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.
8) Sean Bean used to never die
9) Sean Bean gets all the ladies
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
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?
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...
Quote from: FierceKitty on 21 June 2016, 04:07:30 PM
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. :)
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?!)
I stand corrected. Sharpe it is. Shakespeare and Jane Austen and I have this problem with spelling.
Some admission there.
IanS
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'.
1812:About the only war Cornwell hasn't even grown Sharpe at!
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?
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 ;D [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 =O ]
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?
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?
Quote from: RoyWilliamson on 22 June 2016, 09:47:54 AM
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 =O ]
It's a Sean thing. Connery is the same (and both bloody good at it).
Wulf
Quote from: RoyWilliamson on 22 June 2016, 09:47:54 AM
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 =O ]
From London was outr Mr Sharpie, from the Rookery.
... and he had dark hair. :-B
I remember seeing an interview with Bernard Cornwell where he said that, after the making of the TV series, when he thought of Sharpe he imagined Sean Bean not his original vision of the character.
Quote from: Ithoriel on 22 June 2016, 10:09:59 AM
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?
Ah, pity if that is true because I quite liked the character.
Cooper's use in The Legend, has him sat in a pub, drinking, and recounting the tales of what you've already seen. His bits are 'new' but the rest is just clips from the TV films.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_P7yGH5UbCWc/SKZl6pWbjtI/AAAAAAAAAqc/SSw4kmbE-Hw/s200/cooper.jpg)
On the subject of the other Chosen Men, it was great to see John Tams (Hagman) appear in ITV's Jericho in his acting and musical capacity.
Back to things I've learned from Sharpe;
Liz Hurley should always be complimented on her breasts. :-*
The correct use of cavalry on the battlefield is best demonstrated with peas on a plate.
In the books Sharpe is born in a very rough part of London known as the Roockery, but when apprenticed to a chimney sweep he runs away, eventually ending up in Yorkshire, where he commits murder at the age of 15, and joins the army (33rd Foot), being recruited by Hakeswill, to escape the gallows. In the books he is a very, very rough diamond.
Quote from: Leman on 22 June 2016, 01:25:12 PM
In the books Sharpe is born in a very rough part of London known as the Roockery, but when apprenticed to a chimney sweep he runs away, eventually ending up in Yorkshire, where he commits murder at the age of 15, and joins the army (33rd Foot), being recruited by Hakeswill, to escape the gallows. In the books he is a very, very rough diamond.
Sharpe runs away to Yorkshire in the books to explain Sean Bean's accent in the TV series.
Quote from: Nosher on 22 June 2016, 07:33:15 AM
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'.
:)
Actually here IS our version :D:
The 95th is pictured briefly in one of the slides (several companies of the 3rd battalion were present).
I guess this is the Canadian Sharpe then :)
Well that seems entirely fair :) (We had burned the Capitol of Upper Canada the year before after all). No 95th involved however (maybe elements of the 60th?)
One of the McGann brothers was originally slated to play Sharpe, but smashed his leg playing football during a lunch break in rehearsals, so Sean Bean was free and dropped into the role!
Oh God - Sharpe would've been a scouser and hanged for robbing a wild chicken (pronounced chi-chen - ch as in Scottish loch whilst trying to get up phlegm at the same time - the pronunciation is a sheer delight).
Learnt something else tonight whilst watching Sharpe's Sword; you can indeed receive a sword cut to the shoulder that goes through to the bone and get a musket ball in the gut and within three days lead a spirited charge.
Quote from: Leman on 22 June 2016, 08:34:40 PM
Learnt something else tonight whilst watching Sharpe's Sword; you can indeed receive a sword cut to the shoulder that goes through to the bone and get a musket ball in the gut and within three days lead a spirited charge.
Entirely possible if "spirited" here means staggering drunk on rum spritzers.
Didn't Hagman and Tongue die at Waterloo after they left Hougamont or Le Hay Sainte??? :-\
Hagman certainly did. I'm now up to disc 7 of 8 and Tongue seemed to disappear ages ago.
Quote from: Obsidian23 on 13 July 2016, 01:22:44 PM
Didn't Hagman and Tongue die at Waterloo after they left Hougamont or Le Hay Sainte??? :-\
It Hagman and Harris - their final act being to link hands as they expire.