r/Sharpe

Hi everyone,

I’m going to be completely honest with you all, this is one where we really need the Sharpe community to rally behind us.

A few years ago, as a huge Sharpe fan myself, I reached out to Daragh about starring in a short film I was making, and I honestly couldn’t believe it when he agreed to come on board. We immediately hit it off, and over the last few years we’ve become very close friends. Now my co-director Marko and I are developing a documentary centred around Daragh’s extraordinary friendship with Marlon Brando during the collapse of the unfinished 1995 film Divine Rapture in Ireland.

But honestly, alongside the Brando side of things, this documentary has also become a huge celebration of Sharpe itself, Patrick Harper, and all the incredible stories and memories that came out of that world. The more time I’ve spent with Daragh, the more I’ve realised just how many fascinating stories came out of those years making Sharpe, both on and off screen.

For me personally, Sergeant Patrick Harper is one of the greatest characters ever, and clearly still means so much to people decades later.

We’ve been uncovering unseen archive material connected to the project, including original Divine Rapture footage, rare photographs and even voicemail tapes left for Daragh by Brando himself.

Truthfully, independent filmmaking is hard, and we’re currently trying to get the core filming of the documentary properly off the ground ourselves. The core shoot would involve spending time with Daragh in Ireland, alongside filming interviews in London with contributors connected to Sharpe and that world. We’d also love, at some stage, to sit down with Sean Bean himself to talk about those years making Sharpe alongside Daragh, and the friendship they built over so many episodes and years together.

If anybody would like to support the documentary and help us get cameras rolling, the campaign link is here:

https://gofund.me/30dc214fc

P.S. The last photo is of Vincent, Daragh’s parrot, who may end up stealing the entire film.

Chris

Instagram: chris_jacobsen

From the episodes I've seen, Sharpe's Gold sticks the most with me because Lt. Ayres, who's acts as one of the antagonistic roles for the episode, really doesn't seem that antagonistic to me.

Yes I know he hanged one of Sharpe's men for what can be considered a minor crime, but he follows strict orders from the provost marshal to punish crimes as, in this case (Stealing a chicken), with death, since the provost marshal intends to see that Wellington's army is free from "Corruption" by the time they invade France; in other words, he's just another soldier following orders set by superior officers, since by the time Wellington orders the provost marshal to hold all current and future desertors in detention we dont really see Ayres doing something that goes againts said orders, as seen when he and his provost take the desertors from El Casco back to the camp in one piece (Or at least till they go back to find Elli and Bess Nugent)

On top of that, he doesn't really show any despicable actions during the episode done out of malice: When he's assigned to go out with Sharpe and his men to conduct the desertors trade, he doesn't object to it and instead seeks Sharpe to state he means to be on good terms with him since he was just doing his job, and during the trip when he sees Sharpe and Elli making out he doesn't even mention it till waay later in the episode while they're looking for Elli and Bess, questioning if Sharpe is really only looking for them cause of Ellie. You can also mention the fact he decided to help Sharpe look for Ellie and Bess instead of going back to camp (Though this might've been for self interest reasons, Im not sure), he proves useful at deciphering what the book dropped by the french calvary captain said thanks to his studies. Lastly, when they were at El Casco's sacrificial place, he was the first to go in to rescue Ellie after the distraction caused by rifles and the french captain, eating a knife that would've most likely killed Sharpe if he was the one going first since Sharpe isn't exacly known for being good at dodging attacks in the previous episodes, though you could also say this was just Ayres being inexperienced compared to Sharpe, as shown earlier in the episode when Ayres alerted the French Calvary that they were spotted by acting erratically.

I feel the only real reason why he's considered as someone "bad" in the episode is just because Sharpe doesn't like him cause he killed one of his men and Sharpe not only was able to do nothing about it but also had to apologize to him and the provost marshal as ordered by Wellington, and as such held a grudge againts him for the whole episode; you could also consider some scenes as him making fun of Ellie's american gun, acting a bit weird during the shooting competition between Ellie and Sharpe, scaring Ellie by telling her more about the sacrificial rituals (Though I feel like this was just him trying to show off his studies) and that scene where he provoques Sharpe by mentioning he was only looking for the women for Ellie since he was making out with her.

Overall I feel like Lt. Ayres was just a character that was labled as "bad" due to having friction with Sharpe, who's our main character and who the story is based off about. Maybe someone who read the books could confirm if in the books it is the same way or something is different that depicts him as more of an actual bad guy?

Hear me out!

First off, I appreciate what they tried to do with Private Skillicorn. He had good chemistry with the others, and Hagman’s song about him was fun to listen to. But all the same, he only appeared in less than half of one episode.

Meanwhile, Sharpe’s Gold was the last time we saw Cooper anyway (not sure why that was, but I digress). Just like poor Isaiah Tongue, Cooper disappears without so much as a farewell in the series, which is rather sad given the tragic send-off that Perkins got in the very next episode. And yes, I know he’s injured at one point, but he seems to have made a full recovery by the time the episode is over.

So why not have him be the victim of Ayres’ rigid law enforcement? He was long established to be a career criminal (despite his repeated denials). And his being hanged would have really hit audiences hard after he’d been around for several episodes.

To be clear, I’m not saying that being hanged for looting was a great departure for Cooper. I’m saying that if Sharpe’s Gold was going to be his final episode regardless, why not at least acknowledge it?

1814 vs 2026

1. Recent multinational war kills lots of people
2. A recent epidemic wipes out more people
3. Laborers are scraping by on almost no wages or experiencing multiple layoffs
4. Most people struggle with high cost of living
5. Children are starving and/or dying of the pox
6. A corporate overlord brags he's a self-made man, but committed many violent crimes with the help of a corrupt military unit to do it
7. Common people are claiming technology is taking away their jobs and want to rebel

Over 200 years and what has changed again?

i made a few for my toploader

Alec and Errol have pistols but no additional ammo outside of the mag in the gun. Sharpe has his flintlock with additional ammo pouch. Ned has four House Stark Guards. Free-for-all takes place in a wood and those without firearms are aware of what they are.

I might be the last person to spot this but just in case anyone else missed it too.

Was watching this back today for the umpteenth time. In the scene where sharpe meets the old sergeant with one leg, and goes with him into the stock room or whatever it’s called. There’s a bit where the sergeant turns around and you can massively clearly see the foot sticking up of the leg that he’s got bent up behind him so the knee goes into the wooden leg.

The man’s a goddam fraud, sir!

Hello all,
In short, I play a 18th century character at a national LARP, and we are big into trading trinkets. Since my character and a lot of other players are HEAVILY inspired by Sharpe, I was planning on handing out “the Kings Shilling” as part of my character. I know I should post this in a different subreddit but I didn’t know if there were any 3D printers in the sub who have found STLs of Shillings. I plan on printing them in resin to get the higher details.
I already have an Imperial Eagle STL that I plan on printing and presenting it to a guy who’s making LARP safe Congreve rockets
(If this is too off topic, mods can remove that’s okay. )