April 17 - Happy Birthday Sean Bean

Photo Jamie Hughes Photograph

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR SEAN BEAN 

Sean Bean is nominated for a BAFTA this year as Leading Actor for Broken.  

The BAFTA's will be held on Sunday, May 13, 2018.  Fingers crossed and sending good vibes for a a much deserved win for Sean.  

Below is a link to a great article 'How Sean Bean gets the life of a parish priest right in a new BBC show'

https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2018/04/12/how-sean-bean-gets-life-parish-priest-right-new-bbc-show

Sharpe the TV Series Starring Sean Bean Starts Today on WETA UK

The TV series that made Sean Bean a legend comes to Public Television starting tonight, February 15 at 10:00pm thanks to WETA UK.   

Based on the book series by Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe   follows the life of British soldier Richard Sharpe and the 95th Rifles during the Peninsular War (1807-1814). 

If you are in the Washington DC Metro Area and don't know WETA UK go to the link below on how to watch this fantastic PBS channel we have the good fortune to have access to in our viewing area:

https://weta.org/tv/uk/faq

If you are new to the Sharpe TV series and want to know a little more about it, I wrote a series of posts about the series episodes back in 2012.  But beware of spoilers and follow the posts in chronological order:

http://whiterosewritings.blogspot.com/search?q=Sharpe+Sundays&max-results=20&by-date=true

There was a time when I was very involved in the Sharpe fandom, and even with some of the people that worked on the Sharpe series.  Alas, those days are long gone, but I have good memories of those times.  (For the most part 😊).  For the memories:

http://www.reenactor.net/index.php?topic=1251.0

For Sean Bean fans in the DC area who know him from The Lord of the Rings, or Game of Thrones, or his wonderful series last year, Broken, but are not aware of the Sharpe series, this is a great opportunity to catch up.  

Sean Bean is Richard Sharpe, and always will be. 

So Happy for Him - Sean Bean in Broken

The world has suddenly discovered that Sean Bean is a great actor.  
I'm so very happy for him. Because you see, I've been a fan of Sean's since 1988. (I'll let you all do the math). And I've known for all these many years what a great actor he is.

I love Sean Bean. 

An article in The Guardian today brought me to tears:


(Beware of spoilers in the article)

A love letter to Sean Bean – the most heartbreakingly mesmerising of actors

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jun/14/sean-bean-mesmerising-actor-game-of-thrones-broken?CMP=share_btn_tw

"Bean’s Father Michael is quiet and conflicted, haunted by his past and battling a sadness that has seeped deep into his soul. He commands the screen, his pain flitting across that gaunt, ravaged face reminding us that some of the best actors say most when speaking least."

"There are few actors capable of bringing that weight to a role. Of allowing you to see how a person can be both good but heartbreakingly, perhaps fatally, flawed. Of convincing you that a man so betrayed by the Catholic church as a child might return to that church thanks to a faith deeper than those betrayals and, crucially, of making you believe in every aspect of his character’s life from the good-natured interventions into his parishioners’ lives to those moments when, terribly, he ignores them out of a desire to be off-duty for once, to put down the candle, to be alone."

__________________

I've written many "love letters" to Sean during the years. Not just on this blog, but other sites and blogs and fan forums. He doesn't know of course, but maybe he can feel the support and affection of all his fans in his heart. 

So for those just discovering this "heartbreakingly mesmerising" of actors, below my list of some of the best of Sean Bean. 


Stormy Monday (1988)

• (when I met Sean Bean)

Caravaggio (1986)

Windprints (1989)

The Field (1990)

My Kingdom for a Horse (1991)

Clarissa (1991)

Tom & Thomas (2002)

North Country (2005)

Far North (2007)

Red Riding (2009)

Black Death (2012)

So if you're newly discovering Sean, or just discovering Sean, check out some of the work I've listed above. 

Some are difficult to find, but worth the effort if you do. 

I didn't include the work that the world knows him for: Sharpe, Boromir, Trevelyan, Stark... but maybe watch those again too and you may discover new treasures there. Sometimes we think we know what we'll find, and we may discover we were wrong all along.