I loved the first Hornblower, liked the second then arrived at this one... Beats me why it has such a high rating as it lacked so much, the acting at times questionable and the story flawed on so many levels. Large parts of this drama seem to hang with not a lot happening, I don't know, maybe that's the direction at fault, it just does not flow right. I actually laughed out loud at some of the acting mostly due to the bad accents, I mean an aristocratic Duchess with a northern accent. I know there's a twist to her character but no need to make her a Northern lass. The Hornblower character at times is wooden and at other times he's an arrogant control freak, I just can't warm to him anymore. This could have been so much more with the right attention to detail. There are good points but these are mostly at sea on board ship. It just gets wrecked when they reach land. Not awful but not great either.

Hornblower(Gruffudd, showing a strong sense of honor) is escorting a Duchess(Lunghi, a woman who speaks her mind), when his luck seems to start running out - he and his men are captured and imprisoned. He maintains his composure, and plans an escape. But will his men keep trusting him to take care of the situation? Things are made no better by midshipman Hunter(Fulford, a man of short temper) second-guessing the acting lieutenant's decisions, and a surprise or two are revealed while our friends are captives.This goes into the application of force and a direct approach, vs. the use of wit and outsmarting the enemy, to solve conflicts. As in the film immediately prior to this, there is no "villain", it is merely a question of a difference of perspective, and, as usual, everyone is a fleshed out human being. Performances, production values, filming(very little reveals that it's made for TV), stunt work, realism(with small details that say so much without being obvious), all highly impressive.This takes risks by confining its cast, and thus the audience, to a single location, a jail, for the vast majority of the running time. While there are tense situations, and not everything looks bad, this does recreate the tedious nature of such an existence, and a palpable sense of hopelessness, of never being able to get out. Themes gone into include strength of character, duty, nobility, etc.There is disturbing, brutal and bloody violent content in this. I recommend this to any fan of drama. 8/10

wow, wow, wow, so deep and ensnaring, can't look away! This particular episode is one of my favorites, amazing, and M'Man Kennedy AKA Jamie Bamber is so good in this one! loved it! If i could vote higher than 1- outa 10, i would, hit the mark for good plot line, characters, climax, summary, music, everything was good and then some! I loved it, in case you hadn't already guessed!! If there was thing i would say about it, though is that there wasn't enough screen time for the 'duchess' but aside from that, it was good, and the music was especially good in this episode, the exiting music and it tied the whole movie, i like the fact that, unlike movies such as Master and Commander, it didn't think it was unnecessary to put in background music, it gives the whole episode a bit of light, well done, very well done.

SPOILERS As Shakespeare's Henry V once said "once more unto the breach dear friends, once more". Applicable in so many situations, this phrase feels particularly appropriate when considering the adventures of Horatio Hornblower. In this third and finest episode, Hornblower once more faces countless odds and once more he entertains throughout.Still serving aboard Captain Pellew's (Robert Lindsay) Indefatigable, Horatio Hornblower (Ioan Gruffudd) experiences a new side to life when he is invited to dine with the Governor of Gibraltar. Escorting the flamboyant Duchess of Wharfedale (Cherie Lunghi) back to England, Horatio is then captured by the Spanish as a Prisoner of War. Now with an obligation to escape, he ponders his next move, with the lives of his crew, old friend Archie (Jamie Bamber) and the Duchess all at stake.Led by yet another great performance by Gruffudd (it's slowly becoming expected), this episode is the finest episode of the series due to the majestic performances by one guest appearance and one reoccurring regular.As the extreme Duchess, Cherie Lunghi must surely give the finest performance of her career. Appearing in television series and films since 1973, Lunghi is at her best as she walks around in the classical outfits and works with Gruffudd and others.Not to be outdone however, Jamie Bamber is this episodes other shining reemergence. Back (by popular demand, not just due to the plot) from the apparent grave, Bamber's Archie is a shadow of his former self. Far from well, the character must not have been an easy role to play. Bamber performs brilliantly however and demonstrates an ability which science fiction fans come to love in the modern remake of "Battlestar Galactica".Compared with the slow pace of the previous episode, the scripting of this third encounter is a considerable improvement too. Not purely action based, it sustains enough moments of excitement to really keep up the intensity, but it also features some moments of comedy from Cherie Lunghi's Countess. Basically, this episode's plot manages to contain not only the intensity of the pilot and the grit of the second, but it manages much more too.In a near perfect series, it should be difficult to choose an episode which stands out. Amazingly though, the creators of the Hornblower series managed with "The Duchess and the Devil" to not only outshine their previous two episodes, but to create an episode which outshines all later episodes too. This is the finest of the series, and there's little else which can be said.