Masterpiece Classic: Sharpe's Challenge

Sunday, August 5 at 9:00 p.m.

Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings) returns as soldier-hero Richard Sharpe in "Sharpe's Challenge," the first of two films based on Bernard Cornwell's best-selling novels.

Fresh from the Napoleonic Wars, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Sharpe accepts a perilous mission in British India. Last seen by Masterpiece viewers in the mid 1990s, Sharpe is reunited with his best friend Sergeant Major Patrick Harper (Daragh O'Malley.)

Also starring is Padma Lakshmi (Emmy-nominated host of Top Chef) as the beautiful but treacherous Madhuvanthi, who toys with Sharpe in a secluded fortress where a nefarious plot is afoot. Toby Stephens (Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre) is also featured as a renegade English officer -- and Madhuvanthi's lover.

The London Sunday Times hailed Sharpe's return to action, calling his opening adventure in India "superbly made and well cast," adding "Sharpe rides again!"