Sharpe or Hornblower - Which is the better series?

[Mission Drift]

Sharpe's the man in this case and no not just because the name "Hornblower" sounds a bit like a gay right of passage on the high seas.

[Roman]

Difficult..

Has anybody seen the French TV miniseries 'Napoleon' starring Christian Clavier as Napoleon?

'The Duellists' with Harvey Keitel is a great film too..

[castrolcraig]

sharpe, hands down.


sean bean's finest work.

[Mattygooner]

Sharpe, all day, over the hills and far away.

Wasn't Gene Hunt his brother?

[Red Firecracker]

Mattygooner said:

Sharpe, all day, over the hills and far away.

Wasn't Gene Hunt his brother?

Yup, Sharpe's Justice.

[FourWheelDrift]

Sharpe edges it, although you can play at being Hornblower today because the HMS Indefatigable, in real life The Grand Turk is for sale, if you have £2.8million handy. Bargain

http://easternyachts.com/grandturk/

[RedLeicester]

FourWheelDrift said:

Sharpe edges it, although you can play at being Hornblower today because the HMS Indefatigable, in real life The Grand Turk is for sale, if you have £2.8million handy. Bargain

http://easternyachts.com/grandturk/

Oh stop it, I keep looking at that...

[DrTre]

Just discussing this with people at work and we've accidentally invented the concept of Shafts Rifles whereby a black 70's private eye leads a rag tag body of loyal men against the cowardly French and Spanish, all set to backing music by Isaac Hayes.

PS Sharpe > Hornblower.

[Mst007]

Sharpe. Was never that keen on the singing mind. Would have been superb if slightly bigger budget, but they did a great job with what they had. Influenced me to visit Waterloo and even did some napoloenic re-enactment for a few years. Ah bugger, did i say that out loud?

[alfabadass]

308mate said:

Red Firecracker said:

Sharpe had Obadiah Hakeswill,



played by the superb Pete Postlethwaite.

That's why it wins.

Edited by Red Firecracker on Wednesday 11th February 09:45

Saw him in a bar in Perth WA once. I went over and said "Hello Pete. Just wanted to tell you I thought you were brilliant in Sharpe."
"Thats nice." he said - didnt even look up from his beer.

Life imitating art maybe....

A friend met him in Wales. At least you got a reply

[TonyHetherington]

FourWheelDrift said:

Sharpe edges it, although you can play at being Hornblower today because the HMS Indefatigable, in real life The Grand Turk is for sale, if you have £2.8million handy. Bargain

Fan flippin tastic! How cool would that be to own?

[Lurking Lawyer]

richw_82 said:

Sharpe is the better. Hornblower started out as a junior officer, Sharpe didn't.

Eh? He was commissioned from the ranks after saving Wellington's life in India in the books, although I think in the first TV episode they moved that to early in the Peninsular campaign.

Either way, the Sharpe TV series starts off with him as a newly-commissioned Lieutenant. So, yes, he did start out as a junior officer.

[DrTre]

Umm..why the argument about the relative merits of one fictitious person versus another fictitous person in relation to their fictitious backgrounds?

[G'kar]

Lurking Lawyer said:

richw_82 said:

Sharpe is the better. Hornblower started out as a junior officer, Sharpe didn't.

Eh? He was commissioned from the ranks after saving Wellington's life in India in the books, although I think in the first TV episode they moved that to early in the Peninsular campaign.

Either way, the Sharpe TV series starts off with him as a newly-commissioned Lieutenant. So, yes, he did start out as a junior officer.

That's the point. He wasn't officer class to begin with, but fought his way up.

Lowly though he was, Hornblower still bought a commission, IIRC.

Tre, it's the internets.

Edited by G'kar on Wednesday 11th February 11:48

[DrTre]

G'kar said:

Tre, it's the internets.

Edited by G'kar on Wednesday 11th February 11:48

Yeah, fair point, for some reason it tickled me but it's no different to arguing Batman vs Spiderman vs Superman on which I can wax lyrical for...actually not very long; Batman every time.

[FourWheelDrift]

TonyHetherington said:

FourWheelDrift said:

Sharpe edges it, although you can play at being Hornblower today because the HMS Indefatigable, in real life The Grand Turk is for sale, if you have £2.8million handy. Bargain

Fan flippin tastic! How cool would that be to own?

Terrorise the billionaires in Monte Carlo harbour and make Abramovich and Ellison walk the plank.....yaaaaaarrrr.

[groucho]

I saw Major Sharpe hiding between the lounges at Gatwick, Christmas time. Looked a bit chavvy. On purpose probably.

[elster]

Lurking Lawyer said:

richw_82 said:

Sharpe is the better. Hornblower started out as a junior officer, Sharpe didn't.

Eh? He was commissioned from the ranks after saving Wellington's life in India in the books, although I think in the first TV episode they moved that to early in the Peninsular campaign.

Either way, the Sharpe TV series starts off with him as a newly-commissioned Lieutenant. So, yes, he did start out as a junior officer.

No he starts off as a Sergeant, at the end of the first TV episode he is commissioned to a Lieutenant.

This can't be a real comparison Sharpe kicks Hornblower's ass!

[oilandwater]

Sharpe is the best in my opinion, but fallacio Hornblower comes a close second.

[Lurking Lawyer]

elster said:

No he starts off as a Sergeant, at the end of the first TV episode he is commissioned to a Lieutenant.

I stand corrected! It's been a long time since I saw the first episode and my recollection was obviously slightly awry.

Anyway, even if he spends the first hour and three quarters as a Sergeant, that's not much in the scheme of things given how many films were made, so I think on the whole it's fair to say that Sharpe did start out as a junior officer, just like HH

I read the Sharpe books the best part of 20 years ago while at university. Maybe it's time to raid the local library and start them all over again...

As an aside for anyone who enjoys this as TV, do give the books a go - and Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey and Maturin series of novels too. Top banana, the lot of them.