Napoleon has been exiled to Elba, Sharpe and company are sent home to England from the wars but find themselves living in a type of exile themselves. Sharpe and men are tasked with the duty of protecting mill owners from the angry workers who are threatening to strike or riot. Will Sharpe take the side of the overworked-under paid employees or the mill owners?

Meanwhile, Jane and her lover draws the ire of her husband Richard Sharpe. What's a man to do?

8/10.

While there is - sadly - a great deal of reality to this episode, those who have followed the Sharpe story up to this point might perhaps give a moment's thought to whether they really want to go down this road - with all the change of scene and change of mood it entails! This is a complex and challenging "peacetime" episode in which the return of Sharpe and Harper to England proves as much of a disappointment for them as it does for those watching. Just as after the First World War just a century later, returning soldiers are stunned to find that - awful though things may have been on the battlefield, life there had a certain raw simplicity to it. Back home, things are more complex (in relations with people but also as regards what's right and what's wrong),and this all the more the case for returning soldiers trying somehow to fit in and not even quite sure if the fight was worth it. To be honest, though very thought-provoking, it all leaves quite a bitter taste, even if the worst potential consequences are avoided by the time the final credits role...

An excellent chapter in the world of Dick Sharpe - An indication of what the workers in the early eighteenth century had to endure - Sharpe once more triumphs against all odds and brings yet another delightful and believable story to the screen - it is a pity Sean Bean grew out of the Sharpe role as this kind of entertainment is much missed and cannot be done half as well today.