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Jason Salkey, Sean Bean and Lyndon Davies at Fort Amherst. Pictures courtesy of Eddie Sampson. Thanks to Sylvene for the heads up !

Bernard Cornwell was inet viewed on Calender this week, and thanks to Southernbelle we have the transcript of what he said about Sean.

I think it's going to look great. They filmed in India again. I think most people especially the women are going to be watching for Sean Bean aren't they?

I think Sean is wonderful. I think he's absolutely terrific.

He originally got the part by accident when the other actor who had the part fell over. He was playing soccer on the beach against the extras who were from the Ukrainian army. He did something dreadful to his leg.
I can't remember. Just something awful. And they had to replace him. And they only had 10 days. And the only actor available was Sean Bean,
who I don't think had actually bothered to audition. But they were stuck. They had to have him.

And I can remember the producer calling me and saying the very first shot they did with him they knew he was right. And they were right. He's absolutely wonderful.

And when I write Sharpe nowadays, I mean, I see and hear Sean. I do hear his voice very distinctly in my head. So he's become Sharpe.

I do get complaints from people who say look in the books you say Sharpe is a Londoner. But I also say he ran away from London when he was about 11 or 12 and lived in Yorkshire till he joins the army. He joined the army in Sheffield. So that's plenty of time there to pick up a good accent, a decent accent, so Sean is right. I mean it was all a happy accident and he sounds perfect

You see Sean on screen and there's that slightly grumpy look, you know, and I think, yeah that's Sharpe which is great. And he loves, I think he really does love playing Sharpe and he thinks that Sharpe is his character.

I think there will be more Sharpe. And I hope I'll be writing more Sharpe books and I hope Sean Bean stays looking young enough to play Sharpe.

Thanks to Svetlana the covers for the Sharpe books that were up till now released in Russia.

Sharpe's Trafalgar & Sharpe's Triump

 Sharpe's Tiger & Sharpe's Rifles

Sharpe's Fortress & Sharpe'sEagle

Cover for the Dutch subtitled Sharpe's Challenge, which I discovered only this week.

Cartoon on the Blades Campaign for fairness, scanned bu Jeanne ! UK Mirror, June 16 2007.

"How lucky can one man be? Me, I mean. To have Sean Bean step into Sharpe's boots at such short notice and then prove to be the quintessential Sharpe? He was a revelation. For a start, of course, he's a terrific actor, but in many ways his own character is not unlike Sharpe's. There is toughness and anger in Sean, and I suspect a wariness of folk he does not know well. He is, like Sharpe, a formidable man. Folk instinctively treat him with respect, but then, suddenly, the smile will break and you see the core decency. The greatest compliment I can play Sean, other than saying I like him hugely, is that he really did take over Sharpe. I hear Sean's voice when I write Sharpe. It is a wonderful coincidence of actor and character, and I hope Sean feels the same."

Click to enlarge

Sean Bean's wiry physique is now so famous in its own right that in the first scene of last night's Sharpe's Revenge (ITV) he was initially shown from behind, just to prove it. "That's him!" we swooned. "That's him!" Seated at a desk in a big white blouse, he could have been anybody. But the particular angle of his bony shoulder, the particular length of his head, his feathery haircut, well, it wasn't anybody else. People sometimes suppose that the attraction of Sharpe is its ripping yarns, or possibly the excellent opportunity it provides to revisit forgotten campaign details of the Napoleonic Wars. But it's not Old Boney that fascinates; it's Young Lanky that packs them in. Single-handedly, this paragon of scrawny British manhood has taken military frogging and restored it to its rightful place in the romantic wardrobe of women's hearts.

Tosh with a phenomenal budget, that's Sharpe. If there is a barren hillside in all Europe he has not spectacularly stormed in the cause of this series, it's been awarded a plaque to say so. Cannon to the right of him, cannon to the left of him, dust pluming, swords clanking, bodies succumbing like skittles to the blast. What Sharpe brilliantly achieves is toy-soldier battles under foreign skies; splendidly enthusiastic, and not the slightest bit real.

Although the catering truck is never actually glimpsed, the waft of tea-urn and bacon butty forever mixes with the cordite. At any moment in Sharpe, it's all too easy to imagine the battle-stained Bean, sandy of eyebrow and bloody of thigh, pouring HP Sauce on a big plate of hot dinner and casually tapping ash off his lunchtime fag.

Last night's story entailed a trumped-up charge against Sharpe which detained him in France. His beloved wife Jane (Abigail Cruttenden) dithered momentarily, then journeyed to London, withdrew Sharpe's fortune, spent it stupidly, and took a lover.

Jane's flimsiness of character, it may be noted, sets back the cause of women by 200 years. When Sharpe heard of Jane's perfidy, he took immediate action; breaking the bedroom door of a French widow who'd already had the extraordinary good fortune to nurse his manly thigh. "Beggin' yer pardon ma'am," he growled, "But yer door was locked." All over Britain, women exhaled audibly, and raced to open windows and adjust the thermostat.

When, six years ago, I first started this telly-watching job, I reviewed a mild little BBC play called My Kingdom for a Horse by John Godber. The then unknown Sean Bean, in drab clothes and horrendous specs, played an emotionally inert 31-year-old Yorkshire history teacher called Steve, who at weekends enacted Sealed Knot battles, in the role of lowly pikeman. The BBC should repeat My Kingdom for a Horse; it was a light and lovely film and, as a man of supreme inaction, Bean was great. On the field of battle, Steve's greatest talent was for playing dead; a metaphor for his life in general. If you'd told him he would ever bust down a door (as above) as a matter of thrusting romantic urgency, he would probably have fainted.

Since this is my last telly column (I am moving to Sport), I could take a grand overview of telly-I-have-known, but actually, the contrast between Sharpe's Revenge and My Kingdom for a Horse is enough. I had kept the tape, so I watched it again. And though it was made only seven years ago, in terms of production values it was ancient history: grainy, flat, slow, and eerily quiet.

On the other hand, in terms of subtlety of plot, characterisation and dialogue, it was vastly superior to Sharpe's Revenge, which operates (like much popular drama) mainly on the level of dumb-show. "You're a damn poor liar, but you're a damn good friend, Patrick Harper," declared Sharpe last night, flashing his teeth in the twilight, and it was by far the most complex sentiment to be expressed over the whole two hours.

No, in Sharpe, when they talk about raising standards, they mainly mean hoisting the flag. Otherwise, it's "Mon dieu! C'est Sharpe!" or "To Naples!" and lots of charging uphill ("Aaaaaagh!") in attractive frogging. Sharpe is serious only in so far as it's not funny. The only thing they treat with total reverence is Sean Bean's taut masculinity, a subject to which (oddly) I just keep on returning.

That particular cry "To Naples!", incidentally, is one of the more touching aspects of Sharpe. Last night it was imperative to Sharpe's tribunal that a French witness was trailed to Normandy. "To Normandy!" they cried, and set off at once. At no point did anyone ask for an exact address, or say doomily "Big place, Normandy". Later, they all set off for Naples with the same worrying vagueness, and the same pinpoint success. When you think of the number of times you've managed to miss somebody standing on the same station platform, you have to admit life was simpler in 1814 than we can possibly conceive today.

Next week, we get Sharpe's Justice, and the week after, Sharpe's Waterloo; in which (who knows?) perhaps Sharpe will wait confused at the bottom of the Eurostar escalator, and miss his new French girlfriend standing at the top. Anyway, your new telly critic Joe Joseph will report from the sofa in my place, and I can picture him already surrounded by a mounting stack of videotapes, steadily losing all body functions save right-thumb mobility (for working the remote).

It's been a privilege to write about television for so long. Thank you for all the letters. Happy viewing.

Some "on the set" pictures, thanks to Laura !

Source : The Sharpetorium

• 202 lashes (Tiger)
  
• Lance wound to side (Tiger)
  
• Clipped by musket ball on scalp (Triumph)
  
• Gash in left cheek (Fortress)
  
• Sword slash to back (Rifles TV - twice!)
  
• Saber slash to arm (Justice)
  
• Bayonet slash to thigh (Eagle)
  
• Sword slash to knee (Eagle Book & TV)
  
• Pistol bullet wound to thigh (Eagles TV; Company TV)
  
• Pistol ball in leg (Company)
  
• Richochet into shoulder (Gold Book)
  
• Musket ball wound to abdomen (Sword Book & TV)
  
• Rusty nails fired by shotgun. Wounded in thigh (Revenge TV), shoulder and ear (Revenge Book)
  
• Saber slash to arm (Justice)
  
• Punches, kicks and body blows (Eagle TV; Honour TV; Justice)

In this picture you see Paul McCann (the actor who would play Richard Sharpe originally) posing as Sharpe.

Over the Hills and Far Away

Source : Wikipedia free encyclopedia

Over the Hills and Far Away is a traditional English song, dating back to at least the early 1700's. The words have changed over the years, as can be seen in the versions below. The tune was provided with another set of lyrics for the Sharpe movies.

A version of the lyrics by Georgw Farquhar for his play The Recruiting Officer from 1706.

We all shall lead more happy lives

By getting rid of brats and wives

That scold and bawl both night and day -

Over the Hills and far away.

Over the Hills and O'er the Main,

To Flanders, Portugal and Spain,

The queen commands and we'll obey

Over the Hills and far away.

Courage, boys, 'tis one to ten,

But we return all gentlemen

All gentlemen as well as they,

Over the hills and far away.

Over the Hills and O'er the Main,

To Flanders, Portugal and Spain,

The queen commands and we'll obey

Over the Hills and far away.

Another version of the song, as used in John Gay's, The Begger's Opera from 1728.

MacHeath:

Were I laid on Greenland's coast,

And in my arms embrac'd my lass;

Warm amidst eternal frost,

Too soon the half year's night would pass.

And I would love you all the day.

Ev'ry night would kiss and play,

If with me you'd fondly stray

Over the hills and far away.

Polly:

Were I sold on Indian soil,

Soon as the burning day was clos'd,

I could mock the sultry toil

When on my charmer's breast repos'd.

I would love you all the day.

Ev'ry night would kiss and play,

If with me you'd fondly stray

Over the hills and far away.

Over the hills and far away...

Duet:

Were I laid on Greenland's coast,

And in my arms embrac'd my lass;

Warm amidst eternal frost,

Too soon the half year's night would pass.

And I would love you all the day.

Ev'ry night would kiss and play,

If with me you'd fondly stray

Over the hills and far away.

This is the version that is used in the Sharpe (TV series movies), written by John Tams. Note that each verse is from a different movie, as noted at the start of the verse.

Chorus:

O'er the hills and o'er the main

Through Flanders, Portugal and Spain.

King George commands and we obey

Over the hills and far away.

From Sharpe's Eagle & Sharpe's Mission:

There's forty shillings on the drum

To those who volunteer to come,

To 'list and fight the foe today

Over the Hills and far away.

From Sharpe's Company:

Mid smoke and fire and shot and shell,

And to the very walls of hell,

But we shall stand and we shall stay

Over the hills and far away

From Sharpe's Enemy:

Though I may travel far from Spain

A part of me shall still remain,

And you are with me night and day

Over the hills and far away.

From Sharpe's Honour & Sharpe's Siege:

Then fall in lads behind the drum

With colours blazing like the sun.

Along the road to come what may

Over the hills and far away.

From Sharpe's Gold:

When Evil stalks upon the land

I'll neither hold nor stay me hand

But fight to win a better day,

Over the hills and far away.

From Sharpe's Battle:

If I should fall to rise no more,

As many comrades did before,

Ask the pipes and drums to play

Over the hills and far away.

From Sharpe's Sword:

Let kings and tyrants come and go,

I'll stand adjudged by what I know.

A soldiers life I'll ne'er gainsay.

Over the hills and far away.

From Sharpe's Challenge:

Though kings and tyrants come and go

A soldier's life is all I know

I'll live to fight another day

Over the hills and far away.

No version of the song accompanies Sharpe's Rifles, Regiment, Revenge and Justice. A tongue-in-cheek verse appears in Sharpe's Waterloo:

Old Wellington, he scratched his bum.

He says, "Bony lad, thee's had thee fun."

My riflemen will win the day

Over the hills and far away.

Tams recorded a variation of the above lyrics for Over the Hills^& Far Away, The Music of Sharpe, the companion CD to the television film series. The lyrics for that version go

There's forty shillings on the drum

For those who volunteer to come,

To 'list and fight the foe today

Over the Hills and far away

[Chorus]

O'er the hills and o'er the main

Through Flanders, Portugal and Spain

King George commands and we obey

O'er the hills and far away

When duty calls me I must go

To stand and face another foe

But part of me will always stray

Over the hills and far away

[Chorus]

If I should fall to rise no more

As many comrades did before

Then ask the fifes and drums to play

Over the hills and far away

[Chorus]

Then fall in lads behind the drum

With colors blazing like the sun

Along the road to come what may

Over the hills and far away

The Sharpe songvid I made.