Sean Bean's 16-Episode Historical Drama From The '90s Was Based On A Popular Book Series

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Sean Bean is no stranger to TV shows based on popular books, and we're not talking about "Game of Thrones." While a lot of fans first took notice of him when he played Boromir in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, Bean's big break came when he played a soldier in an epic British television franchise. In 1993, he made his debut as Richard Sharpe, a fictional hero created by author Bernard Cornwell for his acclaimed "Sharpe" novel series. The acclaimed historical drama show originally ran from 1993 to 1997 before returning for a couple of two-part TV movies in 2006 and 2008.

Sharpe is a no-nonsense working-class soldier fighting in the Napoleonic Wars who saves the life of the future Duke of Wellington and is promoted to lieutenant as a result. Put in charge of a ragtag unit of 95th Rifles marksmen, he leads his men through many perilous missions across Portugal and Spain. Bean called it "a fantastic role" in an interview with the fan website The Compleat Sean Bean, adding that it's "something I look back on with great fondness." When asked if Sharpe was the character he felt most proud of, Bean said, "I suppose it probably is, bearing in mind the length of time I was involved with it and the whole adventure of it."

Sean Bean often acts using his native Yorkshire accent, with the northern Winterfell accent in "Game of Thrones" famously based on his real voice. In the "Sharpe" books, the titular character was born in London to a sex worker mother and an unknown father, but Bernard Cornwell loved Bean's take on the character so much that he decided to expand on Sharpe's origins in future novels. The author made it so that Sharpe had been born in London but raised in Yorkshire, bringing the books in line with the TV series. "Sean was brilliant," Cromwell told Big Issue. "I hear him in my head when I write Sharpe."

If you're looking to relive the "Sharpe" television series, the original 1993 to 1997 run is pretty easy to find. Those first five seasons are currently streaming for free on Tubi and The Roku Channel, and you can also watch them with a subscription to BritBox. But if you want to watch "Sharpe's Challenge" and "Sharpe's Peril" (the two-part TV movies from the 2000s), those are currently only available on DVD or Blu-ray. If you've already watched "Sharpe" multiple times and you're looking for another gripping TV show based on a novel series by Bernard Cromwell, you should check out "The Last Kingdom," which is basically "Game of Thrones" meets "Vikings."