Sharpe's Challenge

Sean Bean (Troy, The Lord of the Rings, James Bond: GoldenEye) returns as Richard Sharpe in what may be his grandest Sharpe adventure yet! Bring home the epic that offers vivid fight sequences, astounding scenery and riveting dramatic performances. Travel to India as Sharpe squares off with local Maharaja Amir Khan who threatens British interests. Challenged to free Khan of his gold, rubies and diamonds, Sharpe has a gem of a plan. But will it succeed? As seen on BBC America.

The award-winning Sharpe returns for an action-packed swashbuckling special shot entirely on location in India. A year after the battle of Waterloo, dispatches from India warn that a local Maharaja is threatening British interests. Wellington sends Sharpe to investigate on what turns out to be his most dangerous mission to date. The last scout sent, Sharpe's best friend Sergeant Harper - has gone missing and reports suggests that the real power behind the risings is Colonel Dodd, a malcontent East India Company Officer, and that the Maharaja has gathered into his impregnable fort a contingent of refugees from Napoleon's army. Once in India, Sharpe discovers the situation is far graver than he was led to believe; and things only get worse when the daughter of a British General is kidnapped and held in the Maharaja's fort by his villainous henchman, Colonel Dodd. Sharpe, now reunited with Harper, devises a plan to rescue the General's daughter - disguise themselves as deserters and become part of the Maharaja's motley crew. However once inside the fort things don't quite go as Sharpe has planned...

Episode 1 - The story opens in India in 1803 at Chasalgaon Fort, an outpost on the Hyderabad frontier between the British and the Mahratta princes. Disguised as British redcoats, Colonel Dodd leads a troop of soldiers into the fort. Taking the entire garrison by surprise, he orders the slaughter of everyone there. Sergeant Richard Sharpe of the King’s 33rd Regiment of Foot is among those left for dead.

Fourteen years later (a year after Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo), the Duke of Wellington sends for Sharpe, who has retired from the Army and is living as a farmer in France. Dispatches from India have informed Wellington that a local Maharaja, Khande Rao, is threatening British interests there. But Sharpe reckons it is only a matter of time before a man’s luck runs out and declines to go – until he learns that his friend and former comradein- arms Sergeant Harper has disappeared whilst out in India gathering intelligence. So Sharpe embarks upon what turns out to be his most dangerous mission yet.

The latest report suggests that the real power behind the Maharaja is Colonel Dodd, a malcontent East India Company officer turned rogue, who is in cahoots with Madhuvanthi, favourite consort to the late Maharaja, now ruling as Regent. Sharpe does not yet know that this is the man responsible for the massacre at Chasalgaon Fort. The Maharaja has gathered into his impregnable fort a contingent of refugees from Napoleon’s army, adventurers looking to make their fortunes in India. It’s the French that trouble Wellington the most: their experience, tactics and discipline turn the Maharaja’s men into a dangerous force to threaten the British presence in India.

But Wellington has not painted the full picture. Sharpe discovers the situation is already far graver than he was led to believe, and matters swiftly deteriorate when Celia, the beautiful daughter of General Burroughs, the commander of His Britannic Majesty’s forces in the region, is kidnapped and held captive in the Maharaja’s fort by his villainous henchman, Colonel Dodd.

General Burroughs himself is sick with fever and, to Sharpe’s disgust, command has been left in the incompetent hands of General Sir Henry Simmerson. The British were planning to storm the Maharaja’s fort by blowing up one of the outer walls, but the Maharaja now vows to execute the General’s daughter if any such attack is carried out.

General Simmerson is minded to wait and see, but Sharpe, now reunited with Harper, devises a plan. The two friends will disguise themselves as deserters and enter the Maharaja’s stronghold as volunteer soldiers. Once inside the palace fortress of Ferraghur, they will rescue the General’s daughter and get word to him of her safety, together with details of which side of the fort the British should attack. At first, all goes well. Colonel Pierre Gudin is easily convinced, but Dodd is another matter. Suspicious of their story, he orders Sharpe to shoot Harper to prove they are not British spies...

Episode 2 - Their loyalty tested, Sharpe and Harper join the French in training up the Maharaja’s army. They learn it matters not when the British forces strike the fort, but where.

Believing he has discovered a weakness, Simmerson plans a foolhardy attack to breach the west wall. Meanwhile, Sharpe realises they are being lured to that position of attack to enable the Maharaja’s men to trap the East Indian Company troops between the outer and newly built inner walls, blowing them to smithereens. But how will he get the message out without blowing his own cover?

Meanwhile, inside the fort, Sharpe is summoned to Madhuvanthi’s chamber. Suspecting she has diminished in Dodd’s affections, Madhuvanthi is looking for a new ally to help her in her designs upon the throne. Impressed by Sharpe’s earlier display of swordsmanship on the training ground against Dodd, Madhuvanthi tries to seduce Sharpe in an effort to win him to her cause.

As an attack on the fort begins, Sharpe’s attempt to rescue Celia Burroughs is thwarted when he is forced to join a ground attack on British troops outside the fort. Here he seeks help from an old adversary Sergeant Bickerstaff, who turns on him but is captured and taken back to the dungeons.

Vengeance is uppermost in Bickerstaff ’s mind and he betrays the two ‘deserters’ to save his own life. Locked up and awaiting execution, it seems impossible for Sharpe and Harper to save Celia and the East India Company army from a bloody death.

Fortunately, General Burroughs is now restored to health. He dismisses Simmerson and retakes command of his army.

But Princess Lalima is caught trying to escape to warn Celia’s father of the trap, hopeful she can save her brother Khande Rao’s life in the process. She is fearful that, once victorious, Dodd and Madhuvanthi will murder him.

As the British troops breach the outer walls of the fort with canon fire and the Forlorn Hope goes over the top, will Sharpe free himself in time to save the British soldiers? Will he be able to rescue the general’s daughter with her honour intact? And could his old enemy, the French, help him along the way?

Richard Sharpe	---	Sean Bean
Patrick Harper	---	Daragh O’Malley
William Dodd	---	Toby Stephens
Madhuvanthi	---	Padma Lakshmi
Gudin	---	Aurelien Recoing
Celia Burroughs	---	Lucy Brown
General Sir Henry Simmerson	---	Michael Cochrane
Mohan Singh	---	Aly Khan
Sgt Shadrach Bickerstaff	---	Peter Hugo-Daly
Bonnet	---	Thierry Hancisse
Khande Rao	---	Karan Panthaky
Lalima	---	Shruti Vyas
General Burroughs	---	Peter Symonds
Colonel Hector McRae	---	Graham McTavish
Stokes	---	Gary Dunningham

Written by Bernard Cornwell, Russell Lewis
Directed by Tom Clegg
Produced by Malcolm Craddock, Muir Sutherland
Executive Produced by Kathryn Mitchell, Stuart Sutherland, Stephen Wilkinson
Original Music by Dominic Muldowney, John Tams
Cinematography by Nigel Willoughby
Film Editing by Chris Rinsdale
Costume Design by Claire Anderson

“Ah, good news: Sharpe’s Challenge returns, after a gap of eight years ... This show has everything you’d expect. As well as that devilishly handsome but evil maharajah, there are bumbling, bullying, alcoholic British officers bursting out of their britches and losing their minds in the heat of the subcontinent. There are plenty of comedy Indians, some good, some bad, lots killed. There are romantic but impenetrable forts on tops of hills, belly dancers, incense and veiled women of extraordinary beauty. There’s a blonde English rose as well, called Celia, whose job is to be captured, to heave her ample bosom, and to have her clothes removed at every opportunity. She falls for Mr Bean, of course - Sean, not Rowan Atkinson - in spite of his 1970s footballer’s haircut and his lack of lips. And above everything, somewhere between the action and the relentless sun, vultures circle. Fabulous.” -Sam Wollaston, Guardian

“A real rip-roaring, swashbuckling adventure not to be missed.”- Alison Lumm, Daily Mirror

“Swash and buckle ... remained in place right to the end - when a terrfic cliffhanger set up tonight’s concluding part very nicely indeed.” -James Walton, Daily Telegraph

“After the opening chapter’s intrigue, a handsome finale to this rousing adventure, studded with seduction, betrayal and the military buffoonery our long-suffering hero is well used to by now.” Chris Riley, Daily Telegraph

“Sharpe’s Challenge was well up to the standard of previous rollicking adventures in this occasional series ... The Indian scenery is voluptuous, the gory battle scenes pull no punches ... the action was dizzying ... and the characters are sharply, if cartoonishly drawn, making it easy to tell the goodies from the baddies.” -Peter Paterson, Daily Mai

“It’s a sumptuous show, such a treat for the eyes you could watch with no sound ... a superb cliffhanger [end of Episode 1]...” -Matt Baylis, Daily Express

“ITV’s sweeping historical entertainment, filled with fruity cameo performances and filmed on location in western Jaipur with 4,000 extras ... “It’s got great scale to it,” says Sean Bean, the actor who playes Sharpe, “a big budget and some fantastic characters.” What more could anyone ask for?”- David Chater, TheTimes

“...lavish ... the story rollicks along and is superbly made and well cast.”- Martin James, Sunday Times

“Entertaining hokum.” -Jonathan Wright, Guardian

“It’s all here, in fact: gratuitous swordplay, gratuitously exposed female breasts, even more gratuitously exposed male breasts, and, best of all, the solemn arrival of the line, ‘What brings you to India, Mr Sharpe?’” -Giles Smith, Sunday Telegraph

“Our favourite bit-of-rough swashbuckler...” -Jane Simon, Daily Mirror