Sharpe - Series 4

Earthquakes, avalanches, gale force winds, stony ground, bad compromises, heartbreaks, disappointments, mutiny, bad scripts, mosquito bites, snakes and scorpions, the flaming heat and the damned endless freezing nights - such are the memories. You don't remember the really Bad Times.

As Wellington's Military Fighting Machine moved into the Invasion of France in late 1813; our creaking, worn out, ill supplied, bleary-eyed veterans eventually crept into Turkey from England in October 1995, after shooting "Sharpe's Regiment" with the aid of a lot of Napoleonic period re-enactors playing the "Regiment" bit. I've seen the rough cut version - it is pretty good. I'll not give anything away - you'll see it on screen in April 1996.

In "Regiment," Sharpe meets Horatio Havercamp recruiting on the road for the South Essex. In Turkey, I did not have the magic of film-making to make it easy as he did, swamped with recruits in a market place, going out myself five days in advance to raise the extras needed for the Anglo-Spanish/Portuguese and French armies of late 1813 from whatever was walking the streets of Antalya. A few had replied to the microscopic ad in the local newspapers. Havercamp did not however have my resources or wits.

A quick visit to the newspaper office again to persuade the editor of the importance of associating with us (equipped with photos and a glib tongue), then down the local TV station for an interview, then onto the photocopier for half an hour, jumping into a taxi and heading downtown . . . a slight mishap here, as a local policeman informed me in the market place (caught en flagrante delicto) that fly-posting is illegal in Turkey, especially raising mercenary troops to fight for the infidel (a ticklish subject in those parts). Readers of my past reports are assured that I escaped the penalty for this transgression with my usual flair.

Three days later we have over 600 recruits on the books. That's more like it! What wasn't like it was the two earthquakes here - the second was a force six (whatever that is, I never want to be in a force seven) that sent the lights swinging on the ceilings in the darkness, and killed a hundred people sixty miles away from us at the epicentre.

What wasn't like it either was having no uniforms, kit or weapons with which to train with to go straight into a big battle sequence when the crew arrived from England. How do you train soldiers without the tools in only two days? You improvise . . . we used broomsticks for muskets, and pine cones from the woods as ammunition. I employ other methods too, but that is another story.

Two days later, and I had a well-drilled, enthusiastic and expensive army (refreshments such as soldiers like don't grow on trees, you know, and you need deep pockets with that number of them) of 16 to 45 year old Turks; the ones with moustaches being French, and the ones without becoming English (heavily outnumbered at first, but I acquired two packs of plastic razors to balance the sides a little . . .)

An Irish film crew came out to film us making films. I thought this a real novelty - they came to get the true story of what it was like. You'll see the results on ITV in the springtime (viewers in Ireland saw it in November 1995). Along with the book "The Making of Sharpe" (Spring 1996), it is supposed to give you (our viewers) a little insight into what goes on behind the scenes with our cast and crew, just One Big Happy Family ! ! !

I have a few adventure stories to relate in later issues. Work this year was particularly gruelling and time-consuming, and what few off-duty hours were spent looking for Barbarossa's tomb with a view to doing another Lord Elgin on it (metal detectors are illegal in Turkey, a place where you can't walk a hundred yards without falling over Hellenistic or Roman ruins, or slip off a mountain track and land on a cache of City State coins buried in loose (but bruising) soil which can be worked loose using your sword bayonet, and which somehow got smuggled out stuck with candle wax into a resealed water bottle - a drunk goatherder looking for somewhere to sleep it off walked into a previously undiscovered tomb only two months before we filmed in the same canyon and walked out with a six-inch high solid gold statuette and a hangover - strange but true.)

Most of "Sharpe's Siege" was shot on an old castle near the seashore, covered with artefacts from ancient to mid C 19, from stone cannon balls to coins. Anyway watch out for the competitions giving away "Sharpe" souvenirs nearer the time, please have a go at winning them - I'd sooner you win them as anyone else (maybe I'll send the questions into the next issue! ) What's next? You've probably heard the rumours, and I'll be working to make them come true . . . "Sharpe's Waterloo" in 1996, then onto a fresh series set during the Napoleonic Wars, but requiring water wings not boot leather. Watch this space. I hope to see some of you at NA and EH events in 1996, notwithstanding the efforts of some that question my 'political correctness' in my histoncal interpretations.

Thanks to FE Readers

I'd like to thank the three readers who wrote to me whilst out there. Letters and support are very much appreciated and I hope you liked the signed photographs sent in return.