The first instalment of the Harris diaries joins the Sharpe crew at the commencement of shooting for the third series in the Crimean city of Simferopol. It was to be the last of a three year stint in the Ukraine and the events that followed tipped the scales in favour of us never returning.
Experiencing life in the post-soviet Ukraine can be hard at times, but it did have it's plus points. One of these is the Black Sea resort town that provided a base for the bulk of our stay; a portion of the tour we keenly looked forward to after our stay in the simply awful capital.
The unit having spent two months 'in country' started to get a little fractious; this manifested itself with political upheaval in the world of the Chosen Men. Upheaval of our sleeping patterns followed as we entered into night shoots to film Loup's surprise attack on Sharpe's charges, the Compania Irlandesa.
The dying days of Sharpe's third series would be spent in the winter sunshine of Portugal- England's oldest ally. The defence of who brought us into the Peninsula war in 1809 and up against Napoleon. The Portuguese shoot evokes strong memories of the seminal 'Rifle's' shoot two years previous, where we took refuge after a traumatic first Crimean shoot .
It had been decided that spiralling costs and the hassle of filming in the Crimea would force us to shoot Sharpe elsewhere. The search didn't lead us far, as producers chose Turkey, Ukraine's Black sea neighbour, to begin the fourth series. The first part of the shoot is filmed in England without Chosen Man Harris, but I meet up with the unit on the plane to Antalya, Turkey where we will film the battle sections of 'Regiment'. Though not far from our Crimean 'home', Turkey is a world away in terms of western comforts a state of affairs that pleased us greatly. The down side, perhaps, was with this new five star existence (and the loss of Lyndon 'Perkins' Davies) some of the old Sharpe spirit was withering away.
Diary two of the Turkish era sees us readjusting after the sickening injury to Daragh O'Malley's cheek bone. Almost reluctantly the unit plods through the re-arranged schedule to complete the remnants of Mission (a Harris favourite) and detonate the opening salvos of Sharpe's Siege. The luxurious Antalya Sheraton made it easy to forget our troubles with satellite telly, endless choices of food and drink and other western conveniences. Something we were not that used to on-tour with Sharpe over the years. Eventually Daragh recovers; returns to work and proceedings on set gain an air of normality again. All in time for us to up sticks and move both down the coast and back in time to shoot in a little town on the way to the Middle East.
The vast Sharpe unit pack their bags and board various modes of transport to get us to the final stop on our itinerary, the eastern Mediterranean coastal town of Silifke. Nearby, a castle set has been built where we continue shooting the eleventh episode of this great series: Sharpe's Siege. This diarist was about to put his usual Sharpe existence on hold with the arrival of his family on location for the remainder of the shoot. Before we can reach the end-of term calm of the final week we must survive a gruelling series of night shoots and the looming spectre of industrial unrest within the crew.