Distraction Challenge 11 #ADC

/ April 29, 2020

Has Richard Armitage a designated “Tweet Day”? Seven days since his last advertising communication tweet, he put three tweets out there. He hinted at a charity offering in aid of Great Ormond Street – probably the children’s story that he had asked for recommendations for a while back. And a characteristic Armitage praise tweet for the forthcoming release of The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner. Always the gentleman and the kind promoter of other creatives’ work. However,  I’m a little bit disappointed that most of his recent tweets are really just advertisements in disguise, linking directly to his audio books on the platform where you can *buy* them. Nice that he is able to fill his time usefully and creatively with these audio productions, and I welcome new audio material. But yeh… 🤐. Not that he needs my approval *at all*, but I did like his tweet re. the Fleabag Fundraiser, though. But it definitely rubbed me up the wrong way that author Natalie Jenner enthusiastically credits Richard with “your talent & dedication have powered it onto Audible’s Most Anticipated Spring Listens list”. No doubt he has talent for and dedication to the audio genre, and his audio books are proven best sellers. But Jenner’s book is only in the “most anticipated” list because RA’s (and her own!) *fans* have enthusiastically and faithfully pre-ordered the book. You’re welcome, Ms Jenner.

Do I sound grouchy? Maybe I am cracking up? We are coming up to seven weeks in Covid quarantine now. Today my daughter had to sit an online exam for the end of her first year in college. It was an “open book exam”, i.e. the students are allowed to have their reference material at hand. It didn’t go as well as she had hoped, though. Two further exams have been replaced by essays that are due this week. I feel sorry that my children have to miss out on the fun of going to college… Meanwhile, Mr Guylty and I have finished our Covid project. We have reupholstered an old armchair, and I have to say I am chuffed with the results. I also had new covers for our Ikea sofa made and sent from a company in Germany. They arrived this week and we put them on the sofa today. A bit of an effort, but the results are lovely and it feels as if we have a brandnew sofa. Heck, it even looks like a brandnew sitting room. Interior decoration porn, here we come! So those covers were well worth the price!

Within a week, the trees on the square have come into leaf and the lilac is out. This is the prettiest time of the year here

But I said I’d answer another challenge question. So this time it is

11. Which episode did you watch more than five times?

I’m going to sound like a broken record, but I have to say Strike Back, and episode 3 and 4 both. I have watched most shows that he has been in several times. That even includes NS. The “Handsome Stranger” episode in VoD used to be a particular escapism favourite of mine, even though I was never that enamoured with Harry, mainly because they really only allowed him to be totty. But then again, sometimes all a girl needs, is some totty. But *ooof*, if I want some action and entertainment, SB is the go-to. I feel totally reassured by that capable soldier, the way he knows exactly what he is doing, the self-confidence he has in his own abilities both physical and mental – as well as moral! I love how he changes his mind because he is following his instinct. He has strength and conviction, and essentially also a good heart. Porter is good for you.

Having said that – it’s been a while since I have last watched SB. I wouldn’t mind doing it again. And while I always find it really hard to get through the first half of the first episode – I just can’t stand seeing Porter broken – the road to redemption is ever sweeter for it.

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36 thoughts on “Distraction Challenge 11 #ADC”

  1. North and South. At least once a year since 2012, so that’s 8 times so far. Your square is so beautiful, and may we see photos of the chair and couch, pleeeeeze? I’m still impressed that SO has painted all the windows in the house, by the way. Wow.

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    • I actually like the way so many fans have an annual NS watch. It’s kind of sweet, like a national holiday or something like that.
      The square is prettier than ever, now that there is less traffic by car and foot. It’s beautifully still most of the time.
      I’ll post a picture of the chair and couch in my next post. (And yes, SO is a trooper. He is done now with all the paintwork, and itching to do something else. I’ll have to think up a new project for him – that is doable with the materials we have on hand…)

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    • “Advertweets” – apt word for the communications. And yes, hair length (and state of facial hair) are the truly important things right now.

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  3. Hard to say how many times I’ve watched portions of my favorites: SB, NS, even TH. The operative word is portions. Some are only a few minutes long or less. After the initial viewing of the whole show, whatever it is, I only watch RA scenes. What can I say? I would rather have the icing than the cake.

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  4. More than five times, hm? I must confess to watching The Hobbit way more than that. Along with Spooks (love Lucas, almost as much as Thorin). And I even enjoy Harry (he’s easy on the eyes). I even watch N&S a couple or three times a year. But I seem to watch The Hobbit every month or so. 😳

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  5. I thought when he tweeted a photograph of his homemade studio that he meant to use it for something personal like reading a poem or like Patrick Stewart reading a sonnet.
    It seems more like ‘business as usual, without going to a studio’ with him.
    We are living through a unique time (hopefully) so I expected him to give a bit more of himself, or am I just being unreasonable.

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    • If that’s unreasonable, then so am I! I like the way you put it—couldn’t he give just a little? I find it frustrating. Yes, I say it again, you don’t have to be Sam Neill or Richard E. Grant(if only amiright?). It’s also a question of personality. But a little more than nothing at all would be nice. 😕

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    • No, that was what I was hoping for, too. I somehow thought that “Uncle Richard” would come to the fore and delight and calm his audience with a little bit of distraction. The home studio – well, I understood it to be for some ‘real’ work he had scheduled for Audible, but somehow I had hoped that he might use the opportunity and read a little thing for his fans. But maybe it isn’t as easy as just reading something. Copyright issues?
      It’s a tricky thing, managing expectations. I absolutely believe that no celebrity owes their audience anything. But that doesn’t mean that I am not *hoping* they would use their status and their SM platforms to actually communicate in this extraordinary time. It simply disappoints me that RA, who always comes across so earnest and artistic, tweets all but advertisements for his work at this time. That doesn’t match with my interpretation of him.

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  6. He’s probably freaking out in fear of being unenployed and don’t feel perfectly in shape. He’s the man who sanitize his own pics until he looks like a doll – a doll that needs a good exorcist imho – but his body, his choice!
    I followed in awe and joy the makeover of the armchair and peeked at some lovely pieces of furniture 😉
    I watched Philip Durrant more than 5 times, N&S probably 10, and selected pieces of TH. And very, very selected pieces of Hannibal.

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    • Good point. Maybe he is struggling with the isolation and just can’t muster up the energy for anything that goes beyond advertising his work.
      Hehe, congrats on enduring Philip Durrant more than 5 times 😉. (With Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot on endless repeat on Irish TV, I have seen Ordeal by Innocence at least 5 times, too.)

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  7. I’m not criticising his lack of presence, everyone is coping in their own way but I do wonder about it. He was conspicuously absent ( with others) in the One Ring dwarf reunion, when it would have been easy to do. Perhaps he is freaking out or more likely freaking out about his hair. Anyway his choice
    I said my most watched episode was the Spooks Russian set- one, then Hannibal and Strike Back is a constant too but actually, like Besotted, it probably is N&S as I watch it every year ( and more) and have done for longer than the other shows.

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    • Thanks for reminding me of the Spooks episode. Series 8.4 I nearly wore that episode out. When Lucas met Oleg his torturer again it was a brilliant story, it made me put pen to paper and I wrote to RA to say how much I liked it.
      I haven’t felt quite that way again. I was Lucas besotted and even wrote fan fiction about him, it filled a gap in my life I reckon.
      Sad somewhat to think I shall probably never feel that deeply about a character again.😟

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    • Absolutely his choice. Just like our reactions to his absence is also *ours*. I’m just a bit surprised, not least because he emphasised so much at RDC that he was an introvert who happily muddles along on his own for days on end without seeing another living soul, nor even speaking a word. I kind of assumed that the lockdown was not a problem for him. And maybe it isn’t – and he extends his silence to SM.
      I really must watch Spooks again. It’s been a long time since I watched a full episode of that show.

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