Sharpe's Challenge (Blu-ray)

Sean Bean is back in the award-winning series as adventure hero Sharpe in the action-packed special, Sharpe's Challenge, now in high definition!

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...

“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

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