Bernard Cornwell is my favorite writer of historical fiction. He does meticulous research and gives a sense of time and place, but also never forgets to tell a rip-roaring good story. The 20-plus Richard Sharpe series is his masterwork - a land-based counterpart to the naval stories of C. F. Forester and Patrick O'Brian. This series of sixteen feature length TV movies simplifies the Sharpe saga somewhat but lovingly recreates its major plotlines and characters. You don't have to read the books to enjoy the series, but readers will appreciate some of the detail even more. The casting is mostly spot-on, with Sean Bean near perfect in the title role.
(In fact, Sean Bean is so perfect that I was surprised to learn that Richard E. Grant was originally cast in the role and that Bean was a last minute replacement after Grant injured himself. From what I have seen of Grant, he is pretty good but I think Bean turned out to be a much better choice for Sharpe.)
The entire series is now streaming on Britbox, which at seven bucks a month is a treasure-trove of classic and contemporary British TV. Do what I did and drop that 14 buck Netflix in favor of Britbox - if you love British TV you won't be sorry. Be aware that not all of the Britbox offerings show up on the menu on your smart TV. You have to drill down a bit in the website and click the "see all" buttons to see everything.
I saw a couple of the early Sharpe films on DVD years ago, and they were in 4:3 ratio. However, the versions streaming on Britbox are all in 1:33 widescreen and don't appear to me to be cropped. So I am assuming they were filmed in widescreen and cropped to 4:3 for broadcast back in the nineties before widescreen TVs were common. In any case, the versions streaming on Britbox look teriffic and have optional English subtitles which may help you follow the characters and plotlines.
