Sean Bean Back as Sharpe

Masterpiece Classic: "Sharpe's Peril"

Sharpe's Peril, by Russell Lewis, takes up where Sharpe's Challenge left off. Sharpe and Harper are on their way to Madras, from where they are to sail to England, when they come upon an East India Company baggage train, also making its way to Madras.

The party - which includes among its number a heavily pregnant woman and a headstrong French woman, Marie Angelique, who is joining her fiancé - travels warily through enemy territory. Its leaders fear Chitu, the legendary bandit leader who controls the area.

When the attack happens, the Company officers in charge prove inadequate to its defence, Sharpe has to take over and lead the party 300 miles through enemy territory. He has to train up the ill assorted group into proper soldiers and finds himself defending helpless villagers against the corrupt and ruthless Colonel Dragomirov the local Company commander in the area.

The thrilling adventures of Colonel Richard Sharpe continue as he leads a ragtag party of civilians and soldiers on a march across India, with the murderous army of an opium lord in hot pursuit. Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings) stars as Sharpe, with Daragh O’Malley as his comrade-in-arms, Sergeant Major Patrick Harper, in this latest installment of the series based on Bernard Cornwell’s best-selling novels. Laura Linney hosts.

The show was filmed in India in March and April of 2008. Using stunning locations throughout India including Orchha and Khajuraho, producers Malcolm Craddock and Muir Sutherland state; "India offers so many unique factors to a television drama, and excellent production value. We're taking advantage of wonderful vistas, exotic palaces, elephants and camels, the full vibrancy of this breathtaking country. It's an wonderful experience quite unlike anywhere in the West. Like us all, Sean is keen to return to this wonderful country, particularly as this time Sharpe is on the side of downtrodden villagers, fighting together against officers from the East India Company that he so despises for their airs and venality. It's classic Sharpe for a modern television audience."

Sharpe's Peril airs 4 April 2010 9 p.m. PBS