"Ah, good news: Sharpe's Challenge returns, after a gap of eight years ... This show has everything you'd expect. As well as that devilishly handsome but evil maharajah, there are bumbling, bullying, alcoholic British officers bursting out of their britches and losing their minds in the heat of the subcontinent. There are plenty of comedy Indians, some good, some bad, lots killed. There are romantic but impenetrable forts on tops of hills, belly dancers, incense and veiled women of extraordinary beauty. There's a blonde English rose as well, called Celia, whose job is to be captured, to heave her ample bosom, and to have her clothes removed at every opportunity. She falls for Mr Bean, of course - Sean, not Rowan Atkinson - in spite of his 1970s footballer's haircut and his lack of lips. And above everything, somewhere between the action and the relentless sun, vultures circle. Fabulous."
Sam Wollaston, Guardian