Welcome to 2010! New Year, new weekly event! What are you saying? RA on my blog on Friday is nothing new ? Ok, it is a not-completely-new weekly event. What am I blathering? I'll try to explain. Since this first Friday on, all Fridays I'll be posting about my favourite actor, Mr Richard Armitage from Leicester - as usual - but my "new" weekly event will be titled RA FRIDAY and not RA PHOTO FRIDAY.
So? What is different? No more photos of him in my posts?!? Don't worry, that's not my intention... I just wanted to enlarge my perspective and write posts about his past work or future plans and projects, without being limited by the word "photo". Now, what you'll find is this event, RA - FRIDAY, each week on my blog with something about him. There are still things he worked in I haven't seen and want to see, I haven't listen and want to listen to, or future plans I can't wait for ... I know there are plenty of sites dedicated to him but this will be my personal little corner dedicated to this greatly - talented British actor. I'll wait for your comments, contribution and suggestions each Friday of course but ,if you are not interested, forget my blog on Friday and you'll be welcome any other day!
I'd like to start with one his less known works I've recently received as a gift by "my little fairy" and have just watched : MALICE AFORETHOUGHT. I've found very little online about it and very few caps also... but I'm not a good hunter, maybe there are many and I didn't find them. Anyhow, I've made some stills myself and I'll add them to this post.
Let's start saying that Mr Armitage's look in this murder mystery set in the 1920s is this
This is the only photo I've picked from another site, Annette's precious richardarmitageonline , where I've also found some interesting news about this drama.
Malice Aforethought was first broadcast in Britain in two 90-minute episodes on ITV1, on the 10th and 11th April 2005. It had previously been shown in America on PBS on April 3rd and 10th 2005.
It is an adaptation of Francis Iles' 1931 novel of the same name. It's set in an unnamed picturesque English village - and tells the story of the local doctor, Edmund Bickleigh (Ben Miller). Married to a cold domineering older woman, Bickleigh finds solace in the arms of the ladies of the village, in particular, Ivy Ridgeway and the terribly fascinating newcomer, Madeleine Cranmere. When Madeleine refuses to be his mistress, wanting marriage instead, he decides the best thing to do is to poison his wife. But one murder is never enough...
Richard Armitage himself described Chatford as "a misogynistic cad". I didn't find him so terrible, I just saw in this character glimples of Gisborne's aggressive temper. Bill is very polite, elegant and smart but, in some scenes, Richard's acting foreshadows his character in BBC Robin Hood. The use of his voice, his sneer, his aggressiveness (especially in the scene when Bill discovers his just married wife had been the doctor's mistress, see photos below) in this 2005 work are anticipations of what we were going to see in the 3 different series of RH.
"It was not until several weeks after he had decided to murder his wife that Dr. Bickleigh took any active steps in the matter."
So,the fun is in watching Bickleigh trying to get away with the murder. 
I liked watching this two-episode miniseries I so wanted to see for one reason only. Instead I can say I liked it not only for that certain fascinating presence: it is good period drama, good murder mystery, good sexy dark comedy with brilliant performances given by cast in general. Eccentric characters, beautiful locations and costumes.
If I have to find a flaw in this enjoyable TV movie ... While watching ... I just kept wondering how it was possible that all femal characters got a crush on that small insignificant doctor Bickleigh (sorry Mr Miller!) when they had such an elegant handsome solicitor around ...Unbelievable! He had a bad temper, it's true, but what about the treacherous doctor... Unbelievable!
