Saturday, September 22, 2012

Sharpe's Justice: Sharpe Goes Home Next Sharpe Sundays



Sharpe's Justice

It's 1814 and Richard Sharpe is posted to the last place on earth he wants to be: Yorkshire.  "Bloody Yorkshire to find some Bloody Yeoman." Sharpe is going back to the home he left as a different person 20 years before.

Europe is temporarily at peace and Napoleon is in exile at Elba. Sharpe is posted to his native Yorkshire to head the Scarsdale Yeomanry. There he encounters the overdressed and overconfident George Wickham who has been in command of the Yeomanry before Sharpe’s arrival.  



Wickham seems to be allied with two prominent cotton mill owners in town. (They need better looking cotton mill owners in this town.) One of them, Parfitt, has come up from the business ranks to become a wealthy man. He and Sharpe seem to have much in common, though appearances can be deceiving.  




Sharpe  finds out he’s expected to put down post-war unrest.  Now that the war is over England is flooded with unemployed men, including Dan Hagman.  This flood of unemployed has given the mill owners an excuse to lower wages. This is opposed by a rebel in town, Truman, who incites the unemployed to protest and demand better wages.



Sharpe has already encountered Truman on the way into town when he and the Yeomanry are ambushed on the road. But Sharpe and Truman discover they have a very close connection.



Sharpe is also trying to get his money back from his adulterous wife Jane and her new lover Rossendale. He doesn’t know that Rossendale has gambled away all his money.  He’s surprised to find that Jane is now at Rossendale’s ancestral estate near Sharpe in Yorkshire and goes seeking her there. 



To Sharpe’s rescue both in London and in Yorkshire comes his familiar “guardian angel” Lady Anne. She warns Sharpe about Wickham and Parfitt and also about Jane and Rossendale. She’s there to help Sharpe, but in exchange she hopes for more. But Sharpe is still yearning for Lucille who he left back in France.


Will Sharpe reconcile with his childhood in Yorkshire? Will he get his money back from Jane? Will he stay with Lady Anne or go back to Lucille in France?

A little history today. This episode was inspired by the Peterloo Massacre of 1819:

"On the 16th of August 1819 the huge open area around what's now St Peters Square, Manchester, played host to an outrage against over 60,000 peaceful pro-democracy and anti-poverty protesters; an event which became known as The Peterloo Massacre."
From www.peterloomassacre.org read more about it HERE.

For those in the UK or those around the world that watch British Television we have two very familiar faces in this episode:

Philip Glenister who plays Truman and many know from the hit show "Life on Mars" and many, many, other programs.




Wickham is played by Douglas Henshall known to many as Nick Cutter from the hit show "Primeval" and many other programs as well.





Please join new and longtime Sharpe fans for the Global Sharpe Watch this Sunday, September 23, 3:00pm EST/US, 8:00pm UK, 9:00pm Continent on Tweet Chat.  For all the details and "How To's" go to  Sharpe Lives Movie Club Facebook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/SharpeLivesMovieClub?sk=notes

Or to Distracted Musings of One Reality at the link below:

http://distractedinreality.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/sharpe-lives-or-sharpe-sundays/



2 comments:

  1. OMG can't miss this one...pls no more birthdays on Sundays,I'll declare! And Jane....oh Jane....how could u???
    @teiteiforever

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know, how could she. Especially for that empty headed Rossendale. I hate Jane.

    Though I will admit Sharpie doesn't wait long to have a new woman, well, new women, in his life.

    ReplyDelete

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