Sharpe/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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O'er the Hills and O'er the Main,
To Flanders, Portugal and Spain,
King George commands and we obey
Over the Hills and far away.

  • Magnificent Bastard: Wellington, in the TV series. In the books, Wellington acts in a more historical role, taking occasional interest in Sharpe's career and giving him patronage when he deems fit. In the TV series, however, Wellington treats Sharpe as his personal attack dog- when confronted with a problem he smiles archly and goes about his business, quietly dispatching Sharpe and the Chosen Men to kill people until the problem disappears. Arguably Wellington was a Magnificent Bastard in real life too.
    • In the books, it's Major Hogan, Wellington's spymaster, who provided most of the Magnificent Bastardry. He appears in the first two episodes of the series, played near-perfectly by Brian Cox, before having to be replaced by a Suspiciously Similar Substitute or two and leaving Wellington to pick up the Magnificent Bastard role. Numerous exchanges in the books have Wellington as more the uptight one and Hogan as a sly, cunning SOB, only for the TV adaptations to swap the roles and have the spymaster-of-the-week be the stuffy one while Wellinton acts like... well, like a Magnificent Bastard.