"Something like the Sharpe series" Topic

I loved the Sharpe series with Sean Bean. I liked following the squad through their campaigns as they dealt with war, boredom, and brushing up against great men and great battles. I was wondering what conflict would also make a good background for a TV show like Sharpe? What could offer the most drama: The American Civil War? The English Civil War? 100 Years War? Roman Civil Wars? What do you think?

If your not limiting this to pre-modern, I can't recommend "Foyle's War" enough.

I think on the scale of the Sharpe series nearly any conflict would work, but I'd personally LOVE to see something set in the American Civil War.

-Will

I'd like to see Simon Scarrow's Macro/Cato series.

Band of Brothers did this for WW2, but it could be more sweeping if told from the British or German side, spanning the see-saw of the entire war and perhaps multiple theatres. WW1 or WW2 could work.

I'd also like to see it from the perspective one of Alexander or Hannibal's veterans.

I don't view the Sharpe series and Band of Brothers to be in the same category, personally. The Sharpe series is ultimately an adventure story, and as such has more in common with Kelly's Heroes or The Eagle Has Landed than Band of Brothers. That's just my personal opinion.

So, for instance, a Sharpe-style adventure story about Alexander's veterans and a Band of Brothers-style story about the same would be two very different things. That said, I'd watch them both with equal enthusiasm.

I think ECW would get my personal vote, but I'd probably watch anything that was reasonably plotted with a competent adult audience in mind.

As regards ECW, the old BBC production "By The Sword Divided" comes to mind:

YouTube link

Sharpe from the French side would be interesting. Someone fictitious ending up in many of Napoleon's battles perhaps.

Bernard Cornwell did the "Starbuck" series set in the ACW. There are four books in the series:

Rebel (1993)
Copperhead (1994)
Battle Flag (1995)
The Bloody Ground (1996)

- very much "Sharpe in the ACW" feel to them. Sadly he has not written any more and doesn't plan to, so we'll never know if Starbuck survives the war…

"Tour of Duty" for the Vietnam War maybe?

I would like to see Cornwall's Saxon Chronicles, although maybe the show Vikings has done that.
I would love to see his version of Arthur.
That would be awesome.

Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard

How about Francis Marion (The Swamp Fox) and his men fighting in the South during the American Revolution? I think Disney did a series based on this in the early days of the Mickey Mouse Club.

There is a French perspective Napoleonic series or two, the Alain Lausard adventures come to mind:

link

I agree with Dave, I would love to see Macro & Cato on screen.

Foyle's War was a good show.

Reilly: Ace of Spies. The backdrop is WWI and the Russian Civil War.

Korvessa, the BBC are currently making (in the UK and Hungary) an eight part series of Cornwell's Saxon Chronicles under the name The Last Kingdom…

The Starbuck books were good. As Major B said it is very much Sharpe in the ACW.

Foyle's War, while the genre is more detective than adventure, is very well done and well worth watching.

Reilly: Ace Of Spies is a forgotten gem. It is based on a real person who was probably Russian. He joined the British Secret Service before the First World War and disappeared in Russia during the Civil War. He chose the name Reilly because it could be British if he was with pro-British people, or Irish (IRA) if he was with anti-British people!

A friend of mine, writing under the nom de plume Sean Kevin Gabham, is writing a novel series set in the ACW, concerning a Union Soldier in the Western link

The author wanted to write a Sharpe-like character, set in the Civil War.

Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard

A film was done (in the 60s?).