Series of British television films
Hornblower
is a series of British
historical fiction
war
television films
based on three of
C. S. Forester
's ten novels about the fictional character
Horatio Hornblower
, a
Royal Navy
officer during the
French Revolutionary
and
Napoleonic Wars
.
The series ran from 7 October 1998 until 6 January 2003, with
Ioan Gruffudd
in the title role. It was produced by the British broadcaster
ITV Meridian
, and was shown on
ITV
in the UK and
A&E
in the US. It is often repeated on
ITV4
.
Main cast
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Other well-known actors appeared in guest roles, including
Michael Byrne
,
Denis Lawson
,
Antony Sher
,
Ian McNeice
,
Andrew Tiernan
,
Samuel West
,
Christian Coulson
,
Cherie Lunghi
,
Greg Wise
and
Ronald Pickup
.
The film series
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The series consists of eight
television films
, which are notable for their high production values. All were later released on DVD (with the original aspect ratio of
16:9
widescreen in Europe and
4:3
in the US). In the US, the series was retitled
Horatio Hornblower
, and some of the films were known by different titles. The eight films cover the events of just three of the ten novels (
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
,
Lieutenant Hornblower
, and
Hornblower and the Hotspur
), and various alterations and additions are made to the source material (e.g., the recurring characters of Lt. Archie Kennedy, Matthews and Styles).
Production
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Captain Pellew's ship,
HMS
Indefatigable
, is represented by the
Grand Turk
, a modern copy of the
frigate
HMS
Blandford
built in 1741. To represent Hornblower's ship, HMS
Hotspur
, the
Earl of Pembroke
, a civilian ship, underwent some conversion. The Baltic trading schooner
Julia
and the
brig
Phoenix of Dell Quay
were used to represent the smaller vessels. No real
74-gun ship
existed any longer at the time of production (the last one,
HMS
Implacable
, was scuttled in 1949), so HMS
Justinian
and
HMS
Renown
had to be recreated as models. For the first series a quarter of a 74-gun ship (one exterior side and three open sides to shoot live action on several decks) called the
pontoon
was built. Later live action on the
quarterdeck
or the
gundeck
below was shot on the actual
HMS
Victory
. Eleven scale models, ranging from 4.5 to 7 m in length, were used for the battle scenes, the largest weighing 1400 kg, and made with working rigging and cannons that were fired by remote control. Shooting locations included the
Black Sea
, the
Livadia Palace
, Portugal, and the former administration (Melville) building of the
Royal William Yard
and the
Barbican, Plymouth
in England.
Awards
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Series continuation
[
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]
Ioan Gruffudd
had shown interest in participating in more
Hornblower
films.
[1]
In 2007, he reportedly discussed the possibility of a big-screen version of
Hornblower
, and had been attempting to gain the rights to the books by C. S. Forester."
[2]
References
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External links
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]
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