WELCOME TO THE BEAN ZINE.... Issue 7 January/97

In this issue of the Bean Zine: 1. SHARPE o Sharpe's Story (Military Illustrated) o Battle, Gold & Sword ("Into Battle, Men...and Women!" - TV Times) o Regiment, Siege & Mission ("The Universal Challenge of Being Heroic in Tight Trousers" - The Guardian Weekly) o Company, Enemy & Honour ("I'd Rather Make War Not Love" - News of the World) o Company, Enemy & Honour ("Sharpe at Badajoz" - Military Illustrated) o Revenge, Peace & Return (Manchester Evening News) o Revenge, Peace & Return (The Keighley News)

2. NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES o FOOTBALL FILMS: THE UGLY FACE OF THE BEAUTIFUL GAME Maxim (April 1996) o SEAN BEAN - YORKSHIRE LAD Empire Magazine (April 1996) o BUT WAS HE JUST PLAYING? The Times (April 7, 1986) 1. SHARPE "Watching the TV series or reading the novels, it is too easy to see Sharpe as just an heroic character thrown into episodic adventures, but Sharpe has a history charting his life from orphan to Waterloo. PHILIPP JC ELLIOT-WRIGHT and RICHARD MOORE reveal for the first time the full biography of Sharpe as it is used in the TV series." SHARPE'S STORY Military Illustrated DECEMBER 1996 Be you an avid reader and watcher of the Sharpe series, or just an occasional viewer, it is all too easy to forget Bernard Cornwell has given his character a full life, rather than just an episodic one. Richard Moore, both for briefing the numerous actors appearing on screen with Sharpe or travellers on one of the Sharpe Peninsular tours, has prepared a short synopsis of the good Major's biography derived from Cornwell's books. Whilst the reader will note how Sharpe's screen personification has a few variations from Cornwell's original, this narrative demonstrates just how much of the hero's story is yet to be visualised. The following text is taken from Richard's briefing notes, or as he puts it, 'collected from the Archives of the South Essex Regiment'. Richard Sharpe was born in July 1777 in a house near Howick Place, Westminster, London. His father was unknown, his mother being a prostitute who died in the Gordon Riots in June 1780 when Sharpe was three. He was consequently taken into an orphanage/workhouse (probably Tothill Fields, Bridewell), picking oakum, unpicking hemp or washing laundry. Although sold to a sweep in 1789, Sharpe ran into the cover of the St Giles 'rookery', eventually falling into the hands of Maggie Joyce who ran a ginhouse in Goslitt Yard. She looked after Sharpe, teaching him to steal and love, until 1793, when he was sixteen years old. Then Sharpe killed an inn-keeper who had 'connections' and was forced to flee to Yorkshire where he joined the British Army. Now a strapping 6'1" and weighing 12 stone, as a private of the 33rd Regiment of Foot, Sharpe sailed for Ostend in June 1794 when the 33rd reinforced the army in the disastrous Low Countries campaign commanded by the Duke of York. Sharpe fought for the first time in battle at Boxtel (15 September 1794) in Flanders (in this campaign the regiment lost 430 men dead, but only 6 of them killed by the French, the rest dying as a result from the weather and starvation). On the regiment's return to England in April 1795 Sharpe sailed forthwith to India with the 33rd in April 1796 (SHARPE'S TIGER) after spending seven miserable weeks at sea before terrible weather which eventually obliged them to return to Poole harbour. Sharpe was wounded and taken prisoner when he was 22 years old in March/April 1799 (he was flogged before this time by order of 'Captain Morris' after being falsely accused by Hakeswill for a savage assault) by Lancers of Tippoo's army and held in the dungeons of Seringapatam for many months. Here he met William Lawford and was taught to read and write by him (Obadiah Hakeswill was in the same dungeon). Sharpe escaped during the siege attack by Wellesley, and killed Tippoo Sultan in or near the Water Tunnel, stealing the famous ruby jewel from his turban. He later gave this to a girl he thought loved him, but who ran away with someone else. Sharpe was promoted to Sergeant in the 33rd Foot as a reward for the services provided during the siege of Seringapatam. In 1803 Sergeant Sharpe became an ensign after saving the life of Sir Arthur Wellesley at the battle of Assaye, after Wellesley's horse, the grey arab 'Diomed' was piked and he was in danger of being bayoneted by the enemy. He stayed in India (although not settling in very well as a junior commissioned officer) until late 1805, when the 33rd Foot returned to England. In 1806, he exchanged regiments again taking a few soldier volunteers with him into the 2nd Battalion of the 95th Rifles. This had been formed at Canterbury in May 1805 from drafts of men from the 1st Battalion at Hythe Barracks (new companies forming to reinforce companies sailed to Monte Video with Crawford, so narrowly missing sailing on the disastrous Walcheren Expedition). Here Sharpe also found difficulty settling in (senior officers - especially Major Dunnett - instinctively disliked him, and he had a sizeable chip on his shoulder by now). Sharpe was made Quartermaster as he knew all the tricks of the trade, and could manage the books without having to bother the officers. Sharpe next went with the 2/95th to the Peninsula in 1808 under Sir Arthur Wellesley and fought at Rolica and Vimiero in General Fane's Brigade. When Wellesley was replaced by Sir John Moore, he went with the army into Spain and took part in the terrible retreat to Corunna (Retreat to Vigo actually as the Light Brigade took a different route) being cut off with Major Dunnett's men who were taken in the rear by cavalry (SHARPE'S RIFLES) and separated. From this campaign, Sharpe began to gain confidence and act as a leader of men, Captain Murray and later Don Blas Vivar helping him. Meeting Michael Hogan upon his return to the army from Santiago de Compostela, he was employed by him on reconnaissance duties in Northern Portugal until 1809. Wellesley having returned to command, he decided to move into Spain once more (SHARPE'S EAGLE). Sharpe's relationship with the South Essex Regiment also dated from this time. Sharpe, retaining command of the South Essex Regiment's Light Company, set out to recover gold from Torrecasto to pay for the building of The Lines of Torres Vedras, during which he was wounded (SHARPE'S GOLD). He met in Almeida his old friend from Seringapatam, Tom Garrard. He also met and married Teresa Morena, and they had a daughter, Antonia, in 1811. Having briefly visited England (meeting Jane Gibbons for the first time), he returned to the Peninsula and fought at Fuentes D'Onoro, being wounded (SHARPE'S BATTLE) a second time. He went on to participate in the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz (SHARPE'S COMPANY) in 1812. After the battle of Salamanca and recovering from being wounded by Leroux (SHARPE'S SWORD) he was given his first independent command, and promoted to Major by the Prince of Wales (SHARPE'S ENEMY) but met a new enemy in Pierre Ducos. Teresa Morena was shot at Adrados by Obadiah Hakeswill, Sharpe's old enemy from India. Hakeswill was shot after court-martial, but Antonia was adopted by Teresa's family to be raised as a Catholic in Badajoz; Sharpe never saw her again. In 1813 Sharpe embarked on a mission after his 'execution' for a murder engineered by Ducos. He found out about the Treaty of Valencay (SHARPE'S HONOUR) and fought in the Battle of Vittoria, where the French were routed and chased from Spain. Sharpe, with the assistance of Patrick Harper, 'found' enough precious stones amongst the booty to become rich men. Returning to England (SHARPE'S REGIMENT), he re-raised the South Essex Regiment, marrying Jane Gibbons. Participating in the invasion of France, Sharpe fought at Toulouse at the close of the war, killing Ducos (SHARPE'S REVENGE). Sharpe briefly became a farmer in Normandy with Lucille, a woman he met at the end of the war. In 1815 he served on the staff of the Prince of Orange, participating in the Waterloo Campaign, where Jane Gibbons' lover Rossendale was killed and she found oblivion and a 'fate worse than death'. Sharpe returned penniless to France, leaving once more in 1820 to seek out Blas Vivar in South America (SHARPE'S DEVIL), before returning home for the last time in 1821, after meeting Napoleon Bonaparte on St Helena. Richard Sharpe had a daughter, Dominique, and a son, Patrick Lassen (his son took his mothers' surname) who joined the French Army and served in the Crimean War. His son also served as an attache to the Confederate Army in the American Civil War. Richard Sharpe died in 1860, when he was 83 years old, and was buried on his estate in France. INTO BATTLE, MEN...AND WOMEN! Marching Sharpe into war was a bigger fight than anyone expected. By Stafford Hildred TV TIMES APRIL 8, 1995 Bullets whistled past us as gallant soldier Richard Sharpe helped his men to drag a cannon into position to attack the French fort. All around, the valley echoed with cries of pain and anguish, heard between the boom of explosives and the rattle of musket fire. The air was thick with the acrid smell of gunsmoke. Sharpe surveyed the mayhem around him before drawing his sword and preparing to engage the hated French in bitter hand-to-hand fighting. Filming battle scenes like this in the Ukraine for Sharpe would've been difficult enough under the best of circumstances. But for the team responsible for making this latest series, the task was nigh-impossible. "In a way it was just like living through a genuine war campaign, says producer Chris Burt. We had 97 vehicles carrying around 400 people - about 20 main actors plus extras and crew, all trying to stick to an exhausting schedule while working in temperatures of 116_C in the worst drought in living memory and watched by the local Mafia. It was certainly interesting." Three two-hour films were made for this third series of Sharpe, about the dashing British maverick rifleman Richard Sharpe who fought against Napoleon in the 19th century. Although set in Spain, the wild terrain of the Ukraine is very similar to the real-life Spanish battlefields where much of Wellington's struggle against Napoleon took place. Another attraction of the Ukraine is that it still has the remains of the old Soviet film industry with many of the local film crews and set builders providing cheaper labour than Western crews. But it was the local soldiers who were most involved. To swell the numbers on the battlefield, soldiers were drafted in from the First Battalion of the Ukrainian Army. Most are teenage conscripts whose usual weekly pay is the equivalent of a packet of cigarettes, and they never have enough to eat. "So being an extra in a Western film was a pretty exciting experience for them," says Chris. "They had a colonel who looked after them who liaised with our military adviser Richard Moore, an expert in all things Napoleonic." Richard choreographed all the battle scenes as he has tremendous knowledge of how they were actually played out back in 1810. Battles may have been executed with great precision, but all the planning in the world didn't prepared Chris and the team for the sinister presence of the Mafia. "They're a big problem - they control everything from basic supplies to the running of cafes and restaurants. Among all the poverty they drive around in huge black Mercedes, and unless you pay their prices, you don't get what you need. "Although we had a budget of just under ú4 million, we were working on tight margins, so it made life difficult. There was no actual trouble, but there was always a threatening presence." Real problems did come while filming one of the most dramatic scenes, when a specially made French fort supposedly set in the Pyrenees, was attacked and blown up by the British. "We hired local craftsmen to build it, and it took them eight weeks," says director Tom Clegg. "When they finished, we planned to stage a big attack and devastate it. Then, three days before filming began, half of the fort burned down - we don't know why - and we had to rebuild it." Special effects are a major part of making the battle scenes look real. "Russians did all of the special effects like tripping up horses and falling off walls - their stuntmen really are fearless," says Tom. Sean, who did all his own stunts, will impress viewers with his sword-fighting prowess. The swords have to be real and sharp - otherwise they don't glint in the light. A Ukrainian Olympic fencing champion provided coaching in close combat. "The sword fights frighten me to death," says Tom. "We have gallons of fake blood and spread it liberally wherever we go. It's that sort of show." Sean adds: "I got the odd little cut or scratch here and there but the action is important and that's why I do my own fights. It looks better. "Sharpe is an old-fashioned hero. I feel closer to him than any of my other parts because this is my show." THE UNIVERSAL CHALLENGE OF BEING HEROIC IN TIGHT TROUSERS by Nancy Banks-Smith GUARDIAN WEEKLY MAY 12, 1996 SHARPE (ITV), that thorn in Napoleon and the BBC's side, is back and a- rollicking we will go. When Sean Bean gets an award for rollicking, I hope he remembers to thank his parents for his elegant legs and entertaining name. If Cleopatra's nose had been an inch longer, the history of the world would have changed. If Bean's legs had been six inches shorter, we'd have lost Waterloo. As it is, he looks tremendously heroic in tight trousers and a rivulet of silver buttons. He even looks fairly heroic in a tam-o'-shanter with a pompom. I dearly love to see actors drowning. It is so obviously not quite what they had in mind when they were at Rada. It must be a surprise, when you are a personable young lad, to be dragged half drowned from the freezing sea, shot, thrown in a water-filled grave and, as a valediction, described as arse face. Noel Coward said firmly he would like to play a part in which he was cheerful throughout and bone-dry. Colin Firth would disagree. There was a tremendous man-hunt ("View-halloo!") in Sharpe's Regiment when the bad guys, one in a top hat ("Ah, Sir Henry!"), one with a twirly moustache ("How dare you look up at an officer!') and one in imminent danger of apoplexy ("You're filth! What are you? Filth!") hunted Sharpe Harper, his friend, and Arseface, the lad who had understandably gone off the whole idea of military service, over a disturbingly beautiful salt marsh. It seemed in three minds whether it was earth or sea or melting mud. The galloping horses were silhouetted against a vast and vacant sky. It looked like the kingdom of the conger eel. (This otherworldly place is, apparently, Horsey Island off Felixestowe.) The story was about as intelligent as a battle. No one was too clear what was going on but everyone was relieved ("Huzza!") when it was resolved in our favour. Briefly, having led the first battalion of the South Essex where, as Falstaff put it, they were peppered, Sharpe returned to England to collect the second battalion. It had mysteriously vanished. A man with shorter legs would have asked about a bit. Someone would probably have noticed 400 soldiers in scarlet and gold firing muskets. Sharpe, being a hero, feigned death, re- enlisted under a false name and was drafted into the missing battalion. Apparently someone in the government was selling off soldiers at 50 guineas a go, an enterprising early form of privatisation. The Prince Regent came into it somehow and a job lot of ladies, one with a memorable bust, one with a title and one with ringlets. "Bravo, Dick!" as the Prince Regent put it. I'D RATHER MAKE WAR NOT LOVE Bean's Mean Scenes Sean shows off his brawn on the battlefield NEWS OF THE WORLD MAGAZINE APRIL 17, 1994 This is now on The compleat: http://www.compleatseanbean.com/mainfeatures-82.html SHARPE AT BADAJOZ Reconstructing Napoleonic Weapons MILITARY ILLUSTRATED APRIL 1994 "It is a cold, wet and foggy day. The early rain has eased off, and the mud from the gabions that had collected in the trench bottom has partly drained to leave about two inches of slippery clinging sludge, impossible to pick up with your spade - but nobody likes digging anyway. Over us little people in the saps and parallels looms the enormous wall of Badajoz, grey in the murk and ominous. In three days we will be clambering out of these pits and forward to assault it. A siege gun bellows out behind me, adding the stink of gunpowder to the smell of bodies, damp and rot..." And so runs my notebook, kept daily for the four months it took us to make the new Sharpe films in the Southern Crimea. We began on the heights of Belgorsk in August, most of the team from the previous films - Rifles and Eagle - reporting for duty. Sharpe's Enemy takes the newly-promoted Richard Sharpe into the no- man's land between the armies in an attempt to rescue a kidnaped Englishwoman, taken by a gang of cut-throats and deserters, and finally ending in the destruction of a French invasion force using the new weapon in the Peninsula, Congreve's Rockets. Company concentrates on the Siege at Badajoz and Honour is an adventure set against the Vittoria campaign of 1813. The sets and locations as before, were found or designed by Andrew Mollo. Stunt work, both man and horse overseen by Dinny Powell. Students of ballistics will be interested to note that in over eight hundred shots, we had only three misfires, which flies in the face of the projected statistics and is mainly due to hard work on the part of the Armourer, Tom Moriarity, and his management of our stock of Baker rifles, Brown Besses, edged weapons and associated hardware. Our 'wardrobe', consisting of last year's veterans and several new additions was assembled and designed by Robin Fraser Paye and ably distributed by Steve Kirkby. At times resembling a cross between a Bring and Buy Sale and the gentlemen's outfitters at Harrods, the 'feel' of 1812 was just right in the Costume Dept, from 'campaign' soldiers to elegant officers and ladies. Our soldiers were played by Ukranian Army conscripts from their base at Perevalna'ia, near Simferopol. I spent my first seven days with them there, helping them to become British/French soldiers of the Napoleonic period, adjusting them to Western technology and film work, and becoming friends too. As last year, the boys who slogged through dust and dirt, sunstroke and thirst, night and day, frost and snow, exposure and shortages, lack of sleep, explosions and injury, became the unsung heroes of the films. Many interesting challenges were thrown up by the scripts for the new Sharpe films. My own particular forte as a serving Rifleman in the Ninety-Fifth Rifles of the Napoleonic Association meant I was able to advise and assist on the military presentations in the films and also give a personal opinion on what things should look like. The Baker rifles used by Sharpe, Harper and the Chosen Men, came from our unit's store, loaned by us in the interests of authenticity. They came back with a little more 'character' than we'd like, but every knock and dent tells a story. In a similar vein, the script requires Sergeant Harper to discharge on several occasions a Nock seven-barreled volley gun. Now this is something you don't see every day, but we are lucky in the Rifles to have a craftsman with the skill and knowledge to make for us a reproduction of this formidable weapon. Nock designed this gun in the 1780's as a novel way to rid the tops of enemy warships of belligerent sailors. What he perhaps didn't consider was the effect firing these weapons has on actors. The original weapons, cumbersome pieces of a calibre of .52, equipped with backaction locks and no visible means of supporting them on your person, raised several design problems, not all of which were solved. If anyone reading this can suggest a way in which a sixteen-pound, thirty-six inch long weapon can be comfortably carried by a Rifleman already labouring under a knapsack and Baker rifle, please send your ideas in. Our Volley-gun has all of the original features, with a modified ignition but the original flintlock mechanism. The test-firing in the Crimea led to differing charges being loaded for different persons. One other notable aspect of the gun is that if you hold it in your hands for longer than three minutes when it is minus two you can't let go as your fingers have frozen to it. Altogether a gun that should be seen and examined and whose advantages are far outweighed by its practical difficulties. Sharpe's Enemy shows scenes involving the transport, firing and effect of the Congreve Rocket System. Design of this started with a consultation with Woolwich Arsenal and an inspection of surviving items of the system. Of all the things anyone is likely to know about rockets, it is that they are unreliable in flight. Ours reflected this spirit of the original with the first test fire leading to one rocket zipping straight off into the camera and giving our camera man a bloody nose! Another seemed bound for Mars and it's final resting place will give a headache to a future archaeologist. But when due consideration had been given and several amendments made they did on the whole fly true - we had three which traveled over three hundred yards and dropped right on target. Their effect on landing can be devastating, laying waste to over four acres of hillside on set, causing major continuity problems and a discouraging effect on the enthusiasm of several French soldiers. The camera, enclosed this time in an armoured hide, seemed almost to attract these projectiles in flight, but gave us some great shots from the point of view of the recipients. The noise is eerie, the thud as they land considerable, and the detonation terrific. The Rocket Troopers, copied from the original etchings, and incorporating several of their unofficial embellishments, trot along after their enthusiastic commander, with a reproduced Rocket Cart, and Launching troughs, all copied and reproduced from Congreve's own Manual of 1813. The Siege of Badajoz called for heavy guns of the 18- and 24-pounder variety. Again after a visit to Woolwich, the final results were guns that looked like weapons that could cut Badajoz down to size and allow us to assault it. I fired the first shot of the siege myself, and also the last one, in what became a very satisfying, if hazardous experience. Most of the siege destruction you'll see in the film is the result of a spring gun designed to shot 20 bore rifle bullets into facsimiles of the Badajoz walls, made of a consistency to allow the persistent battering of the bullets to gradually reduce the wall to a state where it falls over and creates the breach. The gun and model of Badajoz were designed and built by Cliff Robinson. The ground charges, shells, bullet hits and other effects in the films were all stage-managed by the Ukranian special effects team. Adding to the fog of war by several mistakes made early on, they settled down to make a splendid effort for us in the several demolition scenes in the three films. One could never be certain just how powerful their charges were - something I found out myself at Vittoria by their attempt at the recreation of Sir John Moore at Corunna using me as the stand-in. The charge that leveled the forlorn hope at Badajoz was so powerful it almost breached the breach! I shan't bore you with an inside story on the state of Ukranian hospitals... The three Sharpe films - Company, Enemy, and Honour - will be shown on ITV in May. MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS ARTICLE NOVEMBER 14, 1996 Rugged Sean Bean had to look Sharpe when his TV adventure series hit the sleepy town of Helmshore in the Lancashire Hills. The dashing heart-throb leapt into action to save cotton workers from a bloody massacre as a cobbled square at the town's textile museum became a TV set. Local housewives looked on excitedly as rough diamond Sean clashed with a murderous yeomanry guard. Sabres flashed when Sean, who plays Lieut Richard Sharpe in the drama named after the character, mounted his trusty steed and galloped to the rescue of the citizens. But later the actor, who starred in the latest James Bond film Goldeneye, took time out to sign autographs and hand over a ú500 cheque on behalf of Rossendale- based Airtours to the BBC's Children in Need. The series, which will be shown next spring, is the last planned, although there is talk of a feature-length film about the maverick rifleman and his daring exploits against Napoleon. Sean said: "I hope this is not the last one and the end of Sharpe. "It has been great to me over the years and I am sure there is some life in the character yet." Filming has taken place all over Lancashire and Yorkshire - although the pressures have meant Sean has not been able to slip home across the Pennines to watch his beloved Sheffield United. He spent two months in the warmer climate of Turkey, before Lieut Sharpe was ordered back to England to command the local military force in his Yorkshire home town. Marriage troubles are in store for the character who also meets his brother back home in Yorkshire at the height of a "peasants' revolt" against cotton mill bosses. Sharpe's faithful sergeant, played by actor Darragh O'Malley, looked on as the dashing horseman rode on to the set - transformed from the museum's courtyard into a Yorkshire market square - just as the yeomen were scything down villagers. Sean chain-smoked through rehearsals for the scene in which he confronted the dastardly commanding officer to call a halt to the slaughter. Then he tossed his cigarette away and completed the take. Local people took up vantage points on a railway bridge alongside the museum and had a bird's eye view of the actor centre stage in the thronging square below. Extras in period costume sipped coffee and mingled with fans of the star during breaks in filming. Sean, who also recently starred in the big screen soccer drama, When Saturday Comes, is separated from his actress wife, Melanie Hill, who played Aveline in the BBC comedy, Bread. The three two-hour episodes of Sharpe, made by Carlton TV, will cost ú1.5 million. SHARPE'S SILENT RETURN by David Knights THE KEIGHLEY NEWS November 22, 1996 Sean Bean plays action hero Sharpe on the small screen, but in real life he's the shy, retiring type. The Sheffield actor was in Keighley this week to film the latest instalment in the hit series about a 19th century soldier. He kept away from fans and reporters who visited the East Riddlesden Hall film set, preferring to speak through the show's producer Malcolm Craddock. "Sean is a shy, decent, straightforward man from Yorkshire who's been let down by the media in the past," said Mr Craddock. The Sharpe film crew arrived on Wednesday after shooting horseback scenes on Ilkley Moor and expects to spend up to five days at the hall. The 17th century manor house is being used in the film as the home of Sharpe's wife's lover. The film, Sharpe's Justice, will be broadcast next year as part of the fifth and final series of Carlton TV's popular saga. It tells how Sharpe, home from the Napoleonic wars, travels north to help the local militia take on rebellious coal miners. The hero, who finds the task distasteful after years fighting the French and Spanish, takes time out to visit his wife at her new home and persuade her to return. Mr Craddock says the two-hour film is being shot over 25 days, mostly in Yorkshire locations such as Ilkley Moor and Hebden Bridge. The Keighley News last week revealed that Sharpe was partly based on the real- life exploits of a soldier buried in Utley cemetery. Christopher Ingham was a member of Wellington's crack 95th Rifle Regiment which fought several battles against Napoleon's forces. Sharpe author Bernard Cornwell used the regiment's deeds as the inspiration for his fictional hero. Lees historian Elizabeth Caissie, who researched Mr Ingham's family history while archivist at Keighley Parish Church, believes there is a strong link with Sharpe. "The story of Sharpe always seems to be very closely linked with Mr Ingham," she says. Meanwhile, another film crew spent Wednesday night at Keighley railway station shooting scenes for the movie Amy Foster, based on the novel by Joseph Conrad. Lamps on top of cranes lit the station as dozens of local extras climbed in and out of railway trucks. 2. NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES Footie is back on film with When Saturday Comes. Jo Berry asks star Sean Bean about scoring the winning goal (in extra time, of course), while Neil Howie points out that most football flicks are third division stuff... FOOTBALL FILMS: THE UGLY FACE OF THE BEAUTIFUL GAME Maxim APRIL 1996 Every little boy dreams of either being James Bond, a train driver or a football player, and Sean Bean - although no longer in short trousers - has managed to experience two of those fantasies, on celluloid, at least, by appearing in the latest Bond adventure, Goldeneye, as 006 (well, it's only one away from 007) and then donning the red and white strip of Sheffield Utd for When Saturday Comes. 'I did all the football scenes myself,' Bean boasts, 'but I guess starring in the film is the closest I'll get to be a player - it's one thing knocking it about a bit in a park on Saturdays, but to do it every day professionally is something else.' A Blades supporter in real life (Bean was born and bred in the town famous for its stainless steel cutlery and is the proud wearer of a Sheffield Utd tattoo), the actor got to train with the team and star on screen with them in those crucial behind-the-scenes football moments - the changing room pep-talk and the after-match communal bath. 'It was intimidating when I first arrived at the ground,' he remembers enthusiastically, 'and Dave Bassett [the ex-manager] was giving them all a right talking to - a real bollocking - and I'm just sitting there listening. Mind you, he lets them all have a laugh and piss about most of the time. They'd give me a hard time on the pitch, joking and saying "stick to acting, mate", but when they tried to act I'd just tell them to stick to football.' Bean is less forthcoming, however, when asked how the team reacted when he joined them for a nude communal bath for one of the scenes. 'One of the team got in with their pants on - I can't say who - and Pete Postlethwaite (who plays Bean's coach) just shouted to him, "Get your pants off, soft lad." Then we just had a laugh and drank Stones Bitter in the bath.' Although this sounds like a jolly jape for all concerned, the shoot was quite gruelling, involving five intense weeks of filming in the cold, muddy, overcast Sheffield winter, hours of footie training for Bean (he has to score the winning goal pretty convincingly, after all), and Emily Lloyd as a co-star So was it all worthwhile, just for the opportunity to run onto the Bramall Lane pitch? 'There's nothing like running on with the lights and everything, and we actually did some filming during the FA Cup third round match against Man Utd' he beams. 'I got on the pitch and ran around a bit before the match, but I didn't actually get to play against Manchester United, I just sat on the sidelines and we later mixed in other footage to make it look like I was in the match.' With a sly glance, Bean adds. 'Sheffield Utd didn't bring me on, but they should've done, because we lost...' SEAN BEAN - YORKSHIRE LAD is now on The Compleat's Features section

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

BUT WAS HE JUST PLAYING? The Times APRIL 7, 1986

Now on The compleat here: http://www.compleatseanbean.com/mainfeatures-83.html ************************************************ Subject: Bean Zine 7 - Extra Feb 17/97 The March 1997 issue of Cosmopolitan (UK edition) has two pages with Sean in them (and pictures). 1)"Cosmopolitan's 100 Sexiest Men Alive" "It would take months to figure out what the problem is but, hey who cares?" "Tortured Souls - Sean Bean" (small article and picture) 2) "Sex, romance, work, God, drugs & other astonishing revelations" "The 10 celebrities who most closely resemble your ideal man. No 1 - Sean Bean" "25th Birthday Special, results of 25 years of Cosmo survey" (top 10 plus small picture of Sean) And, The Sun ran a picture and a very small article about Sean and Abigail arriving at the Sky Soccer Awards on January 13. The Sun, Monday January 13, 1997 "Sean's Looking Sharpe-Suited" "He shows off new girl. Snappy dressers... Sean and Abigail last night." ================================================= PA 14 Feb 97 5:10 GMT S3422 Copyright 1997 PA. Copying, storing, redistribution, retransmission, publication, transfer or commercial exploitation of this information is expressly forbidden. By Jo Butler, PA News SEAN BEAN TOP'S WOMEN'S WISH-LIST Sean Bean is the man most women crave as their Valentine, according to a survey published today.

The British actor -- star of the Napoleonic war series Sharpe -- was voted the celebrity who "most closely resembles your ideal man" in a survey of 2,000 Cosmopolitan readers carried out to celebrate the magazine's 25th anniversary. The magazine's readers put Virgin-millionaire Richard Branson second on their list of favourite males, followed by footballer Alan Shearer, actor Jean-Claude Van Damme and Beatle Paul McCartney.

Comedians David Baddiel and Jim Carrey took sixth and seventh place, followed by actor Kenneth Branagh, TV doctor Hilary Jones and, finally, Oasis star Liam Gallagher.

Other topics covered in the survey include sex, heroines, drug-taking habits -- and the importance of thrush cream.

This and other over-the-counter remedies such as cystitis treatments were named as being the most important innovation for women in the past 25 years. They came ahead of mobile phones, lycra, low fat diet foods, moisturisers and Sunday shopping.. ...