Major Philippe Joubert is a major antagonist of the television miniseries Sharpe's Peril.
He was portrayed by Pascal Langdale.
Biography[]
Philippe Joubert was a French officer on attachment to the East India Company fort of Kalimgong and the fiance of Marie-Angelique Bonet. He was also the main co-conspirator of Count Dragomirov in his plan to steal and sell the company's opium crop. He assisted Dragomirov's men in storming the fort and massacring the garrison and, as a cruel last blow, had his commanding officer, Sir Henry Simmerson, pegged out to die in the sun.
Joubert returned to the fort with Dragomirov where they found the dead had all been buried and realised Colonel Richard Sharpe's column had been there. Dragomirov worried about what might have happened if Simmerson had still been alive when Sharpe came. They followed the column and found them crossing a river. Sharpe claimed everyone had been dead when he arrived at Kalimgong but Joubert noticed Simmerson among the party and he and Dragomirov realised Sharpe was on to them. A brief shoot-out between the two groups occurred, during which Joubert personally killed one of the maid servants of Maharami Padmini. Sharpe and most of the others escape but Marie-Angelique was captured.
Joubert took his fiance, now disgusted by his actions, to the river and instructed her to strip and bathe. He then tried to force himself on her but was stopped by Sharpe, who had already killed Joubert's two escorts. Joubert tried to shoot Sharpe but Marie-Angelique knocked the pistol aside and the two men fought with swords. Joubert proved the more skilled so Sharpe lured him into the river and then knocked him to the ground and held him underwater, apparently drowning him. As Sharpe turned to go, Joubert stood up behind him, sword raised, but was shot dead by Marie-Angelique.
Trivia[]
- Joubert gets his surname from Captain Pierre Joubert, a character in the novel Sharpe's Triumph. Although Pierre Joubert is the second-in-command to William Dodd, he is portrayed as a sympathetic and honourable soldier unlike his television counterpart.
