This film picks up where Sharpe's Challenge left off - Sharpe and Harper are en route to Madras. The team run across a baggage train of the East India Company that is traveling through a very rough and hostile territory. Bandits, lead by Chitu, are out to rob the train. When the robbers attack the train, Sharpe and Harper are on the scene to stop them. Despite all this action, Sharpe still finds time for romance.

6/10.

SHARPE'S PERIL follows on from SHARPE'S CHALLENGE. Sharpe and Harper are still trying to find their way out of India, although they keep getting sidetracked. They join up with some soldiers currently escorting a prisoner cross-country, and they soon find themselves caught up in conflict after running foul of an opium smuggler. Action, ranging from sword fights to gun battles and a siege, soon follows. SHARPE'S PERIL was broadcast in two separate episodes. The first sets up the action, and is quite talky and heavy on the explanation. The second half is pure action and thoroughly engaging.

The two episodes combine to make this one of the best Sharpe adventures yet. Sean Bean has never been better, here playing a grizzled Colonel who's seen too much of warfare and just wants to be out of it all. Daragh O'Malley brings a deft comic touch as Harper, while the other, new cast members are superb. Amit Behl turns what could have been a caricature into an affecting portrayal of a wronged man who retains his dignity, while Velibor Topic is a hateful villain. Beatrice Rosen is a particularly appealing love interest, and gets to show greater depth than most. Kudos also to a returning Michael Cochrane, who looks to be having a ball. With spectacular Indian locations, some excellent stunt work, colourful costumes, a cast of actors and actresses prepared to give it their all, and plenty of emotion to go along with the action, SHARPE'S PERIL is the best that television has to offer. A splendid outing that doesn't suffer in any way from not being based on one of the Bernard Cornwell novels.

I gave this a 7 rating, because it was Sharpe, but I really have to wonder why they bothered to make the last two films. Sharpe went out with a glorious bang in Sharpe's Waterloo, and it should have remained that way. Instead, two films set 3 years after Waterloo were made about 10 years after, with a dashingly athletic star showing the ravages of a cigarettes and beer diet. To add insult to injury, whereas the younger Sharpe was usually clean shaven and his hair while tousled, was relatively shiny,the 'three years older' Sharpe was unkempt, unshaven and his hair looked like a badly hacked horse hair wig. Gone was the virile handsome superstud who made the ladie's hearts beat faster. We are asked to accept that three years later was a middle aged man resembling a has-been pugilist with a drinking problem.

OK, that is a petty quibble, but it does lead to more questions. As the India films were not from the books but independently scripted based on earlier Sharpe novels, and given the actors natural aging, why did they not set them at least 10 to 15 years after Waterloo? The British were still in India and Sharpe by then would be in his late 40's or early 50's.

Another point to ponder from watching the 'making of' documentary, was why did they film it in such a dreary part of India which they kept telling us was in the middle of nowhere, with the scorching temperatures of March/April causing the actors to suffer in their heavy woolen costumes. Why then did they not find a location in the hills where it would have been cooler and the scenery more attractive? British India was concentrated in the North West region which borders modern Pakistan. Why have the actors dressed in heavy wool uniforms when they could have been made from brushed cotton, which would have been more comfortable and would have looked authentic on film? I grant that the outdoor scenes would have been uncomfortable, but surely the indoor scenes could have been filmed in an air-conditioned studio in Mumbai.

I could go on picking apart the decisions, but overall, I feel that Sharpe's Challenge and Sharpe's Peril were an attempt to milk the the cow until it ran dry, and an unforgettable series should have been left to stand alone.