudrama, semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humour, humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional te ...

, the 14th part of a series that follows the career of Richard Sharpe, a fictional British soldier during the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

. The adaptation is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by

Bernard Cornwell Bernard Cornwell (born 23 February 1944) is an English author of historical novels and a history of the Waterloo Campaign. He is best known for his long-running series of novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe. He has also writ ...

Plot

In 1815, war breaks out once more as

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

returns to France from exile on

Elba Elba (, ; ) is a Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano National Park, a ...

. Richard Sharpe (

Sean Bean Sean Bean (born Shaun Mark Bean; 17 April 1959) is an English actor. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he made his professional debut in a production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' in 1983 at The Watermill Theatre. Retaining his ...

) cannot resist the chance to finally see his enemy and breaks his promise to his French lover Lucille (

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 starred as Françoise in a four-part television BBC mini-series in 1980 of the H.E. Bates novel, ...

) to fight no more. However, unlike his adulterous wife Jane (

Abigail Cruttenden Abigail Lucy Cruttenden (born 23 March 1968) is an English actress. After beginning her career as a child actress, she went on to play opposite Sean Bean as his character Richard Sharpe's wife Jane in several episodes of the TV series '' Sharp ...

), she forgives him and accompanies him to the battlefield, where he finds employment as a lieutenant colonel on the staff of Prince William of Orange (

Paul Bettany Paul Bettany (born 27 May 1971) is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the Disney+ series ''WandaVision'' (2021), which garn ...

) and makes the acquaintance of his aide de camp Colonel Rebecque ( Oliver Tobias). Sharpe then scouts far south of

Quatre Bras Quatre Bras (, French for crossroads; literally "four arms") is a hamlet in the municipality of Genappe, Wallonia, Belgium. It lies on the crossroad of the Charleroi–Brussels road (currently named N5) and the Nivelles–Namur road south of G ...

. 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 A cuirassier ( ; ; ) was a cavalryman equipped with a cuirass, sword, and pistols. Cuirassiers first appeared in mid-to-late 16th century Europe as a result of armoured cavalry, such as man-at-arms, men-at-arms and demi-lancers discarding their ...

s (who were pursuing Sharpe). Meanwhile, Lord Rossendale ( Alexis Denisof) has joined the staff of Lord Uxbridge (

Neil Dickson Neil Dickson (born 26 November 1950) is an English actor, who has worked extensively in both American and British film and television. Biography At the age of five, Dickson contracted polio, but made a complete recovery a year later. He attend ...

), Wellington's second-in-command, and has brought his lover, Sharpe's estranged wife Jane, with him to Brussels, but they find that not only will polite society refuse to accept or even acknowledge Jane but also that Sharpe is also in Brussels and close by. 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 Gerard Marion O'Malley (born 25 May 1954) is an Irish actor, director, and producer. O'Malley is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Patrick Harper in the series '' Sharpe'' (1993–2009) starring with Sean Bean although O'Malley ha ...

), and two of his long-time "chosen men": Hagman (

John Tams John Tams (born 16 February 1949) is an English actor, singer, songwriter, composer and musician born in Holbrook, Derbyshire, Holbrook, Derbyshire, the son of a Public house, publican. He first worked as a reporter for the ''Ripley, Derbyshire ...

) and Harris ( Jason Salkey). Sharpe scouts the French forces, while a contingent of Dutch musketeers holds a French column off. He then alerts the Duke of Wellington ( Hugh Fraser) at a

ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for s ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

that Napoleon is on the move. As Sharpe is leaving, he runs into Jane and Rossendale; he chases Rossendale and challenges him in front of the guests. When Rossendale shows his cowardice by refusing to fight (and wetting himself in the face of Sharpe's rage), Sharpe 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 re-encounters Rossendale on the field; Rossendale draws a pistol on Sharpe, but does not have the courage to fire as Sharpe calmly rides up to him. Sharpe takes both Rossendale's sword and pistol and breaks them. He makes Rossendale write the required

promissory note A promissory note, sometimes referred to as a note payable, is a legal instrument (more particularly, a financing instrument and a debt instrument), in which one party (the ''maker'' or ''issuer'') promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of ...

for Sharpe's money (which is actually worthless, since Jane has the money and Rossendale has no money of his own) and then tells Rossendale that he can have Jane since he has just bought her. That night, Rossendale invents a story for his fellow officers to explain the destruction of his sword and pistol, but later confesses the truth to Witherspoon. Witherspoon tells him the only way for Rossendale to regain his lost honor is to fight like a demon in the coming battle. As the battle rages, both Lucille and Jane wait for news; Lucille praying for Sharpe's safe return and Jane writing in her diary that she is pregnant with Rossendale's bastard child. Sharpe is sent to command the defence of a crucial farmhouse at

La Haye Sainte La Haye Sainte (, , named either after Jesus' crown of thorns or a nearby bramble hedge) is a walled farmhouse compound at the foot of an escarpment near Waterloo, Belgium, on the N5 road connecting Brussels and Charleroi. It has changed very ...

, which is defended by the

King's German Legion The King's German Legion (KGL; ) was a formation of the British Army during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Consisting primarily of expatriate Germans, it existed from 1803 to 1816 and achieved the distinction of being the on ...

and the

95th Rifles The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifle ...

. He saves a King's German Legion officer, Macduff. Believing that

has fallen, Prince William orders an English regiment to reform from

square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

to 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 while the Prince gallops away to save his own skin, leaving his men to be slaughtered by the French. Furious, Sharpe shoots the prince at long range from a secluded spot, but only succeeds in wounding him (the real William of Orange was also wounded at the Battle of Waterloo). Meanwhile, on another part of the battlefield, Rossendale fights French cuirassiers, but is ultimately killed. 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 The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...

, Napoleon sends in his elite

Imperial Guard An imperial guard or palace guard is a special group of troops (or a member thereof) of an empire, typically closely associated directly with the emperor and/or empress. Usually these troops embody a more elite status than other imperial force ...

. Sharpe repels the last-ditch assault, much to Wellington's delight. As the Prussians finally arrived, 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.

Cast

as Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Sharpe *

as Mr. Patrick Harper *

as Jane Sharpe * Alexis Denisof as Lord John Rossendale *

as Lucille Castineau * Hugh Fraser as Lord Wellington *

as Prince William of Orange * Oliver Tobias as Colonel Rebecque *

as Lord Uxbridge * Nicholas Irons as Harry Price * Martin Cochrane as Macduff * Jason Salkey as Sergeant Harris *

as Sergeant Daniel Hagman *

Martin Glyn Murray Martin Glyn Murray (born 1 February 1966 in Helsingør, Denmark) is a Danish-born British actor who has played Mark Thompson in ''Families'' and he has also been in ''The Bill'', '' Sharpe'', ''Aristocrats'', '' Enigma'', ''Enemy at the Gates'', ...

as Doggett *

Owen Brenman Owen Brenman (born 17 December 1956) is an English actor, known for his roles as Nick Swainey in the BBC sitcom ''One Foot in the Grave'' and Heston Carter in the BBC drama series ''Doctors''. Early and personal life Brenman was educated at U ...

as Witherspoon * Shaughan Seymour as Lieutenant-Colonel Ford *

Jane Merrow Jane Meirowsky (born 1941), known professionally as Jane Merrow, is an English actress who has been active from the 1960s in both Britain and the United States. Early years Merrow was born in 1941 in Hertfordshire to an English mother and Germ ...

as Duchess of Richmond * Chloe Newsome as Paulette * Janek Lesniak as Dutch Captain

Production

The programme was shot in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

External links

*
Sharpe's Waterloo at SharpeFilm.com
{{Sharpe Films 1997 British television episodes 1990s historical films 1990s war films Works about the Battle of Waterloo Films based on British novels Films based on historical novels Films based on military novels Films set in 1815 Waterloo War television films Cultural depictions of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Cultural depictions of William II of the Netherlands Cultural depictions of Napoleon Films directed by Tom Clegg (director)