News Sweep re. RA

/ June 13, 2019

Trying to keep up with my self-imposed one-post-per-day schedule, I was wondering what to blog about today. I could tell you all about the exciting wallpaper exhibition that I visited in a restored Georgian house on the bank of the river Liffey in central Dublin, today, but something tells me that you mightn’t find wallpapers quite as fascinating as I do… So I did a bit of a news sweep to see whether there were any news out there that had escaped me. Caveat: News are usually best and most reliably compiled in blogland by Servetus in her feature Richard Armitage tangentially related. Not sure whether she had my news on her radar – chances are she did, and *I* missed them. Anyway, suffice to say that there are no major Armitage news anywhere. When he’s working on a project he seems to all but bury himself in work. Good man. I like his work ethic. So all I unearthed today were minor mentions… But good enough for a few speculative/snarky/silly/ [insert adjective of choice] comments.

The Irish Times

The Irish Times, for instance, today features a small article about Amazon’s new audio book offer. Well, that might be interesting for us, seeing that we are fans of legit audio god Armitage (see right). I don’t have to remind anyone that it is actually an expensive hobby, keeping up with Armitage’s audio output. Either you regularly splash out between 30 and 50 Euro for his new audio books, or you invest in an audible subscription that comes in at about 9 Euro per month. But wait – good news for owners of an Alexa-powered device by Amazon: Thanks to a new offer  customers receive three free books per month!!! The books are not downloaded (as you would via audible) but streamed via Alexa, and the books are pre-chosen by Amazon.The first three books have been chosen and are available for Alexa users until June 30th. And now we finally come to Armitage:

I can only say: NOT a coincidence that they chose Richard Armitage for the first ever free audio book stream! They *know* that the quality performance of audio god Armitage will get the listeners hooked. They’ll probably become addicted to the British earcandy… Well, the RArmy is happy to welcome new members 😉.

The Guardian

Also today, The Guardian posts its recommendation for TV shows to be watched tonight. And guess what? The UK has finally caught up with Berlin Station. Tonight sees season 2 of BS conclude. And this is what The Guardian‘s TV critic has to say:

“Engaging spy drama”, “starring Richard Armitage”. And who gets the big write up in these four and a half lines? Yeah, old story – Rhys Ifans. “Oddly sympathetic”? Well, definitely “oddly annoying” that Armitage was forever overshadowed by his co-star. *sigh* Well, not on *my* blog. Here, take this, Hector de Jean:

Sorry, did I get carried away? Mi scusi. But it had to be done. Daniel Miller was the fucking main character! *huffs* Ok, I’m over it now.

Paste Magazine

Paste Magazine is not – as you may have *falsely* deduced from its name – the industry magazine of the oral hygiene sector. In fact, it is a music and entertainment magazine. How does Armitage fit in there? Well, their recent article “Why You Should Explore the Intriguing Strangeness of Perpetual Grace, LTD” (Tuesday, 11/06/2019) discusses a new TV show called “Perpetual Grace” – which is being produced by Epix. And here’s the context that Richard pops up in:

Spot on, Paste, on all counts. Epix has not really been able to make a real splash with its TV efforts. And yes, it is *great* to see Armitage’s talent recognised here in this magazine. Not quite sure whether BS can really count as “prestige”, but well, they tried. Pity they got the essentials wrong (see above).

Anyhow, that’s my little news sweep today. Armitage in side context. He really should be the main focus. (It’s a complete mystery to me that the Daily Mail could headline a report from the set of The Stranger that contains pap pictures of the show’s main character at work, with the name of an actor who only plays a secondary character???? Anthony Head, my arse… ) But who knows, maybe that’ll happen soon, when The Stranger airs. Until then, we’ll just dream of world domination.

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84 thoughts on “News Sweep re. RA”

    • 😂I know you would… Maybe I’ll do it BTS… It was absolutely gorgeous though. (And would also have been beautiful from the perspective of junk journaling. I surreptitiously asked the wallpaper craftsman for off-cuts, but he doesn’t have any such…)

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        • Sure!
          Vous allez toutes me HAÏR. Je préfère le sort que les metteurs en scène ont donné au personnage de Rhys Ifans. à celui qu’ils ont donné à Richard Armitage.
          Richard avait un rôle fade, secondaire, sans intérêt. Même si son espace temps à l’écran y était plus grand, il n’a fait qu’acte de présence. J’ai l’impression qu’il faisait “tapisserie” (jeu de mots). Souvent, j’éprouve un malaise lorsque son physique avantageux est mis en avant, au détriment de son jeu d’acteur…
          Daniel Miller n’est que la mue, la peau morte du serpent, Jamais le personnage ne fut consistant.
          Si Richard Armitage est si peu présent dans les revues de cinéma, se serait la faute des rôles sans intérêt qui lui sont réservés, trop souvent… Je recherche en vain des personnages de caractère: Francis D, John Proctor Porter Thorton, Lucas North..Thorin.

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          • I completely agree that Rhys Ifans was the secret star, and his character got all the good lines and plot points. And yes, Daniel was only the foil for the interesting things that Hector got up to. Very frustrating to watch.
            Good point about his physical appearance as a hindrance – I have occasionally wondered about that, too. Do good-looking actors miss out on character roles? (Maybe Richard shouldn’t have had his nose done after all ;-))

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            • yeah just finished season 2 on More 4 last night, wasn’t that impressed especially as the season started out so strongly and with RA as the main character. This is probably controversial, but I don’t quite get the Daniel /Esther relationship either.

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              • I was initially much happier with season 2 than with season 1, but that dissipated as soon as Hector opened the door to his villa in Spain. In the end, he was the one who was calling the shots, again, and all Daniel got were some ludicrous emotional reactions (like getting his knickers in a twist when a despicable Nazi gets shot in front of his eyes… funny – when Armando got shot five episodes earlier, he didn’t bat an eyelid… Total writing error, if you ask me.)
                Daniel and Esther grew on me in season 2. I didn’t believe in them in season 1 at all, but thought it was rather clichéd and predictable. The one thing that annoyed me was that they never explained how Esther ever came back from throwing all those truths about Dan’s mother’s past at him. Again a massive plot hole…

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                • yeah, the first couple episodes of S2 i was enraptured-it had energy and was interesting and then its slid off. I got Dand and Ester S1 because it was chemistry and shagging, lol but S2 – they seem at odds constantly with their work-so how they have any other emotional connection seemed to elude me. One character I really liked and got behind was April-thought she was excellent

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                  • I don’t know, I never got into April and I couldn’t see what her point in the show was. I was mainly disappointed with season 2, mainly for the hubris of the creators who kept emphasising how rooted in reality everything was, and then writing a show the premise of which was completely ludicrous… Hence I am not sad that BS was not renewed after S3, never mind the grisly and ignominious death of Daniel.

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              • I couldn’t have chosen to write a “hindrance” but something like a trophy man, an eye catcher, an useful foil, a pretty sidekick, a someone’s beard, a stooge or wingman… and definitely a fan- catcher.
                A hindrance could be his mood, caracter…

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            • Bill nighy was on the radio talking about the wilderness for male actors between the ages of 36 -48. According to him after that is when roles started coming in again. Michael Caine had a similar problem (another radio interview!) as he was the handsome guy for most his career then he was too old. He retired because of lack of roles then suddenly became in demand as a character actor…which he said he struggled with initially because he wasn’t the handsome lead anymore!

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        • Comparing looking at wall paper to watching Berlin Station…there’s a joke in there somewhere about watching paint dry (on a wall). I agree: wallpaper IS more interesting than Berlin Station! YES, I want to see the vintage wallpapers, too, Guylty!

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      • It sounds lovely. We did a lot of stuff in Dublin, but my only must-see was a stately home. I can imagine that was a beautiful venue for such an exhibit.

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  2. I’m glad I’m not the only one still annoyed with them sidelining Daniel in favor of Hector. Now that I think about it, though, I wonder if I would’ve been so annoyed if *Hector* had been the main character instead. At least that would explain why he was getting all the meaty bits of script. But then again, I feel like a lot of the other side characters were treated with more respect than Daniel, so maybe it wouldn’t have mattered. Ah well, nothing to do about it now (except complain, tehee).

    Oh, and thankyaverymuch for that Daniel Miller pic explosion all of a sudden! Certainly makes my day better. 🙂

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    • It’s just like you say – had Hector been the main character, I’d have been content with Daniel’s role. But since they marketed him as the big cheese, it really was just misleading to see him sidelined week after week. I’m not even gonna go to season 3… It’s Spooks season 9 level annoying!
      That was just a fraction of my Daniel pics. Basically just the ones that have the name Daniel in the picture title and therefore could easily be compiled in WP. A little Daniel goes a long way 😉

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        • Very good point, Besotted. Although I myself just cannot see things measured by money, and I really doubt that he does, either. But yeah, his name was definitely top billing, so good for him.

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  4. Guylty: Fyi, there are two museums in NYC with substantial collections of wallpapers: 1. Metropolitan Museum of Art. They have many photos of items from their collections online, with permission to use the images (you could download and print), e.g.: https://www.metmuseum.org/search-results#!/search?q=wallpapers. 2. Cooper Hewitt Museum, part of Smithsonian Museum system. I don’t know what the status of using their images is, but here are the results for a quick search on the topic at their website: https://www.cooperhewitt.org/?s=wallpapers

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    • Oh, amazing! I got lost in the Met Museum wallpapers just now. Especially as the pictures could be used in my journals. Thank you for linking to that, Besotted!!

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  5. Is that headline “Next Step: World Domination” over a photo of RA for real or a clever manipulation? ‘Cause I’m gullible, obviously, and could totally get behind any project that puts RA in charge of the world. Dare I hope?

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    • 😂Hooray, I got you! Nope, it’s just a manip and not real. (Check the top left of the newspaper – it’s called “Fun Times”, dated 13 June 2019.) But I wouldn’t mind a world domination project, either…

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  6. World domination! That is a wonderful heading and readdresses the balance. Thanks for the Daniel pics. I am baffled why RA keeps being sidelined. It happens over and over again. I’ve wondered if it is just being hyper-aware of him that makes us see snubs that don’t exist, but I don’t think so. It sometimes feels like a conspiracy to not promote him. I get the Radio Times (TV listings) and each week I’ve feverishly turned to the Berlin Station listing and no pic of RA until finally episode 9. There was Iffans (match), Jenkins! Orser, Kretschmann, possibly Judd. I just don’t get it .

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    • I think both of it is true. On the one hand we are absolutely oversensitive when it comes to RA, and we may also be over-analysing what is going on when he is *not* the centre of attention even though he is the best actor in the world (…). But there is also an element of snubbing or ignoring him in the media or in marketing efforts, and I sometimes wonder whether that is because he doesn’t put himself out there. He’s an anti-socialite. And that is fine. I respect that he wants to keep his private life to himself, too. (It’s part of his mystique.) But I hope that he is also happy with the effect that his reclusion may have…

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  9. Did you watched or read something about
    DOGS OF BERLIN or DARK
    the rather new netflix german series?
    Are they better than BS?

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