![]() This latest story - the 16th Sharpe adventure - took him away from home for only six weeks, but if shooting had gone on any longer, he says, he would have definitely flown the girls out to join him on set. That's why the picture in the locket brought it all back to me and made me so upset.'įourth time lucky: Bean on his wedding day to Georgina Sutcliffe in February 'When I first started shooting Sharpe, back in the early 1990s, I'd kiss my two elder daughters goodbye at the end of August - Evie wasn't even born then - and I wouldn't see them again until Christmas. 'In an ideal world, I would have loved never to have gone away, but it was the nature of my work,' he explains. ![]() In addition to Molly, now 17, he has Lorna, 21 - both from his marriage to actress Melanie Hill - and nine-year-old Evie from his marriage to actress Abigail Crittenden. It was bad enough that I had to be away filming for weeks and months, rather than the years that soldiers like Sharpe had to endure, and at least when I did get home I was able to spend all my time with my family.' 'It must be very painful for a father to be separated from his child for so long and only have a tiny picture in a locket for memories. At least I was away for weeks, not years like Sharpe, and I was able to see Molly and my other two daughters on a regular basis. Afterwards, I couldn't get that scene out of my mind. 'I missed her terribly, and I bet she missed me. 'So far so good - it's only a story, right? But it got me thinking of my own daughter, Molly, who was around the same age as Antonia when I had to leave her behind to go on location to the Ukraine to film some early Sharpe stories all those years ago. It's of a little girl, Antonia, whom Sharpe had to leave behind many years ago, because a soldier's life isn't one that can be shared with a child,' he says. ![]() 'I'm escorting a woman across India, and I open up the locket around my neck to show her the picture inside. It's heartbreaking to re-enact all that, and I couldn't wait to walk away because I could feel my emotions getting the better of me.'Īs it happens, this wasn't the only scene where Bean had to check himself for fear of breaking down. 'It happened in Sharpe's time, a couple of hundred years ago, when kids were sent off to foreign lands and told to fight, and it happens for real now, too. I know it's only fiction, but it is based on fact and his situation got to me because it has parallels with what is happening in other places. Luke's playing a kid who should be at home with his family and his mates, not putting his life on the line by fighting for his country. 'The way Luke said his lines in that scene was enough to break your bloody heart. Later, sitting in the shade of a huge umbrella, cigarette in one hand and glass of water in the other, he reveals what made him so emotional. 'I just couldn't help myself', he muttered, by way of unnecessary apology. Everyone assumed it was sweat, but as he came near I could see the tears.īack in action: Sean Bean returns to his smouldering best as Lieutenant Colonel Richard Sharpe As the director called 'Cut!', Bean quickly walked away, furtively wiping his eyes. The afternoon sun was beating down mercilessly as I watched him in a scene with actor Luke Ward-Wilkinson, who was playing a young boy soldier. We were in the arid, drought-plagued heart of India's Madhya Pradesh province where he was filming Sharpe's Peril, the latest instalment in ITV's enduring action drama, which begins on Sunday. He plays the hard man, from the tough Lieutenant Colonel Richard Sharpe to a Bond villain, as if to the manner born and his private life, what with three ex-wives and, reportedly, a turbulent relationship with the current Mrs Bean, is just as colourful.īut it was while making the latest Sharpe adventure that he demonstrated to me, albeit reluctantly, a surprisingly soft and sensitive side. Nobody personifies the image of the macho actor, both on and off screen, better than Sean Bean.
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