How many horatio hornblower episodes

But far more daunting is Hornblower's first taste of the high life, when he is invited to dine with the Governor of Gibraltar and his wife. The prospect of this is frightening enough, but an unexpected guest, the glamorous Duchess of Wharfedale, adds another spin to his evening. Hornblower is assigned to escort a company of British redcoats the Lobsters and a group of French royalists the Frogs to France in an attempt to restore the king to power, but he is unprepared for the brutality and cowardice displayed by the French commander.

Hornblower comes to realize that his new captain, though quite respected, is quite mad, and that the only option he and his fellows have is mutiny. Hornblower and the other officers of the Renown must return to Jamaica to face a court-martial and possible execution for their actions in relieving their unstable captain. Horatio's face in the final scene looks like he's struggling between being heartbroken and being grateful.

The Black Death : Midshipman Hornblower is sent to pick up supplies from the city of Oran on the day of a plague outbreak. While quarantined at sea, one of the sailors starts weaving and swaying, prompting the others to try and toss him overboard using spars until Hornblower steps in.

There's a tense moment when Hornblower gets close to the man, but a sniff of his breath shows that he's just drunk. Later, the reckless Dreadnought Foster takes some cattle before the quarantine is up, over Hornblower's voluble protests. Fortunately, they evade contagion. Blatant Lies : Hornblower, ironically enough for The Captain , is stricken with sea sickness every time he puts to sea.

At one point, he makes a flimsy attempt to blame this on eating "a bad egg at breakfast". Blood from the Mouth : The imminent and inevitable death of most named characters is indicated by the ominous streak of blood coming from their mouth. Eccleston in "The Even Chance". It's a variation of this trope since the bleeding doesn't seem to be internal but he was either hurt in his mouth or his lips were badly cut.

However, visually, it's definitely Blood from the Mouth. In "Retribution", Archie's death is marked with blood from the mouth as well, even though he manages to live on for several days full of pain.

He also stays alive long enough to give a confession or testimony, implied to be a very significant one. Boarding Party : "The Even Chance": Horatio misses his first opportunity to participate in a boarding party when he is taking a member of his division to the ship's surgeon.

Archie didn't miss it and boy, did he enjoy his first battle! Horatio manages to get to her helm and changes her course. Brainy Brunet : Horatio has curly brown hair, and he's highly intelligent — brilliant even — and highly competent. Break the Cutie : Archie Kennedy was a very cute and enthusiastic teenage midshipman.

Unfortunately, he was tortured and tormented by a terrifying bully whose mere presence gave him seizures. He's later lost during a raid and spends some time in Spanish prison where he gets tortured.

Poor boy. Mr Wellard is a very likeable young midshipman, on friendly terms with Horatio the hero and his lancer Archie themselves. It's heart-breaking when Captain Sawyer starts picking on him and keeps having him severely beaten, completely unjustly. Styles says the man must be drunk, which Hornblower says is impossible because Muslims don't drink. It's then shown that the man actually has the Black Death. Later, when the crew is serving its quarantine, Hornblower is alerted that one of the crew is succumbing to it, but he finds that he's actually drunk.

Bridal Carry : "The Duchess and the Devil" has Horatio holding Archie in this classic position, carrying him in his arms when he realized that Archie has been starving himself. He tries to get help for him from Don Massaredo. Conveniently, it's also raining and it looks very dramatic. Broken Pedestal : Hornblower's admiration for Foster is dashed when Foster insists on taking meat from Hornblower's supply ship, which is still under quarantine for plague.

Captain Sawyer in "Mutiny" and "Retribution". All the lieutenants under Sawyer saw him as a hero of the Nile. Horatio and Archie are pre-broken, having served under him for some time, and Bush comes to realize it over the course of "Mutiny". It was worst probably for Hobbs, a gunner, who served under him for 15 years or so but his Undying Loyalty kept him from realizing that Captain Sawyer is unable to command the ship. It's still clear that he used to be a great leader but his age, mental state and his doctor's treatment made him a wreck of a man.

Hornblower's concern for him and for his men during the funeral marks the point where his men start to respect him. In "The Examination for Lieutenant", Finch who previously saved Hornblower's life dies and has a funeral.

They also sell his stuff in order to gain money to support his widow. At the beginning of "Retribution", quite a few men who died during a battle with Spaniards are prepared to be buried at sea, and boatswain Matthews is shown to be particularly caring about giving them a decent send-off. Card Games : Hornblower is himself a great fan of the game of Whist. It's used several times for the plot. In "The Even Chance", Hornblower finds an opportunity to challenge his tormentor to a duel when the latter angrily implies that Hornblower is cheating in front of officers from another ship and then pointedly refuses to apologize.

In "Loyalty", Hornblower uses gambling to gain money when officers starve on half-pay. This references the previous episode, "The Duchess and the Devil", in which both were prisoners of the Spanish.

Caretaker Reversal : While imprisoned in Spain, Horatio saves his suicidal, starving friend Archie and nurses him back to health. Later Horatio gets tortured he is put in a small hole in the ground for a week and then Archie helps him. Catapult Nightmare : Archie wakes flinging himself up in "The Duchess and the Devil" with accompanying gasp of "Simpson! The Chains of Commanding : "The Examination for Lieutenant" is about this trope, as Hornblower witnesses or experiences the consequences of rash decisions, the deaths of men under his immediate command, exercising judgment in giving orders, and a sailor who remains insubordinate and self-destructive no matter what Hornblower tries.

His experiences commanding fearful men and a tiny supply ship give him much more thorough lessons than the book he's studying from and by the time he rejoins the ship, he questions if he should even take the exam at all. Pellew, however, says that he's doing fine and that such difficulties are the price of leadership. Chekhov's Gun : In "The Duchess and the Devil", Kennedy speaks briefly of being put in a hole in the ground with no room to stand up or lie down as punishment for attempting to escape.

Naturally, later on, Horatio spends some time in this hole when he takes the blame for a poorly-executed escape attempt by a subordinate. Chekhov's Lecture : The French officer who surrenders to Hornblower at the start of "The Duchess and the Devil" makes some remarks about maintaining his personal honor on surrendering, which becomes a major theme of the episode.

Chekhov's Skill : In "Duty", Doughty has a chance early on to demonstrate his skill at swimming. Child Soldiers : Powder boys are seen in "Mutiny" and "Loyalty", and there is one weird-looking, very young midshipman in "The Even Chance". One powder boy was tragically blown to smithereens which bloodied and scared Jack Hammond but otherwise the trope is not explored much. Clothing-Concealed Injury : In "Retribution", Archie Kennedy hides from everyone that he was shot in the fight aboard the Renown with their escaped Spanish prisoners.

He tries to cover his wound with his uniform. When Horatio notices his blood, he insists that it's just a scratch. Horatio rips his uniform coat open and sees what's basically a Mortal Wound Reveal.

Clucking Funny : When a French royalist soldier aboard the Indefatigable tries to take an officers' chicken and cook it for himself and his buddies, the lower-deck seamen are infuriated. Horatio tries to settle the matter and tells them that nobody explained the rations issues to the French. Styles then inconspicuously attempts to take the chicken for his pals, and Horatio must reprimand him and orders him to put the chicken back.

When a frightened chicken, poor thing, runs through the room, jumps on the table and clucks aloud, he does not find it funny. Viewers do. Composite Character : Archie Kennedy is a composite of various minor characters throughout the novels. He is notably given actions of a sailor named Hales in "The Even Chance" by having a seizure during a raid, forcing Horatio to knock him out to keep him quiet, and Lt. Bracegirdle's lines in "The Wrong War", Bracegirdle being a fellow midshipman in the written version.

From "The Frogs and the Lobsters", Mariette the school teacher might double as a Composite Character for Maria, the daughter of Horatio's landlady and first wife and Marie Ladon, daughter-in-law of the nobleman who sheltered Hornblower and his men when they escaped captivity, and with whom he had an affair.

Convulsive Seizures : Archie suffers from epilepsy or some similar disease in his early appearances. The fits seem to be at least somewhat stress-induced. Cool Boat : The Indefatigable , most prominently. She is never boarded and never seriously damaged. Her sailors love her to bits.

What a ship! Horatio's ship Hotspur is less cool than the "Indy", but she is still a very fine ship. Court-Martialed : The second series takes the court of inquiry from Lieutenant Hornblower and turns it into a full-blown court-martial, with one Hanging Judge determined to bring down Hornblower. Testimony takes the form of flashbacks. It ends with Kennedy, who is dying of a gut wound anyway, confessing that he pushed Captain Sawyer down the hold just as the judges are about to ask Hornblower if he did it.

Crocodile Tears : Jack Simpsons sheds some fake tears in front of Captain Pellew and the Indefatigable 's officers during a briefing about the destroyed Justinian. Most feel embarrassed or uncomfortable. Cruel Mercy : Horatio to Simpson, after being given a free shot at the latter who had just cheated in their duel. After letting Simpson beg for his life, Horatio decides he is not worth killing and spares him, letting him live in utter humiliation after exposing his cowardice.

Horatio: You're not worth the powder. Horatio: I fell, sir. Eccleston: On both sides of your face? Keene reviewing answers after the midshipmen have been set a navigational exercise : Mr Simpson? We must all rejoice! The sources of the Nile have been discovered at last, your ship, as far as I can make out from your illiterate scrawl, is in central Africa! Let's see what other terrae incognitiae has been opened up by the remaining intrepid explorers. Mr Hether? Mr Kennedy? Mr Hornblower? Ah, you must be proud.

To be alone successful, among this crowd of intellectual giants. Kennedy: Heated shot, they're using heated shot! Hornblower: I wouldn't worry, Mr. We'll drown long before we burn! Eating the Eye Candy : Nearly every male character fancies the Duchess of Wharfedale, but it's Styles who excitedly starts describing her hotness to Mr.

Hornblower is not pleased and has to stop him from gushing. Edible Ammunition : When Horatio and his crew are being taken into Spanish prison, Spaniards, mostly children and women, throw fruit at them. Hunter tries to throw some back but Horatio stops him. Enemy Eats Your Lunch : Simpson eats Horatio's mutton and drinks from his mug in his very first scene.

That intimidating jerk steals food from every middie. A jerk of a sailor Randall tries to take Styles' mug from the table and drink from it, but Styles manages to fight back and tells him to put it back. Randall does put it back, very reluctantly, also because gunner Hobbs has just entered the room. Establishing Character Moment : Horatio's first appearance. He's huddled in a rain-soaked row-boat, and gets soaked when he almost misses the ladder when trying to get aboard.

He isn't going to be your typical fearless chisel-jawed hero. During the Inquisition scene he proves he's not one to go down that easily, to Simpson's great surprise. Simpson, meanwhile, enters with a palpable intimidating presence, the midshipmen who were recently bullying Horatio suddenly cowed into submission by his appearance. And then he proceeds to help himself to Horatio's rations, which he claims as his right as senior midshipman of the mess.

Bush, and Robert Lindsay as Captain Pellew. Her English how the heck did a French peasant girl master it? Senora Ortega speaks English, but when she tries to seduce an unfortunate soldier who guarded the Spanish ladies, she chooses to speak Spanish, a language the soldier doesn't speak or understand.

Explain, Explain Oh, Crap! Mathematics of defeat, indeed. Facial Dialogue : In "Mutiny" and "Retribution", many characters exchange significant looks when they cannot talk freely. It heavily overlaps with Meaningful Look, but some of the conveyed messages were rather complex.

Hornblower signals to 1st Lt. Buckland that he shouldn't interfere with crazy Captain Sawyer and that he should carry out his order to arrest all the other lieutenants, him including. Sign In. Original title: Hornblower: The Even Chance. Adventure Drama War. Director Andrew Grieve. Forester stories Hornblower and the Even Chance.

Top credits Director Andrew Grieve. See more at IMDbPro. Photos Top cast Edit. Paul Copley Matthews as Matthews. Sean Gilder Styles as Styles.

Simon Sherlock Oldroyd as Oldroyd. Chris Barnes Finch as Finch. Simon Markey Dr. Hepplewhite as Dr. Andrew Grieve. Episode: 2x02 Airdate: Mar 25, After declaring their Captain unfit for command, the officers of the HMS Renown struggle to complete their mission against the Spanish only to find themselves under a court martial when returning to a British port.

Finally promoted to Captain and given command of HMS Hotspur, Hornblower is sent to France to determine the status of Napoleon's pledge of peace, but instead he discovers Napoleon's troops waiting to invade. He also begins a romantic relationship with the young Maria Mason. Soon after getting married, Hornblower is sent on a search and rescue mission for a British ship under the command of an old friend last reported off the French coast.