WELCOME TO THE BEAN ZINE.... Issue 5 July/96

In this issue of the Bean Zine: 1. THEATRE REVIEWS - Killing the Cat 2. MOVIE & TV REVIEWS - Sharpe - The 4th Series - From Russia with Luck 3. BOOK EXCERPTS - From Sharpe: The Making of a Hero 4. NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES - BEAN AND THE GOTH The Guardian (August 20, 1990) - THE SEAN THING Impact Magazine (May 1996) - TOP GUN BEAN GOES FOR GOLD Daily Mail (November 13, 1992) ************************************ 1. THEATRE REVIEWS KILLING THE CAT - some of these have been put online under Theatre Reviews

for Killing The Cat. A play by David Spencer Soho Theatre Company Sean Bean................Danny Dominic Kinnaird.........Young Danny Valerie Lilley...........Joan Kate McLoughlin..........Kathy Sally Rogers.............Shelagh Henry Stamper............Sam Director.................Sue Dunderdale Decor....................Shimon Castiel Lighting.................Danielle Bisson Sound....................John Leonard Text published by........Methuen Performing Rights........Curtis Brown (Winner of the 1990 Verity Bargate Award) DAILY MAIL 19.9.90 John Marriott Blessed by David Spencer's lean script which ensures that anger bounces off the walls of this tiny venue with full force, this impressive piece links family break-up to social unrest, and provides meaty roles for an excellent cast. Centering on the uneasy introspection of Danny (Sean Bean), who makes a trip back to Yorkshire to grapple with his family background, "Killing the Cat" also draws in a vivid portrait of a weak, blustering father (Henry Stamper) and flashes back to a happy childhood which lasted until love was broken into tiny pieces.

Sean Bean holds the centre well as Angry Young Danny, veering convincingly from volcanic rage and biting cynicism, to weepy sensitivity and all-out kindness. Henry Stamper provides a visceral treat as a father trapped by his own insecurity.

Kate McLoughlin and Sally Rogers offer confident support as Danny's two sisters, while Valerie Lilley, as the mother, fixes your gaze with her descent toward mental illness.

This harrowing scenario of alienation and lost love is thankfully punctured by bouts of earthy humour. The acting is so electric the cast almost sits in your lap.

TIME OUT 5.9.90 James Christopher David Spencer's award winning play, full of tense, inarticulate aggression, examines the corrosive legacy of sexual abuse as seen through the eyes of a young playwright, Danny, whose almost perverse determination to exhume his working-class family's murky past rubs abrasively against their wishes. If the main dynamic is Danny's quest for the root of his father Sam's shadowy, drink- twisted guilt - namely Sam's interference with his sister Shelagh (Sally Rogers) - it is deliberately obscured by what Danny thinks happened (the content of his play), what he has been told happened, what he remembers happening and what he imagines to have happened.

The action shuttles between the '70's and the present day on Tom Conway's cluttered set; street lamps, dustbins and the expedient post-pub trappings of armchair and TV evoke on the one hand council-estate familiarity and suggest on the other the emotional and circumstantial impoverishment of the protagonists' lives. It's a surreal arena dominated by Henry Stamper's ebullient Dubliner, Sam, whose genuine, unaffected affection for Young Danny (Dominic Kinnaird) and the older, wiser version (Sean Bean) is strongly contrasted to the harsh intensity Danny employs to nail his father to the past to punish him almost in order to forgive him. It's the arrogance of a playwright and the festering hurt of wronged youth, but crucially, the recognition on Danny's part that he is vulnerable to the same sin. In all, a demanding, complex work which Sue Dunderdale directs with respect and sensitivity, exacting powerful performances from the Soho Theatre Company.

EVENING STANDARD 30.8.90 Milton Shulman Without a copy of the text of "Killing the Cat" (by David Spencer) it is not particularly easy to work out who is doing what to whom. The plot rather comes together like the assembling of a jigsaw puzzle where the first pieces belong to the corners and the middle with the rest eventually being filled in to give the whole picture.

This working-class family in a West Yorkshire town is dominated by its father, Sam, whose main achievements are an ability to earn money at menial jobs, to consume vast quantities of beer and to bore his children with repetitious accounts of what he did in the last war.

His children fall apart trying to cope with his presence and his values. Danny, who we see both as an adolescent and as a mature young man, is clever enough to get himself a university degree but is not clever enough to know what to do with it. He is an envious social drop-out with IRA sympathies. Kathy, who shares her father's craving for drink, has come home after being beaten up by her lover. Shelagh is wracked with guilt because her father sexually molested her when she was a child.

Sam's wife wisely escaped from this noisy, unattractive household 20 years earlier but the knowledge of her husband's incestuous tastes has contributed to the brain damage she eventually suffers.

Adding another layer of complexity to an understanding of what's going on is the fact that everything we are seeing may just be extracts from a novel that Danny has written.

Undoubtedly based on Danny's early love for his father which deteriorates into violent hatred, the descriptions in his book about incest are explicit enough but they may be only what he thought had happened or dreamt had happened. Sam's excuses for molesting his daughter are astonishingly naive. He blames his actions either on drink or his view that because it felt nice it couldn't be really wrong. "I know it's wrong," he soliloquises, "but it's a natural thing if you love someone. And I paid the bills in the house."

Heavy with Irish and Yorkshire accents, the language has a jagged urgent rhythm that keeps one attentive even though the agonies of these unprepossessing people ultimately become repetitive and boring.

Henry Stamper, as Sam, bears himself in that erect, self-confident manner which is often the stamp of a working-class bully. His moral values can always be washed away by the swilling of pints of beer.

Sean Bean rather overdoes the agonised rampaging product of a domineering father. The switch from Danny's adulation of his father as an adolescent, played with a nice quality of innocence by Dominic Kinnaird, to his disgust in later years seems almost clinical rather than natural.

Sally Rogers, as Shelagh, seems uncertain about how much she should have been repelled by what had happened to her but because she is reading all this in Danny's novel, her reactions are always ambiguous and perhaps illusory.

INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 2.9.90 Lynne Truss Meanwhile, at the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs, David Spencer's "Killing the Cat" is - as its name suggests - a cautionary tale about the perils of curiosity. Danny (Sean Bean) has been delving too deep into family history, and has written a book about his father's secret abuse of his sister Shelagh - which she would now prefer to forget. "D'yer forgive 'im?" he asks (the play is set in West Yorkshire). "Dew I fuck," replies Shelagh. "But a live 'im. E's just a lonely old fucker wi not much left. E drinks too much." Spencer takes some interesting angles on the subject - this is a demonstrative family where brothers and sisters declare their love for each other, and where the habitually drunken Irish father (played by Henry Stamper) croons "Most of All I love You 'Cause You're You" to his daughter - but dramatically the evening is somehow less than gripping. A play of memories, voices and sound effects, its natural home would be on the radio.

THE TIMES 31.8.90 Harry Eyres David Spencer has written a play about the noxious effects of child abuse, which is notable for the absence of campaigning rhetoric and accusing fingers, and in which the social services are never mentioned. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he is concerned with the breakdown of proper channels of communication, which includes love, within a family - a breakdown which incestuous love freezes and enforces rather than resolves. The effect in this fine production directed by Sue Dunderdale has something of the dark intensity of O'Neill (no accident that this is a family of Irish origin, living in West Yorkshire) and also his structural awkwardness.

In Shimon Castiel's design, the Theatre Upstairs stage is arranged lengthways, giving it an uncommon breadth, to form a dingy, basement-like space full not only of bicycles, dustbins, television and cat food but also of the impediments of the past. This allows the play to develop simultaneously at different levels of time.

Two of these are defined by the ages of the two actors playing Danny, the son of the family who (in the present) has come back up north as an unemployed writer to confront his and his family's past. This Danny is taken with raw energy, anger and desperation by Sean Bean. He also appears as a boy of 14, played with quiet sensitivity by Dominic Kinnaird. Danny is the conscience and recording angel of the family; the fact that he has written a book called Killing the Cat, which reveals the family's dark secrets, enables other characters reading from it to speak what they would not normally say.

At the centre of the action is Danny's father Sam, an immigrant Irish factory worker imbued with charm, dignity and rich vowels by Henry Stamper. Behind the charm lies an orphanage upbringing, violence, and a feeling that drink excuses most things but not the stealthy abuse of his daughter Shelagh; he drinks to erase the guilt.

Spencer is stronger on his male characters than on the female ones who are the obvious victims. The sisters Kathy (Kate McLoughlin) and Shelagh (Sally Rogers) react much more stoically than Danny, accepting that life must continue, though the bricked-up room seems more and more like a prison. Their mother Joan (Valerie Lilley) is seen at one point in catatonic despair, then walks out without comment. LISTENER 8.9.90 Matt Wolf What increasingly seems to be the Royal Court's house style - short, sharp plays written in jagged, non-naturalistic stabs - is reinvigorated in David Spencer's "Killing the Cat" (Theatre Upstairs), the Soho Theatre Company offering that won this year's Verity Bargate award. Spencer lives in Berlin, but his play returns him to the terrain of his earlier works, "Releevo" and "Space": working class Yorkshire and families living in a crisis that they can barely articulate. His authorial alter ego, a writer named Danny (Sean Bean), makes his need to comprehend itself a theme of the play, as the various incidents from his turbulent childhood and adolescence are interlaced with excerpts from the book, Killing the Cat, which we see him offering up to sister Shelagh (Sally Rogers) for approval.

"Maybe I'll write a comedy," Danny tells his boozing father Sam (Henry Stamper) at the end, in a curtain line that nicely avoids any possible melodrama. And yet the mordant sarcasm of the remark is inescapable in the light of what the play unfolds - a life marked by cycles of violence, pain and repression, in which the sins of the swaggering Irish father seem inevitably to be visited on his brooding and introspective Yorkshire son.

Uniting all the characters is a need for "the way out", as Danny's other sister, Kathy (Kate McLoughlin), puts it. While Danny finds a catharsis of sorts in prose, Sam seeks his escape route in drink, shutting out the memory of prior incestuous episodes with Shelagh which Danny, discovering these belatedly, calls on him to confront. Relegated to the sidelines is Danny's divorcee mother, Joan (Valerie Lilley), a woman condemned by her own inarticulacy to want from life one thing which she couldn't name, "so she couldn't ask for it." Sufficiently expressive is the ashen-faced, wide-eyed Lilley that the part seems even more disappointingly underwritten.

Sue Dunderdale's direction makes adroit use of every aspect of the small Court studio, as the six actors (Danny is in fact shown as two selves, Bean's questing adult and Dominic Kinnaird's troubled child) lay bare a shared history of unvoiced wishes and vague hopes, some of which, Spencer implies, may yet be answered. On a hot night punctuated by thunder showers outside, this exemplary company generated that unusually electric heat which comes from witnessing a relatively unknown playwright on the verge of a breakthrough.

WHAT'S ON 5.9.90 Dale Arden "Killing the Cat" opens with a fragmented sequence of moments from a family's history, past and present. Although the links between the fragments at first seem obscure, each moment has perfect emotional clarity. The effect is kaleidoscopic, as little shards of atmosphere, each one razor sharp at the edges, gradually begin to resolve themselves into a pattern.

In a decaying house that was once the family home, Danny prowls around sniffing out the past like a bloodhound. If the past won't deliver itself into his hands, he'll hunt it down.

Danny's mother used to tell him "You're alright son." but that was before she went through the psychiatric mill, before they "plugged her into the national grid system". She wasn't mad, she was just "fatigued with sadness". Danny's sister Shelagh once thought that the things her father made her do were "alright", because if it's your Dad and he tells you it's alright, it must be. Lost in an endless loop of actions, reactions and repetitions, Danny can't see a way of getting clear of any of it. "I'm not alright and I tell you I'm not alright." Sociologically speaking everyone in "Killing the Cat" is a victim of some kind; but it's not a play about passivity and victimisation, it's about loving, being sad and getting on with it. The characters are dynamic, if confused, participants in their own lives.

The play received the 1990 Verity Bargate Award, and quite right too. David Spencer's writing is poetic, on the ball and very much alive. He manages to play out a thread of real humour in the grimmest situations while avoiding the pit of saccharin that lurks around the "make 'em laugh, make 'em cry" school of drama. This production by the Soho Theatre company is beautifully directed (by Sue Dunderdale) and the cast of six are universally excellent. Highly recommended. 2. MOVIE AND TV REVIEWS SHARPE (SERIES 4) Richard Moore Military Modelling April 1996 Richard Sharpe, Bernard Cornwall's British rifles' officer of the Peninsular War, will be on British TV screens soon in three new feature films from Carlton Television. Richard Moore, Military Technical Advisor to the series, and who plays Rifleman Moore, describes the location filming in England and Turkey and offers a readers' competition with one of the Baker rifles actually used in Sharpe as a prize... Sharpe Film set out once again on campaign in September 1995 to make another three films taking us up to and including the Invasion of France by Wellington's Army.

Following up the success of the past years is always a concern - we tried to improve our performance this year by making the first of the films, Sharpe's Regiment - one of the most popular in the series of best-selling novels by Bernard Cornwell - on location in England and using some of my friends and comrades in the Napoleonic Association, fresh from Waterloo 1995, to play the recruits, soldiers and civilians in the cast. The result, as you'll see, is an outstanding film in which their individual and 'regimental' performances lend a very professional and period atmosphere. Sharpe's Regiment Richard Sharpe, with the South Essex Regiment in the Pyrenees, in late 1813, is warned that his reinforcements are drying up, and as a result the Regiment is to be disbanded. Fearing this, he takes Harper with him to England to find out why no more men are forthcoming. Sinking deep into a web of intrigue, Sharpe and Harper find the answer by the only way open to them ...they join the British Army! They are taken to a secluded camp deep in the wilds of Essex, where the Second Battalion South Essex are revealed ...what happens next I'll leave until you see the film.

The sequences shot at 'Foulness Camp', and on the marshes around it, use the soldiers of our created 'South Essex', all re-enactors, some of whom learned a lot about soldier life themselves ...the long hours, the boredom, living under canvas, the drills, the bad weather, in addition to using their hobby skills to enhance our film. Many of them said to me it was too real! Maybe they were referring to their pay and conditions but at the end of the film we had become a unit together, with morale and traditions.

By arrangement with English Heritage, Tilbury Fort in Essex passed easily for the barracks of the South Essex Regiment. Once again, the bridges and the parade ground of the fort echoed to the tramp of feet and shouted orders in a memorable scene shot in heavy rain, in which the Regiment arrives, is armed, and leaves after a parade to prove they exist by 'appearing' uninvited at a Royal Review in London. As the scene began in which the Regiment leaves, then clad in their red uniforms, with full kit and muskets, the clouds parted and the sun shone out, which led to a recurrence of the tradition that 'the sun always shines on the South Essex'- a strange phenomena particular to us which we'd already noted. The Company Moves Overseas From Tilbury fort the company moved overseas. We have, as many readers know, used the Crimea for our locations in past series, but due to logistical problems and the drought there, we decided to try Turkey in 1995. The start and end sequences of 'Regiment' are filmed here ... you'll see what I mean about the difference in water! (And the leap from English autumn to Turkish high summer). Suddenly, one day, I felt the urge to fall over whilst walking down a hotel corridor in Turkey - it came as a bit of a surprise when I found out I was in an earthquake! It caused a lot of death and damage just over 60 miles away, and I never want to be in another one. Politics Take a Part We couldn't use Turkish servicemen as our extras, as in the Crimea, due to the political situation outlined for me by the British Embassy in Ankara. This meant the raising of over 600 boys and men to play the armies of Britain and France in the next two films. I went over to Turkey five days prior to shooting to arrange this and, using methods that were totally unknown to my counterpart, Horatio Havercamp, the recruiting sergeant in 'Regiment', Turkish radio, television and the newspapers, within six days I had fulfilled our quota and got something of an 'army' basically trained to make a start with. This brought the total of extras I've trained for Sharpe over the years to over 1,200 (and me still a Private!) NATO - No No! I did contact NATO servicemen in Turkey hoping they'd seen past episodes of Sharpe and might like to take part as our soldiers - I also wanted to borrow an Apache helicopter, but that is another story! Initially things looked good, but once the 'High Command' heard about it they put a stop to the proceedings. Evidently the political situation in South East Turkey, what with the war between the Turks and Kurdish separatists, the Kurds and the PKK terrorists, the PKK with 'anybody' and the presence of something 'top secret', meant that if I pushed this I'd be persona non grata in Turkey - polite diplomatic words which passes for someone being thrown out of the country. Sharpe's Mission Sharpe's Mission, an original screenplay not based on a book, was the first episode shot, an adventure in which treachery and subterfuge are exposed by Sharpe set against the background of the battles in the Pyrenees in October, 1813. It was shot amongst some of the most evocative, but damned difficult terrain we've ever tried to film in.

In one of the very deep gorges in Turkey where we filmed part of Sharpe's Mission, a shepherd under the influence, wanting a cool place to sleep it off, wandered into a cave and came out clutching a six-inch high solid gold statuette from a previously undiscovered tomb! This led to a sudden reversal by me to my archaeological days, and an unsuccessful search for Barbarossa's tomb, who was drowned nearby, and took his wealth with him to the grave. However, looting is still severely punished by the authorities, so 'Indiana' Moore eventually had to resume his more lawful duties as a rifleman!

Sharpe's Mission became a battle off-screen in addition to the ones on camera. An Irish documentary film crew came out to film us during this episode, and catch some of the real action live ...and some unexpected footage too, like the simulated destruction by explosives of the French powder magazine, part of an ancient caravanserai we were using as a set. It looked so good you'd think it actually was destroyed.

The results of all their Irish documentary crew's work can be seen in the weeks prior to the screening of Sharpe. It'll give a bit of an insight into the hardships of the cast and crew involved m making these films. A tip for travellers - Turkish mosquitoes don't like gunpowder, but be respectful of your hotel walls! Sharpe's Siege The final episode is a screen adaptation of Sharpe's Siege. Trying to leap- frog part of the French army, and encouraging a revolt by the populace (contrary to Government wishes) Sharpe and a force made up of the South Essex and the 60th Rifles - yes, the return of 'Sweet William' Frederickson, one of our most popular characters - move out to try to surprise and capture a fortress and hold it long enough to force the French to try to retake it.

We used an ancient castle/fortress on a seaside promontory in south-east Turkey for our fort, a truly beautiful setting, the old walls designed to be strengthened and enhanced by our Art Director, Andrew Mollo. During the construction, many old coins and other items were found here, dating back to Hellenistic and Roman times.

The castle, now held by Sharpe, is attacked by the French, after a bombardment using mortars, the first time we've employed this type of gun on Sharpe. As anyone who has watched all of the previous Sharpe series will already know, any 'odd' weapon (remember the Congreve rockets?) we use is fully tested for offensive potential and I can state that from one of them a heavy, eight- inch diameter Turkish football propelled by one pound of powder goes over 500 yards. Our 'French' gun crew loaded and fired one, 'live' on camera - as you'll see in the film. The mortars were recreated from a design given to us from Woolwich Arsenal, taken from an existing Gribeauval system gun on show there. Sergeant Harper's Volley Gun Of all the weapons I've designed and made for Sharpe, Harper's seven-barrel volley gun always attracts a lot of attention. This very rare piece was made for Sharpe's Company, but due to the blast when fired it rarely gets used to full effect in our films. All seven barrels discharge simultaneously to terrible effect and it once blew over two stunt men and the camera! Its work is now over, so it'll probably be released for sale to a museum or a collector. Its a hell of a gun to carry around weighing in at 8 kilos.

What more can I say? Sharpe has gone from trial to trial and become one of the most successful series on television, creating a fresh burst on TV of period dramas, broken new ground overseas and set new standards for efficiency and commitment, started a new boost in interest relating to Napoleonic military history, and now has a following of thousands. I've had my critics, but I try damned hard to get it right, because I owe it to our ancestors.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LUCK Karen Hockney TV Times When the makers of Sharpe announced they were switching filming of the new series from the Ukraine to Turkey, there were sighs of relief from Sean Bean and the rest of the cast and crew. A favourite destination for British holidaymakers, Turkey was a popular choice to replace the Ukraine - it was warmer, the hotels were comfier and there was plenty to do in the Turkish coastal areas of Antalya, Alanya and Silifke when the cameras stopped rolling. 'Some of the leading actors found shooting in the Ukraine for 16 weeks at a time very trying,' explains producer Malcolm Craddock. 'And we wanted a change of landscape because we had to show the Pyrenees mountains.'

Despite the bleakness and isolation of the Ukraine, there were certain areas where the Russians definitely came out on top. 'Turkey doesn't have the same established film industry that Russia has,' says Malcolm.

'We couldn't find Turkish stuntmen, for instance, so we brought over a team of 12 Russians. They were from the St Petersburg school of stunt training and we knew they were quite fearless as we'd used them before.

'They'll do an incredible stunt like falling from a galloping horse onto rocks and boulders and if it doesn't look quite right, they'll get back in the saddle and do it again without a word.

'We also brought a team of Russian construction workers to build the sets. They specialise in mountaineering and were quite happy to abseil down 100 ft walls.

'Fortunately, we didn't have a problem with the Russian authorities or we'd have been stuck because the expertise of these people couldn't be matched.'

Changing location from one country to another presented several other problems for Malcolm and his team - not least of which was moving weaponry from the Ukraine to Turkey. 'It's almost impossible to move guns and explosives from country to country in a legal fashion,' he reveals.

'Luckily, we had experts to see us through customs but the look on the officials' faces when they saw the huge cannons we were bringing with us was a picture.'

In the new series, Richard Sharpe gets married but has to leave his wife behind to go on a perilous mission to capture a French fort in the Pyrenees. Finding a suitable setting for this episode proved a huge headache, as Malcolm recalls: 'We went to virtually every castle in Turkey and there were problems with each one we found. They were either on a flight path, surrounded by new buildings or near a main road.

'We were about to give up when we drove round a corner and found a beautiful castle right by the sea in Silifke, which was perfect.' The 10-week shoot was such a success that Malcolm is keen to return to Turkey for the next series. 'The people were wonderful and we all enjoyed it. There's a myth about Turkey that's perpetuated by the film Midnight Express but the reality couldn't be further from the truth.' ************************************* 3. BOOK EXCERPT FROM Sharpe - The Making of a Hero RACHEL Murrell Carlton Books, 1996 'You did me a damn good turn. Now I'm going to do you a damn bad one. I'm giving you a field commission. From this moment on, you're a lieutenant in the 95th.'

With these words, Sir Arthur Wellesley - soon to be the Duke of Wellington - rewards Richard Sharpe for saving his life by plucking him from the ranks and making him an officer, changing at a stroke the whole course of his life. From then on, Sharpe is an outsider. His fellow officers sneer at him because he is not a gentleman, and his men mistrust him because he is no longer one of them. Only in battle is he at his ease. And in battle, he is magnificent. His courage, strength and determination to win mark him out as a man Wellington can make use of.

Richard Sharpe was born in the late 1770s, the son of a whore. He spent his childhood in orphanages and workhouses, fighting, stealing and cheating to stay alive. When he killed a man to defend a friend, Sharpe became a fugitive from the law. And, like thousands of others before him, he joined the army. He enlisted in the 33rd Regiment, serving in India - spending three months as a prisoner of the Tippoo Sultan before escaping and killing his captors - and then getting posted to Portugal at the beginning of the Peninsular War. During the long hard winter of 1808-09 Sharpe was one of a small group of riflemen cut off from the rearguard of Sir John Moore's army in the retreat to Corona. He was later part of a stronger, better equipped force which returned to drive Napoleon's forces from Spain.

It was then that fate took a hand in his advancement. Sharpe saved Wellington's life - in the novels, this happens at the battle of Assaye in India, but in the film Sharpe's Rifles it happens in Spain - earning promotion and regular work as Wellington's troubleshooter.

The army is Sharpe's world. He abides by its harsh rules, but if those same rules conflict with natural justice, he's prepared to break them. Although he loves the army for its values of honour and decency, he also hates it for allowing the wealthy and the well-born to buy their way to power and influence over better men.

Sharpe's innate sense of justice often gets him into trouble, notably in India, where he reported a sadistic sergeant - Obadiah Hakeswill - for torturing a man, and ended up accused of the atrocity himself. Hakeswill had Sharpe flogged and the resulting feud underlies events in Sharpe's Company and is pursued to the death in Sharpe's Enemy.

Sharpe's first command is of a small group of riflemen in the 95th known as the Chosen Men. Initially he comes down hard on them for their sloppy conduct and shabby appearance, but learns a less authoritarian approach from Comandante Teresa, the Spanish partisan, leading by example rather than ruling by force. Teresa also teaches Sharpe to love, and despite frequent partings and the constant fear of losing each other to a bullet or a knife, they develop an enduring relationship and have a daughter, Antonia.

With Teresa, Sharpe can reveal his vulnerable side, but in public he is moody and in frequent conflict with his superiors. His manner, his proud insistence on wearing the uniform of a rifleman rather than that of an officer, and the scars of his flogging mean that he is sometimes taken for an ordinary soldier. It's a mistake people do not make twice. They quickly learn that Sharpe was not born to his commission, nor did he buy it. He earns it. And a man raised from the ranks is a force to be reckoned with.

In the books, Sharpe is a dark-haired cockney, but since Sean Bean took on the role, the character has become inseparable in the public mind from a fair- headed, athletic South Yorkshireman.

Two things strike you about that Yorkshireman when you first meet him. The first is that he's quiet, serious and almost shy. He speaks with the accent of his native Sheffield, and it's no secret that he's happier at home with his family, or in the pub with his mates than at a showbiz event - or being interviewed. The second is his smile. You get so used to seeing Sean onscreen as an evil villain or a stern-faced hero that when he smiles - it's as if a light has come on in the room.

Sean and Sharpe have a lot in common. Both are tough, working class lads with the ambition to make something of themselves. And both achieved it. Sean left school at 16 and went into an apprenticeship in his father's welding shop. After four years, he decided to go to art college in Rotherham, but it wasn't until he took some drama classes that he realised where his true vocation lay: 'Once I'd decided what I wanted to do, I got really into it,' he says. 'I was reading books and plays and going to the theatre and everything. I couldn't get enough.' Sean was half way through a two year course when he was accepted by RADA. He jokes about it now: 'RADA was the only place I applied to because I didn't think there were any more. That's how green I was.'

He's come a long way since then, specialising in screen villains in Patriot Games, Scarlett, Clarissa, Fool's Gold and, of course, the latest Bond film, GoldenEye. He played Mellors in Lady Chatterley, Theresa Russell's married lover in A Woman's Guide To Adultery, and a host of other film and TV roles. But fame didn't happen overnight. Sean's first job was in Romeo and Juliet at the Water Mill, Newbury, and he has spent five years in theatre, all told, including a spell with the RSC.

Throughout his career, Sean has done all his own stunts, and has been injured as a result. 'You put yourself out on a limb occasionally,' says Sean. 'But I enjoy doing it, it's part of the job. And it always looks better.' Sean's very fit, and has a particular talent for swordplay, which he studied intensively at RADA and for which he won prizes. On Sharpe, he got extra coaching in fencing from a Russian Olympic champion. 'He was fantastic to watch,' says Sean. 'Such poise and grace. You learn things from people like that. There's been many good fights. The fight with Jason Durr in Sharpe's Battle, that was a good fight. I got a few stitches in my hand from that.' He's had worse. 'I got smacked across the face with wooden pole by Harrison Ford in Patriot Games,' he says. 'It was an accident. He gave me two black eyes, bashed my nose, and I had ten stitches in my eye.'

But even that had its up-side: 'We used the scar over my eye for Sharpe,' says Sean. 'We make it up a bit more and it looks great.'

But Sean's not just an all-action hero. He enjoys bringing out Sharpe's emotional side from time to time and, having played his share of sex scenes in other shows, values the fact that in Sharpe the love scenes are romantic rather than erotic. The recent films see Sharpe meet a new love: 'The first film, Regiment, is when I meet Jane Gibbons, and fall in love with her,' says Sean. 'I eventually get married to her during Siege. The marriage goes its own way, but a relationship is formed which is quite interesting, because in the last few episodes, it's been like a girl every week, y'know what I mean?'

In real life, Sean is married to the actress Melanie Hill, better known as Aveline from Bread, and Sister Lockley from Cardiac Arrest, and their two daughters are among his biggest fans.

'Lorna's watched all the Sharpe films,' says Sean, 'and now Molly's started. They watch 'em when I'm away. They like it cos I'm the boss, know what I mean? I'm going round telling everybody what to do, and they can say, "That's my dad".'

Sheffield's most famous son may have lived in London for more than 15 years, but he still makes frequent visits home to see a large and loyal crowd of friends.

'It's always nice to go back home and get your feet on the ground,' he says. 'They always treat me like the person they grew up with, went to school with, or go to the match with. That's the beauty of going back home. I can relax. Be myself.'

And although ambitious, Sean has never been a starry actor: 'I do my job and that's about it really,' he says. 'I concentrate on doing the best quality work that I can, and doing justice to that work. Anything above that is not of too much concern to me.'

What does concern him, however, is Sheffield United - and he has the words '100% Blade' tattooed on his arm to prove it. On more than one occasion, this passion has nearly interfered with Sean's acting career. Once he got back from a match with 10 minutes to spare before he had to go on stage: 'Sheffield United were playing Leeds United at Elland Road,' remembers Sean with a smile, 'I was playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, and I arrived ten minutes before curtain went up. Luckily it was a modern day production by Michael Bogdanov, so I just chucked my suit on, put my hair back and went on'

There was another incident a few years later when a match in London ended up in a good-natured pitch invasion. Sean had already joined the flood of fans going onto the pitch before he remembered he was due to fly to the US the following day to begin work on Patriot Games. He had to dodge a few police officers and hope he didn't get arrested so that he could make his flight. He laughs at the memory:

'It was a jubilant thing, not a nasty one, after the game had finished,' he says. Then he adds mischievously, 'Anyway, by going across the pitch you got to the tube station a lot quicker.'

When Sean was in the Ukraine filming Sharpe, he often called home for news of a big match, and more than once he'd spend a full 90 minutes glued to the telephone listening to a radio which Melanie or his mum positioned next to the phone at the other end. Small wonder, then, that when producer Jimmy Daly offered him the lead in When Saturday Comes a film about Sheffield United, he jumped at the chance. 'I couldn't have picked a better part for myself,' says Sean. 'In fact, I thought it was a wind-up at first. Jimmy rang me up, he said "I'm making a film about Sheffield United", and I thought "Oh aye, this is one of my mates winding me up. Who is it this time?"' But Sean rang Jimmy back a few weeks later, and the resulting film - which also stars Pete Postlethwaite and Sean's wife Melanie - premieres in Sheffield in Spring 1996.

The future is full of promise. Sean is in discussion on a number of future projects, among them a film of Sharpe's adventures in India called Sharpe's Tiger, a fifth set of TV films of Sharpe, and a TV version of The Prisoner of Zenda.

Sean is also keen to work on the other side of the camera. He's currently developing another project with Pete Postlethwaite and Jimmy Daly, only this time, as well as starring in it, he'll be one of its producers.

'I've been on this side of the fence for the last ten, twelve years,' says Sean. 'I've been around with actors with crews, so I know what goes on. But I like to know about things like that. I think it's good for everybody to know a little bit about what's happening.'

Like Richard Sharpe, Sean Bean is an ambitious man. And like Sharpe, you have a feeling he'll fight until he's got what he wants. * * * It is night-time, and very cold. A small group of men wearing the dark green jackets of Riflemen go through a ditch, then scramble up the battered walls of a fortress towards the waiting French. Ahead of them are the guns and bayonets of the enemy; behind them, the guns and bayonets of their comrades. But still they go forward.

The sound of gunfire peppers the air, mingled with the cries of wounded men. The French stab and slash at them, and the Riflemen fight back, every inch of ground paid for in blood and sweat. Everywhere there is smoke and confusion. Explosions, fires, the stink of battle. As men fall, others take their place. And still they go forward.

'It looks great on screen, but on set you can't see more than about two metres ahead of you half the time,' says Lyndon Davies, alias Rifleman Perkins.

'At night, the horses literally come out of the darkness at you. You hear their hooves before you see them, there's mud flying everywhere and you get this surge of adrenaline. You really feel that you're there.'

That the actors themselves feel they're in the thick of battle is a tribute to director Tom Clegg, stunt co-ordinator Dinny Powell, Russian stunt master Sasha Philatove, and special effects supervisor, Goby Evitsky.

The main sword fights are choreographed in meticulous detail. 'Sean's done some excellent fights,' says Dinny. 'He's very fit and he does all his own stunts. You don't have to hold his hand. The Chosen Men are also very good, especially Jason. With Jason, you've got to hold him back. He'd do anything.' The team plans the position and timing of each explosion, where cavalry and extras will be, and where the riderless horses are supposed to go. Before every take, each actor is shown his particular path through the melee, and there is a rehearsal. Says Lyndon, 'You have to know where you're going so that you can both act and watch out for your own safety. But when it comes down to it, the battles are so realistic, you don't have to act. You just run. Sean leads, and we just follow.' * * * Even the most static television programme can go wrong, but in high-action shows like Sharpe, the potential for accidents - and therefore the concern for safety - is correspondingly greater.

Ironically, the most serious accidents have happened off-camera. In one case a French actor came close to losing his eye when someone turned round and cut him with a bayonet in a rehearsal. On another occasion, a chef slipped and fell down some steps at the Rossiya Hotel, fracturing his skull.

Sean, obviously in the front line a lot of the time, has had many a cut and burn. His closest shave was in Sharpe's Regiment when he was crouching in a ditch as a horse thundered overhead. Suddenly, the edge of the ditch gave way, and one of the horse's rear legs threw up a clod of earth which hit him on the head. Although he wrenched his shoulder badly, it was a lucky escape: another inch, and he would have been crushed. 4. NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES

BEAN AND THE GOTH is now on The Compleat Sean Bean Features page:

http://www.compleatseanbean.com/mainfeatures.html

THE SEAN THING is now on The Compleat Sean Bean Features page:

http://www.compleatseanbean.com/mainfeatures.html

TOP GUN BEAN GOES FOR GOLD is now on The Compleat Sean Bean Features page:

http://www.compleatseanbean.com/mainfeatures.html

****************************************************************** Subject: Bean Zine Extra - Issue 5 July/96 16 Jul 96 15:52 BST S0379 Copyright 1996 PA. Copying, storing, redistribution, retransmission, publication, transfer or commercial exploitation of this information is expressly forbidden. By Simon Holden, Showbusiness Correspondent, PA News TV FILM NIGHTLEAD ITV will use some of the biggest names in showbusiness to cash in on the success of Britain's resurgent film industry, it revealed today. The network's six major franchises are ploughing more than L100 million into a five-year plan.

It intends to make at least 10 "mainstream big box office" films a year which will all be given TV world premieres after going on general release. All will have a minimum budget of L2 million. That is tiny by Hollywood's standards but the network expects to lure top actors like Anthony Hopkins and even Sharon Stone.

ITV regularly gets bigger audiences for its home grown dramas than bought-in American films.

Although it will not use Sean Bean and Robbie Coltrane in "spin-off" movie versions of Sharpe and Cracker, it may develop their careers using different roles in original films.

Network director Marcus Plantin already commissions L220 million a year in TV drama and believes the L100 million investment will eclipse what Channel 4 has already achieved with movies like Four Weddings And A Funeral.

The first films go into production next year but will not be given a TV premiere until early 1998.

Chariots of Fire producer David Puttnam said: "This is a major boost to our resurgent industry. ITV have shown immense confidence in Britain's ability to once again compete with the world in making mainstream movies."

LWT managing director Steve Morrison said: "We are not looking at making Mutiny on the Buses II.

"It will encourage the best of British talent to make films. I do not see why they should not be able to attract talent like Anthony Hopkins.

"This is the first time the British public will have a say in the kind of films made. ITV will now have Britain's most popular films," he added. The L100 million comes from the six largest owners of the ITV franchises: Carlton, Granada, United News and Media, Yorkshire Tyne Tees TV, HTV and Scottish Television. ******************************* PA 16 Jul 96 13:07 BST S9960 Copyright 1996 PA. Copying, storing, redistribution, retransmission, publication, transfer or commercial exploitation of this information is expressly forbidden. By Simon Holden, Showbusiness Correspondent, PA News ITV PUTS L100 MILLION INTO BRITISH FILMS ITV today announced a L100 million investment in British films which will guarantee the network at least ten world premieres a year.

The initiative is supported by the six largest owners of the ITV franchises: Carlton, Granada, United News and Media, Yorkshire Tyne Tees TV, HTV and Scottish Television.

Between them they will produce ten films every year, spending L100 million over the next five years. The first films go into production early next year. Marcus Plantin, ITV's network director, said: "This move will enable the channel to provide an even bigger showcase for the best of British talent, both in front of and behind the camera, and create more opportunities for high-profile 'event' evenings in ITV's schedule.

"This new venture offers a timely incentive to the British film industry. It is also very good news for ITV in that it will enable us to schedule our very own television world premieres at a time when mainstream movies are increasingly being viewed first on satellite."

British film director David Puttnam said: "This is a major boost to our resurgent industry. ITV have shown immense confidence in Britain's ability to once again compete with the world in making mainstream movies."

A host of British actors including Sir Anthony Hopkins, Robbie Coltrane and Rowan Atkinson and Hollywood stars including Sharon Stone are in the ITV frame. The network will not name names but is hoping to lure the best national and international talent despite its relatively modest budgets.

A minimum of L2 million will be spent on each film although some will have significantly higher funding.

ITV is determined to eclipse Channel 4 in the success of its film funding projects but will not use existing network stars in "spin-off" movies. "We are not looking at making Mutiny on the Buses II," said LWT managing director Steve Morrison.

"It will encourage the best of British talent to make films. I do not see why they should not be able to attract talent like Anthony Hopkins," he added. "This is the first time the British public will have a say in the kind of films made. ITV will now have Britain's most popular films.

"This will be a huge incentive to make the mainstream popular films we have not been able to make in the past," he added.

Although ITV has signed a deal with Rowan Atkinson to make Mr Bean the Movie it will not be included in the new batch of films.

The first of the new pictures will be shown in early 1998 in a prime time slot. At least 10 will be made every year. ************************************************ (The following article also ran in the Daily Telegraph on Wed. July 17, 1996.) (same facts, slightly different story) ITV TO MAKE 10 BRITISH FILMS A YEAR ITV plans to spend L100 million over the next five years making at least 10 "mainstream box office" British films a year, it was announced yesterday. The fims, each with a budget of L2 million, will all be given television world premieres after going on general release. ITV, which regularly gets bigger audiences for home-grown dramas than for American films, hopes to lure leading British actors such as Anthony Hopkins. Although it will not use Sean Bean and Robbie Coltrane in "spin-off" film versions of the successful ITV dramas Sharpe and Cracker, it may develop their careers in original films. Marcus Plantin, network director, believes the L100 million investment will eclipse what Channel 4 has already achieved with films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral. The first films go into production next year but will not be given a television premiere until early 1998. Steve Morrison, LWT managing director, said: "We are not looking at making Mutiny on the Buses II. It will encourage the best British talent to make films. "This is the first time the British public will have a say in the kinds of films made. ITV will now have Britain's most popular films." The L100 million will come from Carlton, Granada, United News and Media, Yorkshire Tyne Tees TV, HTV and Scottish Television. ****************************************** July 28/96 This is from one of the Pathfinder sites: http://pathfinder.com/@@8p5zlgYA5v2spH@r/entertainment/latest/ (Jul. 28) WENN - HOLLYWOOD, SHOWBIZ & PEOPLE NEWS - GOLDENEYE GOLDENEYE star SEAN BEAN and THE USUAL SUSPECTS actor PETE POSTLETHWAITE have been spotted drinking together in a small town in Ireland. Bean - who also stars alongside Postlethwaite in the hit TV drama SHARPE - dropped in to Casey's Bar in Sixmile bridge to see how his pal was getting on while filming his new movie THE SERPENT'S KISS. Postlethwaite is shooting the movie outside Sixmilebridge in County Clare with THE PLAYER actress GRETA SCAACHI and TRAINSPOTTING star EWAN MCGREGOR. Bean and Postlethwaite admitted they are planning a new movie together, but say they are staying quiet about it until the idea gets off the ground. (SM/WN/RT) (28 Jul 1996 08:34 EDT) ****************************************************** July 23, 1996 A little humour. I picked this up on the Private Eye website - Private Eye being a satirical English magazine. This was included in a list of real-life interviews where the questions asked were...shall we say...somewhat redundant: From the Private Eye website: (Issue 894 - Netballs) http://www.bt.net/intervid/eye/894/ Ray Stubbs: You've been a lifelong supporter of Sheffield United... Sean Bean: Yes. Stubbs: So, how long have you been supporting them? Bean: Er... all my life. (BBC1) **************************************** April 6/96 BURBANK, Calif.--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--April 23, 1996-- Production began April 15 in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Icon Productions' feature film adaptation of Count Leo Tolstoy's classic romantic novel, "Anna Karenina." The film which stars Sophie Marceau ("Braveheart") in the title role and Sean Bean ("Patriot Games") as her illicit lover, Count Vronsky, is directed by Bernard Rose ("Immortal Beloved") from his own screenplay. Academy Award-winning producer Bruce Davey ("Braveheart") produces and Stephen McEveety executive produces. Supporting roles are played by Alfred Molina as Levin, James Fox as Karenin, Mia Kirshner as Kitty, Danny Huston as Stiva, Saskia Wickham as Dolly and Fiona Shaw as Lydia Ivanova. Warner Bros. will distribute "Anna Karenina" in the United States and Canada, and Icon Entertainment International will oversee international distribution. Tolstoy's classic tale of tragic love and human morality follows the heartbreaking romance between the aristocratic Anna Karenina and Count Alexei Vronsky. Anna, though a wife and mother, plunges into a tempestuous affair with the dashing Vronsky, shocking Russian society and rending her family apart. The story of their liaison is contrasted with the romance and marriage of two of their friends, Levin and Kitty, who find increasing happiness and fulfillment as their relationship deepens over time. The passion, desperation and despair of one couple and the warmth and devotion of the other trace two separate choices in love, and reveal the consequences of each. "Anna Karenina" has been filmed several times in the past, most notably with Greta Garbo starring. However, this production is the first Western film to be made entirely in post-Soviet Russia, utilizing the classic architecture and vistas of one of the world's most picturesque and little-seen cities as a natural setting for the action of the story. Production was arranged in cooperation with the Len Film Studio of St. Petersburg, which provided facilities and helped obtain access to certain sites. Among the locations to be used in the film are Catherine the Great's lavish Winter Palace; the legendary art museum The Hermitage; the Peter and Paul Fortress, which actually pre-dates the construction of St. Petersburg by a year; and several other historic palaces, including the Marinsky, Marly and Wedding Palaces.