Director Andrew Grieve
Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Robert Lindsay, Cherie Lunghi
Rated M
Score 3.5/6

Lt. Hornblower and his crew are captured by the enemy while escorting a Duchess who has secrets of her own.

This is another one I liked, partly because its another example of Hornblower’s poor track record early on in his career with ships that he has been given command of. I also enjoyed Cherie Lunghi performance as the Duchess of Wharfedale and the playful relationship she has with Hornblower, I also enjoyed Christopher Fulford’s performance as Midshipman Hunter, though it was never specifically stated in the movie why he seemed to have so much of chip on his shoulder which drove him to take a actions that ultimately took him over is tipping point. It was also good to see the return of Archie Kennedy (portrayed by Jamie Bamber) who went missing during The Even Chance.
It was also good to see that no matter how patriotic and driven by his own sense of honour Hornblower could also be described as a humanist.

Now that I am three movies into the Hornblower series I can not say with any degree of certainty if I prefer one series over the other. However, what I will say is that with the Sharpe series it seems that I found it is easier to hate the villains. The only reason I can come up with is that perhaps the villains in the Sharpe series are more fleshed out coming from movies that are adapted from individual books where as the eight movies in the Hornblower series are adapted from three novels.