Recreation

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For all the pressure on numerous drivers to make the Chase for the Championship, this was a surprisingly clean and well run. Lead changes, sweet passes and some good racing. Dale Jr. made his best finish yet coming in second while Elliott took a solid shot at the lead, quickly pulling away from the field in clean air but getting mired back in teens after pitting late to top off fuel. I think that final round of pit stops came about five laps too late but “Well Done” to all the drivers for a great race.

Sharpe’s Challenge

This weekend also marked the return of Richard Sharpe to American viewers (the U.K. viewers got him in April, lucky bastards). As I have mentioned before, Sharpe is just plain good fun, swashbuckling adventure of the Napoleonic era. Bernard Cornwell series of books chronicles the rise and fall and rise again…and fall again…and so on, of Richard Sharpe, bastard son of a whore who joins the army to escape jail and eventually saved Lord Wellington’s (before he was Lord Wellington) life which catapults him into an officer’s country made up of sons of landed gentleman. “A poor fit” is an understatement, but Sharpe has his uses and his frequent missions in the Peninsula Campaign and beyond on Wellington’s behalf with the 95th Rifles and later the South Essex keep him on Wellington’s good side. Cornwell’s books gave rise to a series of BBC productions starring Sean Bean (Europe’s version of George Clooney or Brad Pitt only without the smarm or vacuity, hottest blonde alive, perhaps ever though more readily recognizable as a stock villian in U.S. films) which are a rip roaring good time of a big boys club, shooting, sneaking, killing, storming, wenching and escaping death by a hairs-breath every time (well, Sharpe and Harper do anyway). Great fun. Of the 15 films, there’s only one plunker in the bunch (avoid “Sharpe’s Gold” at all costs). But not only are they fun, there are some truly wonderful and moving moments of camaraderie and death scattered throughout the series as there should be in dealing with any real war.

An added treat was always John Tam singing the English traditional songs of war and whatnot in the background. Man had a lovely voice.

Anyway, Sharpe’s Challenge: Sharpe goes (back) to India. Thumbs up on the plot and the cast.

“Two years after the Duke of Wellington crushes Napoleon at Waterloo, dispatches from India tell of a local Maharaja, Khande Rao, who is threatening British interests there. Wellington sends Sharpe to investigate on what turns out to be his most dangerous mission to date. When a beautiful general's daughter is kidnapped by the Indian warlord, the tension mounts, leaving Sharpe no option but to pursue the enemy right into its deadly lair. Deep in the heart of enemy territory he also has to keep at bay the beautiful but scheming Regent, Madhuvanthi, who is out to seduce him.

The fate of an Empire and the life of a General's daughter lie in one man's hands...."

That’s a fairly typical example of a Sharpe plot.

You can’t have a Sharpe without a Harper and thank the Gods for it lest he drown in his practical pessimism. And there is some good BBC-style action. That’s is, if you are looking for polished Hollywood fights you aren’t going to get them here, but there is plenty of blood and booms to keep one entertained. Bean takes his shirt off (if you’re a girl) and there are plently of scantily clad women (if you’re a guy). Though will someone please, please kill Simmerson at last? I can imagine the universal groan heard across the U.K. when he came onscreen. And why was it necessary to kill off Lucille? I mean, Sharpe actually kept it in his trousers this time (a rare occurrence) and in the books she survives him…

Anyway, it was on BBC America and they will probably replay it at some point. I fully recommend it.