Loved this latest entry in the marvelous Sharpe series! Let's hope this episode will pave the way for more episodes. Bean and O'Malley, as well as the ever-irritating, simpering Simmerson (Michael Cochrane) and perennial favorite Hugh Fraser as Wellington, perform in their usual superlative manner. After so many outings together, they feel just like old friends in one's living room. Bean, despite looking older and a trifle exhausted, continues to exude sensuality. India, as well as its inhabitants, shimmers; however, the director Tom Clegg would have done well to ignore the peremptory entreaties of Indian/American actress (using the term advisedly, of course) Padma Lakshmi, when she demanded to be cast as the scheming courtesan, Madhuvanthi. Lakshmi is gorgeous, but she speaks in a flat tone, often slurring her words; she exudes all the passion of a dead rat and is not in the least seductive. Lucy Brown, on the other hand, joins a long line of engagingly chaste Sharpe heroines, at least until our hero seduces her (in the loveliest possible way, of course), as Celia, the kidnapped general's daughter. The producers did overdo the bust shots, especially as necklines had crept higher by 1817, but Brown is pretty, a fair English rose to juxtapose against the darker beauties of India. She is also spirited and conveys her feelings in that subtle manner we admire in British performers. Toby Stephens is a perfect cretin as the renegade William Dodd; he presents a worthy addition to the nasty stable of Sharpe villains. Since those early episodes with Pete Postlethwaite as Hakeswill, the shoes of a Sharpe villain have been almost impossible to fill. Bravo to the BBC for ushering us back to this beloved world of Sharpe and his compatriots, as well as his enemies!