The Chosen Men
Portrayed as the cream of an already elite regiment, the Chosen Men are such a familiar part of the Sharpe films, it is a surprise to find that they do not actually exist in any of the Sharpe novels, and that their deployment in real life was somewhat different.
'Chosen Man' is the original term for a lance-corporal. Selected from the ranks for their intelligence, they were spared ordinary duties and given command of eight soldiers apiece instead. Some eventually became NCOs.
Instead of sprinkling the Chosen Men throughout the regiment, as they were in real life, Sharpe screenwriter Eoghan Harries chose to group them around Sharpe, supplying his leading character with a close-knit group of associates - a kind of Dirty half-Dozen - whose dialogue and relationships give the films emotional and comic depth. The technique was so successful that Bernard Cornwell adopted it in the book Shape's Battle
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