Things I've learned from Sharp on TV.

[FierceKitty]

1) Nobody ever missed.
2) Roundshot exploded.
3) Bayonettes were decorative; everyone fought with the butt of the weapon.
4) Light infantry in good going could stop cavalry attacks.
5) Shakoes were entirely optional.
6) The British army in the peninsula numbered about three hundred men. And the 95th Rifles half a dozen.
7) Nobody bled or left any mark on the sword that had just killed him.

[KTravlos]

Sean Bean used to never die
9) Sean Bean gets all the ladies

[petercooman]

10) hitting a backpack with a sword immediately kills the trooper wearing it.


Also, to succesfully assault a fort, you need 4 ladders, not 3 not 5 but 4. And shooting at someone on top of the fort always results in them jumping down the wall screeming aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[Ithoriel]

Re: Things I've learned from Sharp* on TV.

*Sharpe

Good points made FK, however, have you considered the following?

1) Nobody ever missed. - Sharpe's riflemen never missed, everyone shooting at them had the marksmanship of a Star Wars stormtrooper.
2) Roundshot exploded. - or everyone fired shrapnel shells all the time .. even the French.
3) Bayonettes were decorative; everyone fought with the butt of the weapon. - Killing actors, even accidentally, is frowned on. Even when they're actually Ukrainian military.
4) Light infantry in good going could stop cavalry attacks. - Infantry in good going are regularly cut to pieces by cavalry in Sharpe, just not when they're commanded by Sharpe
5) Shakoes were entirely optional. - campaign dress
6) The British army in the peninsula numbered about three hundred men. And the 95th Rifles half a dozen. Which was fine because the French Army was even smaller!
7) Nobody bled or left any mark on the sword that had just killed him. - Teflon swords?

[Maenoferren]

I can never watch Sharpe without thinking it was a smaller Napoleonic reenactment... some events I have been at actually had more people involved.... less explosions though...

[Westmarcher]

3) Bayonettes were decorative ...
4) Light infantry in good going could stop cavalry attacks.
5) Shakoes were entirely optional.
6) The British army in the peninsula numbered about three hundred men. And the 95th Rifles half a dozen.
7) Nobody bled or left any mark on the sword that had just killed him.

Actually, like a lot of war-games.   

[nikharwood]

It's still bloody good TV though - and makes me want to reach immediately for figures, dice and a glass of something eminently quaffable.

(is this the first FK typo then?!)

[FierceKitty]

I stand corrected. Sharpe it is. Shakespeare and Jane Austen and I have this problem with spelling.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Some admission there.

IanS

[Nosher]

Thankfully the US didn't get their hands on the series or the American's would have won entering the game at the 11th hour, capturing the French code books in the process and tanks would have been involved as a 'what if'.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

1812:About the only war Cornwell hasn't even grown Sharpe at!

[FierceKitty]

Oh, and virtually no-one worried about sunburn. Not one of the innumerable English and Irish ladies ever bothers to wear a sensible hat! Been to Spain, have you?

[Roy]

Ramrods are only to be used as a make-shift missile fired out of a rifle.
Using them, as intended, adds seconds to the loading process - So just 'tap' the butt on the ground and the ball (should) reach the charge.

The Prince Regent is the same bloke who commanded the 95th - This officer dying in the first episode and then resurrecting to become the King of England in waiting.
Take that all you monarchy haters   [Or, pee poor casting!]

Sharpe is actually from Sheffield, and not from where Cornwell wrote. [Where was it Sharpe's from in the books? Anyway, Sean Bean, man of a thousand voices, each one the same   ]

Nobody knows what happened to Rifleman Isaiah Tongue ... Same goes for Rifleman Cooper - He vanishes from the TV films, only to re-appear in Sharpe The Legend. What happened to him in the in-between?

[Ithoriel]

My understanding was that the actor playing Cooper had a falling out with the production company and walked out early from the series being shot and that his appearance in The Legend was all archive shots. Anyone know if I'm right or misremembering?

[Wulf]

Sharpe is actually from Sheffield, and not from where Cornwell wrote. [Where was it Sharpe's from in the books? Anyway, Sean Bean, man of a thousand voices, each one the same   ]

It's a Sean thing. Connery is the same (and both bloody good at it).

Wulf