In 1813, Capitaine Jacques St. Ives, a Hussar in the Napoleonic wars, is captured and sent to a Scottish prison camp. He's a swashbuckler, so the prison's commander, Major Farquar Bolingbroke Chevening, asks for lessons in communicating with women. Both men have their eyes on the lovely Flora, who resides with her aunt, the iconoclastic and well-traveled Miss Susan Emily Gilcrist. By chance, living close to the camp is Jacques's grandfather and brother, whom Jacques believes died years before. Jacques decides to escape, find his relatives, and win the hand of Flora; Major Chevening and an unforeseen enemy stand in his way. Can Miss Gilcrist contrive to make everything work out?
Acting
Richard E. Grant's gloriously inept romantic coaching
Costume
Hussar uniforms that absolutely understood the assignment
Writing
The phrase 'iconoclastic aunt' in a logline somehow works
Director
Harry Hook
Jean-Marc Barr
Captain Jacques de Keroual de Saint-Yves
Miranda Richardson
Susan Gilchrist
Chris McHallem
Gautier
Richard E. Grant
Major Farquhar Chevening
Anna Friel
Flora Gilchrist
Jason Isaacs
Alain de Keroual de Saint-Yves
Michael Gough
Comte de Saint-Yves
Cécile Pallas
Mathilde
Tim Dutton
François
Vernon Dobtcheff
Bonnefoy
Desmond Barrit
Biggerstaff
Patrice Melennec
Couperin
Adrian Scarborough
Le Bon
Enda Oates
Duelling Office
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was a TV movie adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's unfinished novel—yes, THAT Stevenson, suddenly interested in romantic farce apparently.
Harry Hook directed Lord of the Flies (1990) before this, which explains the prison camp tension but absolutely not the romantic comedy pivot.
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