Richard Sharpe is a fictional character, an English marksman, the protagonist of a series of historical novels by Bernard Cornwell and a television series based on it starring English actor Sean Bean. The series is set in the early 19th century. Sharpe participated in all the wars of the British Empire, from the conquest of India and including the Napoleonic wars in the Iberian Peninsula and Waterloo. He goes through the entire career ladder, starting from a simple private and ending with a colonel. In the first books of the series, he has to fight the contempt of gentleman officers for the upstart. The question of assigning him the next rank turns out to be controversial each time, introducing additional tension into the plot (Cornwell borrowed this type of presentation from an earlier series about the same historical period - the saga of S.S. Forester about Captain Hornblower, who participates in the same wars, but only on ships, and the reader in each book had to worry about the promotion of the main character). Richard Sharpe enjoys the personal patronage of Lord Wellington, whose life he saved, and sometimes receives assignments from British military intelligence, which appreciates his abilities. In addition to entertaining plots, the popularity of the series was ensured by the attractive and strong character of the main character, who is distinguished not only by intelligence and enterprise, but also by prudence, sometimes bestial cunning and incomprehensible luck. Initially, Cornwell expected to write about 10 novels, but British television bought the rights to the film adaptation. which increased the popularity of the cycle and forced the series to continue. An accident became the reason for the extraordinary success of the first television film: actor Paul McGann, chosen for the role of Gunner Sharpe, broke his leg, and experienced actor Sean Bean, previously known for his work for British television (Clarissa, The Lover), was urgently invited to play the role. Lady Chatterley") and cinema ("Caravaggio" by Derek Jarman, "The Field" by Jim Sheridan, "Lorna Doone"), and in Hollywood projects ("Thundery Monday" with Tommy Lee Jones and Melanie Griffith, "Patriot Games" with Harrison Ford ). Thus, an accident led to the fact that the role of Richard Sharpe was played by an actor whose appearance and charisma completely coincided with the book image and became inseparable from it. Moreover, books written after the start of filming, when it comes to presenting the main character, carry not only Sharpe’s author’s vision, but also clearly play on the features of the film image (for example, according to the book, Sharpe was born in London, and Sean Bean has a Yorkshire accent, so in In one of his novels, Cornwell would later mention that as a boy Sharpe fled to Yorkshire and lived there for a long time). Cornwell writes his books out of chronological order, sometimes returning to “holes” in his character’s biography. Film adaptations of novels also do not follow them literally, sometimes shuffling and moving the time of action. Several episodes were filmed not based on books, but on original scripts.