RICHARD ARMITAGE IN BRAIN ON FIRE AND PILGRIMAGE

I needn't say much about Richard Armitage's devoted attention to details in crafting a new character. If you are reading this post,  you most likely are one of his well-wishers - as he prefers to call his fans - so you know much more than that about him.

That care and that attention have helped him deliver outstanding performances on many an occasion, however little or big his role was, no matter if in a low-budget independent project or in a high-profile one.

Impossible not to notice all that also in two recent low-budget movies he stars in after - and nothwithstanding - his worldwide fame as Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit movies:  Brain on Fire (2016) and Pilgrimage (2017)

5 REASONS TO WATCH BERLIN STATION

What it is about

It's a 10-part spy series which follows Daniel Miller (Richard Armitage) just arrived at the CIA foreign station in Berlin, Germany. Miller has a clandestine mission: to uncover the source of a leak who has supplied information to a now-famous whistleblower named Thomas Shaw. After  ten years spent as a CIA analyst, Daniel goes back to the rough-and-tumble world of the field agent guided by veteran Hector DeJean (Rhys Ifans).

BEST OF 2014: PLAYS, ACTORS, BOOKS, TRIPS AND MUCH MORE (PART II)

Best  Play

The Crucible - I was just sitting there, on the left, behind the girls ...

I've been to the theatre a few times this year (HERE,  HERE and HERE ) but, no doubt: The Crucible. seen at the Old Vic in London twice at the end of June, beginning of July. It was great not only because I could make a dream of mine come true - which was seeing Richard Armitage on stage - but because the thrill I experienced in the audience will always stay with me as one of the dearest, most exciting memories of my entire life. Here's my report of that incredible experience with pictures and anecdotes. 

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY, NORTH AND SOUTH!

Can a TV series touch your heart and change your life? Nooo? You can only say that if  you haven't seen this one. I would have answered "no" myself before watching  it  by chance  a  few years ago. Unbelievable but true, this is what this miniseries did to thousands of viewers all over the world. If I had only suspected what a turning point   BBC NORTH AND SOUTH, would be in my life... I would have watched it earlier! Instead, I discovered  it only in the summer 2008 and it , incredibly, actually changed my life.
Exaggerating? Not a bit. I know the same happened to so many! Which other costume series had such an extraordinary response? Pride and Prejudice 1995, of course. But not many others.

Enthusiastic fans, hundreds of them, overwhelmed the BBC Drama message boards with messages about the series and,  in particular, its hero. Soon the BBC had to set up a separate message board for the discussions. The phenomenon of so many women taking to an Internet message board for the first time because of their love for this programme became the subject of an article by Anne Ashworth in The Times. She wrote: 

The BBC Drama website contains the outpourings of hundreds of thirty and fortysomething women for this year’s romantic hero. He is John Thornton, the northern millowner in Mrs Gaskell’s North & South, recently serialised on BBC One. Thornton was played smoulderingly by the previously little-known Richard Armitage as a blue-eyed, dark-haired stunner, the Darcy de nos jours. On the messageboard, character and actor merge into one object of desire: RA/JT (from http://www.richardarmitageonline.com/) 

WHY I AM NOT 'A-MUSED', OR AM I? SARAH HAWKSWOOD, ON MR ARMITAGE AND HER NEW RELEASE, "THE LORD BISHOP'S CLERK"

No, I am not Queen Victoria, but the question of muses is interesting. Personally, I associate them with poets of dodgy mental stability and pre-Raphaelite painters, but some people find them helpful in the creative arts. However, writers, painters, and other creative people all use bits and bobs, ‘collages’, from reality, both experience and physicality, to infuse their fiction, consciously or unconsciously. I suppose I am wary of using the same person over and over again, lest that create the same character, and from preference I would blend even physical aspects. The danger there is that you end up with a Frankenstein’s monster, badly stitched together and a bit leaky at the seams.

Having declared against muses, I am then forced to admit I took one physical form for one of my two ‘detectives’ for my 12^th century Bradecote and Catchpoll murder mystery series. I had two characters in mind, one the grizzled ‘seen it all before’ Sheriff’s Serjeant, and the other a manorial lord drafted in whether he wanted it or not, initially to keep the more lordly suspects ‘happy’. I began writing the first book in 2003, and a few months later opened my newspaper to see ‘Catchpoll’ staring at me fully formed.. It was an interview with an actor about to play Titus Andronicus, and staring at me was the perfect fit for my character.

Reader, I stole him.

Richard Armitage as John Thornton in North and South (BBC 2004)

From that moment on I could visualise Catchpoll in every gesture, grimace, every sucking of teeth. I knew his voice, the way he screwed up his eyes. I gave him a character that was a ‘collage’, but I could see him clearly. Now, it has been remarked that reading my work is like watching a television drama or film. Perhaps that is a consequence of creating a world and being ‘in it’ as I write. It does mean ‘seeing’ characters helps. It also meant that my Under Sheriff was a bit ‘thin’ on first draft.

AT THE CINEMA - INTO THE STORM

What we can certainly thank Richard Armitage for is the variety of experiences he has been granting us, the ready-to-almost-everything RA well-wishers. Let's add a disaster movie experience to all the previous ones, then!

I went to Rome to see Into the Storm with the same friends who were with me in London for The Crucible experience (except one - we missed you, A.!)

The first part of the movie was the worst, I mean, it was a bit boring.  They thought we needed a proper introduction of all the characters while waiting for something to happen. So we meet them one by one:  the Vice Principal of the local high school, Gary Fuller (Richard Armitage) wearing   a greyish suit, a tie and glasses,  and  a don't-bother-me frown;  then his  two sons, Donnie the good (Max Deacon) and Trey the smart (Nathan Kress). Donnie is 17, he is sensitive and shy, he is working on a personal film project, he is going to film the upcoming graduation ceremony for daddy - if only he hadn't a crush on one of the prettiest girsl in school, Kaitlyn (Alycia Debnam Carey). Trey is 15 self-confident, resourceful and a bit rebellious. Donnie finally finds the courage to talk to Kaitlyn and the two head off to finish the girl's film project just on Graduation Day. The same day he had promised to help his father,  the same day in which a superstorm, a series of tornadoes,  will devastate  their town and the entire area they live in. 

FLY HIGH HAS A FACEBOOK PAGE, RICHARD ARMITAGE HAS A TWITTER

FLY HIGH HAS A FACEBOOK PAGE

I don't like facebook much,  actually. In fact, I only have a personal account, run 2 pages (My Jane Austen Book Club and Fly High Maria Grazia's Blog) and am involved in I-can't-remember-how-many groups. Quite incoherent, is it? Still, I don't like it very much. I must admit I prefer Twitter, though someone told me I don't use it as it is supposed to be used,  meaning: to socialize. I just connect, post my links  and, from time to time,  read what the ones on my "people I like" list have tweeted in the latest hours. Then I may retweet,  if I like. Who's in that list? Well, it is private, not meant to be shared, sorry. I bet you can imagine a few names if you check whose tweets I more often favourite. 

I've got this awkward feeling of "not liking but not being able to stay away" from social networks, which I  can't really understand or analyze.

THE HOBBIT THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG & MY NOT VERY SUCCESSFUL QUEST IN TOLKIEN'S FANTASY WORLD

Warning: I know I will shock or, at least, disappoint any Tolkien fan who may  stumble  onto this post. They are kindly advised not to read!

I've been striving on my personal quest in search for a spark between Tolkien's world  and me in the last two years.   It's been a long,  troubled journey, a real fight against my complete ignorance and  a rather visceral dislike. You know, Tolkien's work is not my cup of tea at all. I've tried to approach it anyway, overcoming my prejudices and preconceptions. This is just an account of my latest attempt and of some prior events. 

I started watching The Lord of the Rings movies with my son, who is fond of them, before the Hobbit trilogy came out, but it was rather frustrating because, as much as I wanted to like those films, I simply couldn't or, better,  I could but only mildly.

I read The Hobbit in search for Thorin (here, here, here and here) and wrote a series of posts waiting for Peter Jackson's new trilogy to come out.  Did I like reading it? Pass. Next question, please.

WRITERS & ACTORS - A HALF SERIOUS, HALF BORING REFLECTION ON WHY I AM FASCINATED BY THEM

Richard Armitage as John Proctor in The Crucible

There are two kinds of people I am particularly fascinated by, writers and actors. Not for the glamour surrounding them. In fact, I'm not interested in the extremely popular ones, the very famous. Honestly, I'm more attracted to their jobs, than to their popularity or personal life. I consider good acting and good writing the result of meticulous craftsmanship, artistry and, only rarely, art. I'm particularly drawn to these two categories of people, widely known or not,  since their professions are somewhat magical to me. 
They've got the power to create life, to give life through words.

I know actors use their whole bodies, so , let's say, mostly through words. Most of an actor's job is based on words, and they are very often essential to the achievement of the main goal: a successful performance. 

Meeting author Fabio Stassi 

Writers and actors create life through words, they give life to characters, and characters do not only represent people, they are people once the actors lend them their bodies and voices.

I love to think  that , more than stories, actors and writers create personae (persons in Latin, characters in English)  and they,  the characters, interacting, contribute their story. They are not mere fiction, they are not unreal. They live,  and they live on long in certain cases,  in our minds and hearts. Longer than the human being who created them. 

As for actors, once they are in a movie, for instance,  they never actually die. The go on living in their characters, in those frames. They go on giving them life and voice. So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see ... in Shakespeare's words.

LONDON - THE CRUCIBLE EXPERIENCE

After all these years, at last 

I know you've been reading  all those excellent reviews the show has been getting after press night and I don't dare compete with them. This is just my totally biased account of an incredible adventure, the one my friends and I shared going to London to see The Crucible and, of course, Richard Armitage. Can you imagine how thrilling it might have been meeting him and, above all, seeing him in action on stage? I bet you can, if you know me at least a little. And can a dream come true meet expectations? Yes, unbelievably so, in my case. Even surpass them. Before you go on reading, here are a couple of due warnings: 1. you'll find some spoilers here and there 2. you may suffer from sudden fits of envy or jealousy. Sorry. 

BOOK REVIEW - URBAN GRIMSHAW AND THE SHED CREW (2005)

You're twelve years old. Your mother's a junkie and your father might as well be dead. You can't read or write, and you don't go to school. An average day means sitting round a bonfire with your mates smoking drugs, or stealing cars.

Welcome to Urban's world

Picture from the set of Urban and the Shed Crew

Let’s start being direct and honest: this book is one I would never have read if it wasn’t for Richard Armitage. This admission is not a  first, for me.  I have already thanked his acting projects for introducing me to readings and worlds I’d never have approached otherwise. After this totally truthful introductive statement,  I’m ready to tell you something about this story without,  I hope,  spoiling your pleasure to discover more reading the book yourself or watching the film adaptation, when it comes out.

Bernard Hare wrote  “Urban Grishaw and the Shed Crew” several years ago now (it was published in 2005)  mixing compelling reportage with deeply personal memoir. His alter ego in the book is Chop, aka Richard Armitage in the upcoming movie adaptation I mentioned before.  

Leeds in the 1990s is the setting for this story. Chop is an ex social worker who dropped his job and retreated in a world of drinking and drugs, living at the margins of society. It is in that unfortunate situation that he meets Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew, a gang of feral kids who live stealing or as young prostitutes.

TRUDY BRASURE: JOHN THORNTON, A PASSIONATE HERO - GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY

John Thornton: “One word more. You look as if you thought it tainted you to be loved by me. You cannot avoid it. Nay, I, if I would, cannot cleanse you from it. But I would not, if I could. I have never loved any woman before: my life has been too busy, my thoughts too much absorbed with other things. Now I love, and will love.But do not be afraid of too much expression on my part.” ― Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South

Maybe not the most romantic words you'd expect from a gentleman, but so passionate! Don't you agree?
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Both to those of you who still believe this is a very special day to live with very special ones and to those who sneer and smirk at the thought of chocolates and flowers, candles and flirting or alike. 

Leave it or take it, this is our Valentine's post and for us today it is an occasion more to celebrate romance and passion. Why should we skip the chance? 

Author Trudy Brasure is my very special guest with a blog post dedicated to our (mine and hers) favourite love story, North and South,  and its hero, our dream Valentine, Mr John Thornton. Read her piece and take your chances to win a paperback  or ebook copy of  her latest retelling, In Consequence. 

WHILE WAITING FOR THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG, WHAT ABOUT A JOURNEY TO THE MIDDLE-EARTH?

Richard Armitage as Thorin in The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug

The Hobbit movie 2, The Desolation of Smaug,  is going to be released in less than a month and curiosity as well as excitement increase. I can't wait to see my best favourite, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage),  again engaged in his adventurous quest,  in company of his bizarre mates.   Of course, I'm also looking forward to seeing dragon Smaug revealed and listening to Benedict Cumberbatch's voice (I want to see it in the original version... FX!)  

Anyway, this post is not just about The Hobbit movies, but more about the amazing natural settings Peter Jackson chose for their shootings. Just have a look at this awesome infographic: A Travel Guide to The Middle -Earth. Ready for the journey?

GUEST POST - DAMARIS OSBORNE ON WRITING PARODIES AND LOVING RICHARD ARMITAGE

Richard Armitage as John Thornton in North and South

Richard Armitage fans who are familiar with C19 will not need any introduction for today's guest at FLY HIGH! Damaris Osborne is well known to them. For all the others dropping by and reading, I'll   invite them to read her guest post and welcome her to our little corner of the blogosphere. She loves writing parodies and spoofs inspired byi the works of our favourite British actor and would like to share her passions with us.

I began writing parody when at university, but I have to say it has rather a bad press as a genre, being treated like puns as rather ‘cringe worthy’.  I think that one needs to like the work being parodied, otherwise it becomes unsympathetic and snide.. It can also be seen as ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ of other people’s success.  However, I believe it can be more ‘original’ and draw in a multitude of threads to make it stand alone fiction, although the sort one dips in and out of for five minutes at a coffee break rather than become absorbed in for three hours solid. Like rich chocolates, parody is best sampled, and savoured, not scoffed.I am a member of the C19 forum, which sprang from the  2004 television adaptation of North  & South, and where discussion of nineteenth century literature rubs shoulders with admiration for the work of Mr Richard Armitage. He is an actor of wonderful nuance, and has the ability, first said about Greta Garbo, to drag you into the soul of the character through the eyes.

AT THE CINEMA - THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED PLEASURE

As usual what you find here is just a very personal approach to the movie and nothing like a professional review. So, get ready to my very subjective vision of a film I just wanted to see for Thorin Oakenshield, or better  Richard Armitage. or go to the end of the post for a link to a proper review. I wouldn't mind you reading my post at all, if you have a few minutes, though. 

After waiting for a couple of years and after booking a ticket to see it with my friends in Rome as soon as it came out,  I was really disappointed when I felt sick overnight and had to give up going.

I was, however , very happy to go and see it later on with the Tolkien expert in my family, my elder son , who wanted to see it again with me in the English version after watching it in Italian with his friends.

READING THE HOBBIT IN SEARCH FOR THORIN - PART IV

Richard Armitage as Thorin  smiling at his Lego alter ego

The hammering press campaign of these days, the several premieres all over the world, the many interviews and the huge amount of new pictures must have involved fans in an incredible  whirlpool of frenzy,  leading to the long-waited-for moment: the release of The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey,  film I in the new trilogy by Peter Jackson. It's time to close the book and get ready to watch the adaptation, the result of  almost two years  of detailed, talented, thoughtful,  creative work.

My reading of the book in search for Thorin must be completed, then,  in a couple of days, I too will see the film. 
I want to be clear again with any Tolkien fan  who might find themselves to drop by and read this: I undertook this journey through the book as a complete Tolkien newbie and only in order to follow the career of my favourite actor, Richard Armitage,  who is now  for many Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit, but will always remain Mr Thornton for me. 

This is my final post about the book, written leafing through chapters XI - XIX in  search for Thorin Oakenshield.  My previous posts are HERE, HERE and HERE. 
Time to get ready to compare the book with the movie. It's just a matter of hours for the majority of us now. 
For Thorin and his warrior dwarves it is instead time to meet the terrifying dragon Smaug. Is Bilbo ready to face him and steal the treasure Thorin claims back?

Warning!!! Huge spoilers ahead

VICTORIAN HEROES: MR MORAY vs MR THORNTON

Too great a temptation. Comparing them, I mean.  I was thinking: what about making  them compete in a challenge?  John Thornton from Milton, the hero of BBC North and South (2004) facing Mr John E. Moray from BBC The Paradise (2012). But what kind of a competition? Kind of “who makes more money in given time”? The  two men are quite competitive, as a matter of fact.  However, since I couldn't find any good idea for a competition, what about simply comparing them? Without even asking you to choose who’s better  or to pick up a favourite. Well, you can do that, if you wish, of course. Just choose your champion and tell us in your comments. As for me,  I won't do that, I’ll just draw a comparison between the two characters trying to point out  similarities and differences. Don't ask me to choose. 

PHILIPPA GREGORY, THE KINGMAKER'S DAUGHTER - MY REVIEW

Anne Neville and her sister Isabel are daughters of the most powerful magnate in 15th century England, the Earl of Warwick, nicknamed the "kingmaker". Ever ruthless, always plotting, in the absence of a son and heir. Warwick sets about using his daughters as pawns in his vicious political games.

Anne grows from a delightful child, brought up at the court of Edward IV and his beautiful queen, Elizabeth Woodville, in intimacy and friendship with the family of Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Her life is overturned when her father turns on his former allies, escapes England and invades with an enemy army. Widowed at fourteen, fatherless, with her mother locked in sanctuary and her sister a vengeful enemy, Anne faces the world alone.

But fortune's wheel  turns once again. Anne plots her escape from her sister's house, finds herself a husband in the handsome young Duke of Gloucester, and marries without permission, in secret. But danger still follows her. She finds that she has a mortal enemy in the most beautiful queen of England. Anne has to protect herself and her precious only son from the treacherous royal court, the deadly royal rival, and even from the driving ambition of her husband - Richard III.

This is not my first fictionalised Anne Neville's account of the facts which involved her in The Cousins' War , nor my first Richard III novel. However, I was totally absorbed in this new version of the story by Philippa Gregory and even often surprised by her choices. As much as I disliked her The White Queen, I really liked her latest The Kingmaker's Daughter. Especially the second half of the book.

READING THE HOBBIT IN SEARCH FOR THORIN - PART III & A NEW TRAILER!

Part III in the series “Reading the Hobbit in search for Thorin” focuses on chapters VII - X (Click HERE  for Part I and HERE for Part II).  I’m posting this third part on a very special day (the second magnificent trailer of the first movie has just been released - you can watch it at the end of the post) in a very special week, dedicated by Tolkien’s fans to the celebration of the 55th anniversary of the book (21st September 1937) and to Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday (22nd September). Here we go, then! 

AUTHOR INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY - CHRISSIE ELMORE, UNMAPPED COUNTRY. MRS GASKELL'S NORTH AND SOUTH CONTINUES.

  North and South 2004 - www.richardarmitagenet.com

A new variation of Mrs Gaskell's North and South has been written and released on Amazon Kindle Store and could I resist? No, of course! So I read it, wrote a short review you can find HERE, and finally send my interview to the author, Chrissie Elmore, who kindly took the time to answer. Read the post, leave your comment or a question for my guest, add your e-mail address and get the chance to win a kindle version of UNMAPPED COUNTRY. (N.B. If you don't have a kindle reader, check the link on my sidebar for downloading free Kindle for PC, iPad or smartphone)  The giveaway contest is open internationally and ends on 5th September when the name of the winner will be announced. 

Welcome to FLY HIGH, Chrissie! My first question for you is when did you first read Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South?

I first read Mrs G in my early twenties. Revisited after the TV mini series and numerous times during writing Unmapped Country. Wives & Daughters and Mary Barton followed.

What did you especially like in Mrs Gaskell’s novel?

The 'will they, won't they?' of the love story and the development of the characters would captivate anyone, but for me the real draw was the time and place. The frenetic atmosphere of Manchester in the middle years of the Industrial Revolution; the opportunity for anyone with drive and intelligence to rise to the challenges and make their mark; to contribute to the massive social changes which were to lift people from poverty and ignorance – this is what inspired me and why I  identified more with Thornton than any other character.