I love that when Sharpe entered the tent, he was just confused. Absolutely confused. He looked for any confirmation as to what on Earth was happening, but the only other person in the tent entirely gave up.
0:10 is the face of a man yearning for the sweet embrace of the grave. James Purefoy (Captain Jack Spears) needs to win all the awards for that moment alone.
@@WeazelGamingHI Perhaps today, but back then troop movements and exchange of intelligence and orders was slower. A good chunk of it would still be good.
Munro knows he’s terrible at the bagpipes but doesn’t let it get in the way of enjoying himself knowing no one is going to pull him up on it… That’s senior officering..
But he's not terrible at all. The intonation and breath control is a little sloppy, but he clearly isn't portrayed as a complete amateur. Bagpipes are just the easy joke in endless shows and films.
@@DaveDexterMusic @DaveDexterMusic I don't know what kind of bagpipe playing you've heard (actually, I guess I do) but that was more than "a little sloppy"
Back in those days, you could be the best bagpiper in Scotland and even so it would sound like a horrible cacophony to the average Englishman: they hadn't yet become acquainted with Scotland's national instrument. Some Englishmen STILL think so :)
My neighbour knocked on the door last night shouting "do you know what time it is?" I told him it was 3 am and he was lucky I was still up practicing my Bagpipes.
Good old young James Purefoy. When I first watched this series in the 90s I had no idea that all of the best villains in these stories like Purefoy, Daniel Craig, and Mark Strong were going to hit it so big.
I always found that scene weird, at that time Munro was an established character in the series, but here he seems like a totaly different person. All of a sudden he's wearing kilt, ending every sentence with "Laddie", playing bagpipe and stares at sharpe.
Would have made more sense if it was a different man with the same identity because the predecessor was killed or something and there's just another "Munro" ready to take their place.
When their enemies would retreat into fortresses the ancient Scots would surround the building and play the bagpipes day and night until the psychological torment got to be too much, and the enemy garrisons either surrendered or hurdled themselves from the walls to make the noises stop. True story.
I heard that in South Africa, during a bank siege, the cops played 'I SHOULD BE SO LUCKY' by Kylie Minogue for 3 days straight. They gave up after that!
@@1stcaptainraldoron538 But Sharpe is at this point a Major -- a "field grade" officer, no longer a Junior Officer. And yet he gets the Dream Job anyway. Hum, must be his low birth!
@@rock07879 At the time Scotch, Scots and Scottish were used interchangeably. It's only in recent times that people have decided, for no particular reason it seems, to get a stick up their arse about "Scotch". This is the reason Scotch whiskey (Scottish whiskey) is called Scotch. In chess we also have the Scotch (Scottish) game. "Scotch" is a synonym of "Scottish" and there's a fair chance an early 19th century Scotsman, far from objecting to it, would have used the word to describe themselves.
This reminds me of a clip from the movie The Longest Day [Millen plays the bagpipes as British troops march toward the Germans] Pvt. Clough : There it is, he's at it again! Have you ever heard such a racket in all your life? Private Flanagan : Yeah, it takes an Irishman to play the pipes. It always makes me laugh
@@odysseusrex5908 very true I love the scene when he tells at the Germans before leaping head long into the channel and also the part where they are going on about the beach masters dog lol
Actually for "ne'er had a lesson in my life" the colonel is a piping miracle! Played the pipes since 1985 and reenacted the 79th Camerons for o'er 20 years I ken what I'm talking aboot... 😂
On the rewatch of this, well it occurs to me that Sharpe is a sergeant in a scottish regiment in the India books, or at least in the second book IIRC but even so given how frequently he's exposed to its, he's probably been thoroughly desensitized to the pipes
No Sharpe was never in a Scottish regiment.. unless he was a QMS in a middle regiment.. in India he was in the 33rd 'Havercakes' which recruited in Yorkshire, then went straight AFAIK from them to the 95th Rifles. After that the small group he led were absorbed into the fictional South Essex.
Between being a redcoat sergeant and green coat, he was a liet. in a Scottish regiment. Rules said he couldn't stay with the unit he was a serg in. This didn't work out as Scottish very very clannish and resistant to English officers and he was still learning ways of being an officer. I think it was the book Siege.
You never get desensitised to the agony bags, quite the opposite. They are instruments of torture, the more you hear them the more you want the torture to stop. I spent 12 years as a musician in the British Army, albeit as a reservist. I remember my first beating retreat, with massed bands, pipes and drums, I thought it is wonderful. Then as the years progressed, the more I came to loathe the bagpipes.
The ancient Highland bagpipes lead many mighty Scottish regiments into to battle, a remembrance of home in a foreign land. The piping in that clip was the worst I've ever heard. The real pipes are magnificent
Favourite wee detail about this episode is how during the march at the end it's clearly the same piper playing and it unfortunately sounds almost as bad as Mungo here, just not played for laughs. Hard to play well when you're probably the biggest target on the battlefield though...
The thing I don't understand. If the enemy knows the name of the spy, is it still a secret? Why make Sharpe's job more difficult by pretending the cat is still in the bag?
Monroe: Which would you prefer me to do Sharpe? Play balak nabruga, that’s the Monroe March.. or send you on a dangerous mission? Sharpe: Er, dangerous mission sir.
Munro was always a little over the top. Hogan had brilliant repartee with Wellington and Nairn had brilliant repartee with Sharpe. I don't feel that Munro ever fit quite as well.
I think Munro is a Scottish surname, so possibly some connection to Scotland. I'm sure if we all put our fine minds together and look for more clues, we could work out whether he is indeed Scottish.
