Hornblower

I have been a fan of Hornblower since I first saw the Gregory Peck movie in my teens. Some of the backdrops may look a bit flimsey, but with all its faults, it has remained one of my favourite films. The great thing about the Hornblower series is that it captures the gritty realism which the early film failed to do. And make no mistake, it was a brutal world which existed 200 years ago. It was a world of floggings, gun smoke, mouldy food, fierce patriotism and brutality on a large scale. As you watch you begin to understand just how miserable life at sea was and just how cheaply that life was regarded. In this respect the series remains faithful to the ...

I had never read any of C S Forrester's Hornblower books, but I have read all of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe stories, and seen all the TV films of Sharpe. This gave me a taste for historical dramas of a military bent, and, having recently moved near to HMS Victory, I found myself fascinated by life at sea during Napoleonic times. I was not disappointed by Meridian Television's adaptation of the Hornblower story. Although I have not read them, I had seen the black & white Gregory Peck version. Ioan Gruffudd as Hornblower was a sensitive, almost sickly character, hardly a traditional hero, but the films brought to life the rigours of ...

It was with some trepidation that I watched the 1st episode of Meridian tv's Hornblower... After all, I had loved C. S Forester's books since childhood. There was no way that an actor could possibly play Horatio Hornblower to my satisfaction...was there? After all, I KNEW how he looked, how he spoke and how he acted and I did not want to have my illusions shattered... Enter Ioan Gruffudd as Hornblower, a tall, slight figure...pale and suffering terribly from the sea sickness which was such a feature of Forester's sea-going hero. Ioan IS the perfect Hornblower! He plays the part to perfection, showing the vulnerability of ...