The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982 film) novels, detailed the successful rescue of the Dauphin from a French prison. Anthony Andrews had recently won the BAFTA for Best Actor for his performance in the 1981 serial "Brideshead Revisited", and was cast as Sir Percy Blakeney/Scarlet Pimpernel. In addition to that serial, Andrews was also known to American audiences through the PBS ITV& BBC shows "Danger UXB" and "The Duchess of Duke Street" as well as several other productions. London Films hoped that this popularity would lead to Andrews starring in a "Scarlet Pimpernel" series in the US, but this never occurred. Other cast members included Ian McKellen
Romantic hero love interest, him or herself victimised by the hero's rebellious tendencies, with their fates intertwined for decades, sometimes from their youths to their deaths. (See Tatyana Larina, Elizabeth Bennet, Eugenie Grandet, et al.) The Romantic hero first began appearing in literature during the Romantic period, in works by such authors as Byron, Keats, Goethe, and Pushkin, and is seen in part as a response to the French Revolution. As Napoleon, the "living model of a hero", became a disappointment to many, the typical notion of the hero as upholding social order began to be challenged. Classic literary examples of the