RA FRIDAY - WHAT AN INTENSE WEEK!

1. STRIKE BACK

Have you seen it? I hope you did. We envy you up there in the UK, so , please , at least tell us that you liked it! After such a massive, impressively hammering advertising campaign, personally  I'd turn my TV off as soon as it started. But as I already told you, since Richard Armitage is in there , I promise I'll see it as a piece of his talented career.  I must see and  study it . Yes, as I usually  study any adaptation of  classics (though this is not the case) enjoying myself while watching, trying to find the good and bad in it. I've read the novel by Chris Ryan ( my review here) , I've read much  about Strike Back the series, I've listened to/watched Richard's interviews but ... I fear it is not exactly my cup of tea. Anyhow,  if a pacifist like Richard could act in it, why can't a pacifist  like me  just see it?

This is an interesting bit about John Porter and glamorizing war from one of Richard's latest interviews:

He says: "Porter has guts and he is prepared to make judgements based on a moral code - and to put his life on the line if he thinks he needs to. I don't want him to be perceived as this one-dimensional killing machine with no humanity.'

So does he think his hunky SAS hero will set hearts fluttering? Looking baffled, Richard says: 'I cannot think how someone willing to die for their country would be a person who you would want to put a picture of on your bedroom wall.

'You admire someone like that for their bravery, but not for their attractiveness. Strike Back is about war, and I don't think war is something to glamorise.'     (Read more HERE)

This is why I've chosen  tender moments, non-violent caps from the first two episodes .

(STRIKE BACK ep. 3/4 will be on Sky 1 next Wednesday 12 May)

2. ON GMTV's SOFA & AT RADIO 5

I like to watch  Richard while speaking, his facial expressions and gestures,  his quiet ways  are rather  familiar. Thanks to ITV1 GMTV for giving us  the possibility of enjoying RA chatting on that sofa again. Last Tuesday, 4th May, he was interviewed about Strike Back but he also talked about Spooks 9.
( You can see the interview HERE)
On that same day he went on a real tour de force and we have another video souvenir of that :  a long webcam video of his interview at Radio 5.

3. ON HIS FAN BASE
Richard  couldn't avoid it. In more than one interview they wanted to know about his fans (in the AArmy or not in the AArmy). These are  the bits about this issue I liked the least. I actually didn't like them at all. Was it Richard or the journalist... I didn't like them.

And...

This is something I've just found in the Net today, instead:
"There's lots of derring-do, and the chance to tear off his shirt at every opportunity. No wonder he's built up a fan base of adoring women.

But he's bewildered at his attraction. 'I'm just a geek,' he protests.
'My idea of a passionate weekend is doing DIY. I'm pretty handy with a screwdriver. But is that sexy? I don't think so!" (Read more HERE )

4. RA IS EVERYWHERE, RA IS WATCHING YOU!

His Orwellian presence, haunting people from huge posters all over the country, has started puzzling the man himself:

 

It’s bad enough when you catch a glimpse of yourself unawares in a shop window. So imagine running smack-bang into a massive poster of yourself. Wearing army fatigues. Doing a bit of a glower. “It sort of makes your stomach churn,” admits Richard Armitage – currently plastered across posters for Sky 1’s Strike Back. “I saw one and I had to look away quite quickly.”

They’ve proved fairly disconcerting for friends, too. His Spooks co-star Nicola Walker called to say one of the posters had appeared outside her home. “She said: ‘I can’t believe it – you’re looking in through my bedroom window’.”

(from http://worldbbnews.com/2010/05/05/richard-armitage-from-spy-to-sas/)

5. NEW LUCAS IN NEW SPOOKS SERIES : A DEAD MAN WALKING (?) & HIS FIRST LOVE ( I'm more and more worried!)

"It's almost like what you've seen so far is only part of the picture…"

And you're filming the next series of Spooks at the moment. It doesn't have a problem with killing off its main characters, does it? Does that worry you?

"No - I think it's why Spooks is coming into its ninth series and probably will be going into a tenth and an eleventh. I think it deals with its exits really interestingly and when it brings new characters in, it furnishes the show with something really exciting. It's good to know that the show will go on despite a single character and I'm sure when it's Lucas's turn, he'll go out in style."
So you're not flicking through all the scripts trying to see if you're still alive?
"You kind of do. There is a code of honour where they'll pull you in and say, 'OK, we've decided to do this with your character', but you're still unsure. There's a few surprises in there."
What's it like working with the new cast members like Laila Rouass?
"She's playing a character called Maya who is an old flame of Lucas's, possibly his first love, so that's been really interesting. She plays a doctor. We were shooting in a hospital on the South Bank the other day and it was like those Carlsberg adverts - if Carlsberg did hospitals, what the hospital would be like. It was super clean, and Laila Rouass walked down the corridor as a doctor and I was like, 'This is definitely a Carlsberg hospital'."

Lucas had a difficult relationship with Sarah Caulfield last series. Will that affect his ability to trust Maya?
"Yeah, I think he's had a string of quite disastrous love affairs. This one is particularly different and it's quite hard to tell you without revealing too much of the story but Lucas isn't quite who you think he is and she's part of that story, so there's a whole other character that's contained within Maya."
How was that for you, having this whole other side to Lucas?
"It's interesting because you have to just rethink the character and retrace your steps and go back and make sure that everything fits and rework things that don't work. It's very exciting. And I think this series is very much about identity. All of the characters from the very beginning are not what they seem. All of the new characters that come in actually turn out to be slightly different from what you think."
And will Nightingale be a part of that or is that over now?
"Nightingale comes through as a thread with the old home secretary that was in the last series. That thread is still alive, but it does come to an end at that point and then we have a new problem. Albany. I actually don't know what it is yet. I'm chasing this file called 'Albany' and I still don't know what's in it yet. I think it's something to do with genetics, but they won't tell me. It's sort of top secret." ( The rest of the interview HERE)

6. GIVE US BACK OUR SIR GUY, PLEASE (RICHARD IS READY FOR THAT)

About BBC ROBIN HOOD being cancelled after series 3 Richard said: 

"I was disappointed. I felt that it probably had life beyond three series. At the back of my mind, I still think that they could resurrect it at some point. And it's a shame that it's not in production at the moment as the Russell Crowe movie comes out, because I'm sure there'll be a bit of Robin Hood fever. Although I probably wouldn't want to be competing against that big-budget movie! I still think that there's a passion for it and a love for it, so it was a shame that it finished. I loved doing it, it was brilliant. I'd definitely do a spinoff, a Guy of Gisborne spinoff!" 

 (http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/interviews/a218080/richard-armitage-strike-back.html)

P.S. NOTE TO THE PRESS AND MEDIA

Please, dear  journalists, radio speakers, reporters, TV interviewers next time you meet Mr Armitage in your working activity could you avoid

1.  teasing him about his Army? (I didn't enlist, but please ...)

2.  mentioning him the huge amount of female supporters he ( actually )  has?

3.  asking him about the average age of the above mentioned?

4.  asking him always and repeatedly the same boring questions?

5.  annoying him with questions about his past experience in the circus? (maybe,  this time you already succeeded in  it!)

Could you , please, instead

1. prepare yourself  a bit better about his career and work (not simply reading his official biography) and, especially,  ask him much more interesting , challenging questions?

2. remember he trained a lot  and  worked hard before becoming relatively popular at the age of 34?   

3. respect more his audience since it is not made up of  simpletons, neither of shallow inexperienced people, nor of naive dreamers?

4. listen carefully to what he has to say, since he really cares about his characters and the works he is in?

5. learn from him a little humbleness?

Thank you very much indeed