Sharpe's online
At the beginning of the series, Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean) is a sergeant in the British 95th Rifles serving in Portugal in 1809. When he singlehandedly saves the life of General Sir Arthur Wellesley (David Troughton in the first two films, then Hugh Fraser) from a group of French cavalrymen, Wellesley gives Sharpe a battlefield commission, promoting him to lieutenant. Sharpe is placed in charge of a detachment of the 95th Rifles - a group of elite riflemen ("chosen men"), among them Sergeant Patrick Harper (Daragh O'Malley), who eventually becomes his best friend.
Wellesley and his various spymasters, first Major Michael Hogan (Brian Cox), followed by Major Nairn (Michael Byrne), Major Mungo Monroe (Hugh Ross) and later Major General Ross (James Laurenson), find Sharpe to be an extremely capable and cunning officer and give him progressively more important tasks. Despite their backing, he has to fight against the strong prejudice of aristocrats (who often owe their army positions to money and social connections rather than military skill) against an uncouth commoner raised from the ranks. He makes a number of dangerous enemies, such as French Major Pierre Ducos (FЁ¦odor Atkine) and Colonel Sir Henry Simmerson (Michael Cochrane), and encounters one from his prior service in India, Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill (Pete Postlethwaite). However, Sharpe's successes gain him steady promotion. By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, at the Battle of Waterloo, he is Lieutenant-Colonel Sharpe.
Along the way, Sharpe has a number of romances. During the course of the series, he marries first the Spanish guerrilla leader Teresa Moreno (Assumpta Serna), with whom he has a daughter, and then Jane Gibbons (Abigail Cruttenden).