Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

hmmmm, a gift...what might mothers appreciate?...perhaps...

Enrich2 voiced a special appreciation for certain pics more so than others;)

Sue's a natural sleuth - she fingered the leather jacket RA wore for many interviews...no doubt he was merely continuing to soak in the JP marinade - surprising we didn't hear a few expletives;)

Altho' he does seem to have a somewhat negative reaction to any mention of that jacket...does Porter make Sir Guy look downright angelic...

Ahhh, that's better--who slipped him the chocolate?:)

New RA Interview

You be the judge ladies - is a DIY guy sexy? In the interview below, RA says no...do you agree with him?

                                                         ~~~~~~~
Sex symbol? No, the truth is I'm just a DIY geek, says Richard Armitage
By Tim Oglethorpe, Daily Mail, 7th May 2010

Richard Armitage has brooding good looks, a voice like velvet and a string of TV roles behind him as a clean-cut hero.

He was stern mill-owner John Thornton in the BBC's North And South, handsome Harry Kennedy in The Vicar Of Dibley, Guy Of Gisborne in Robin Hood and, most recently, spy Lucas North in Spooks.

Now he is rebel SAS soldier John Porter in Sky One's new six-part drama Strike Back.

Soldier of fortune: Richard Armitage as John Porter and Orla Brady as Katie Dartmouth in Strike Back

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!'

His character in Strike Back, which is based on the best-selling book by former SAS soldier Chris Ryan, doesn't quite win wars singlehandedly - but has a good stab at it. In next week's episode, we see John Porter travel to Zimbabwe to spring an assassin from a high-security jail and smuggle him across the border into South Africa.

Richard 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.'

Richard found stardom with his 2004 North And South performance. Within hours of his first appearance, the programme's website crashed. When the BBC was forced to shut the board down, fans set up their own website, with the resultant 20 million hits - and climbing. 'It's flattering, but scary,' says Richard. 'I don't know how to cope with it.

One woman sent me a pink blanket. And someone made a model of me as Guy of Gisborne.'

He's currently filming the ninth series of Spooks and Hollywood is also on his agenda.

His first film role was as an unnamed fighter pilot in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace - during which he chatted up who he thought was the star, Natalie Portman, only to discover that the girl was actually her stand-in, a then unknown actress called Keira Knightley. It was a sticky situation.

But Richard bravely talked his way out of the embarrassment. 'Although when you compare it to the courage shown by real soldiers, I'm not sure the word bravery should come into it,' he laughs.

Strike Back is on Sky 1 on Wednesdays at 9pm http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1274130/Sex-symbol-No-truth-Im-just-DIY-geek-says-Richard-Armitage.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

SB Photos & ATTENTION please: Strike Back Forum is Open at Sky1 Website

Richard of Arabia above

Does Lucas want his phone back?

Ooh, we've seen this look before - wouldn't want to be the guy he's looking at when he gets loose..

Strike Back Review: Times on-Line

Let me preface this review with my long-time expectation that Strike Back would probably receive loads of knee jerk liberal cynicism upon it's debut.  IMO, the majority of newspaper reporters (on both sides of the Atlantic) have been marinating for far too long in an unrealistic liberal attitude toward the realities of today's world.  And therefore they almost deny the need (through insinuated ridicule) for western nations to defend their innocent populations.  They also tend to entertain the liberal misconception that the warrior class must always be perceived by an 'intelligent' mind...cough,cough,..as masculine brutes who rarely have sensitive moments in life.  That said here's one of their opinions--do you agree with it?
                                                              ~~~~~~~~
From Times Online May 5, 2010

Last Night’s TV: Chris Ryan's Strike BackAndrew Billen
(Steve Brown)

Richard Armitage as John Porter and Orla Brady as Katie Dartmouth
Chris Ryan’s Strike Back, Sky1

A publicity picture for Chris Ryan’s Strike Back shows the series’ stars — Richard Armitage, automatic in one arm, Orla Brady, holding his other — running from a pursuant Land Rover and two helicopters. It is an interesting image in two ways. Although ideally there should be a few explosions going off, it is really a film poster for the sort of action movie you only ever see at the cinema or on one of the less elevated film channels. It is not the sort of television that television usually makes (which is why, back in the Eighties, the video tape recorder and Blockbusters had to be invented). In making television out of airport rather than literary fiction, the Cold Feet producer Andy Harries challenges TV’s Jane Austen-reading executives — not least to place who the former British soldier-turned-novelist Chris Ryan actually is.

The publicity image is inaccurate, however, which is the other reason it interests me. For by the point in yesterday’s two-part opener that Armitage and Brady were on the run, Brady’s character, a TV reporter kidnapped by extremists in Iraq, has had a hand chopped off. There is a grittiness, almost a realism, to this piece that is not entirely expected by those of us who equate action movies with Die Hard. Another example would be Armitage’s insertion of a condom-wrapped penknife up his bottom by the side of a desert road. You don’t get that on 24.

Armitage, whose face is mostly something of a blank and is easily out-acted by his foil Andrew Lincoln, plays the burnt-out SAS man, John Porter, “reactivated” to rescue Brady’s Katie Dartmouth. He is as action hero as you could want but what moved me was his portrayal of Porter before he got his mojo reactivated: a security guard with low-self esteem and a wife and daughter who resent his absences to the point of wishing him dead. When he goes for a job, all his machismo confidence deserts him and he reads out his CV from a note held in a shaking hand. It is one of several grace notes in Jed Mercurio’s script. True, it features lines such as “Come one step further and I’ll take you down” but it also finds room for a dig at Porter’s “mission-limiting” fixation on sex. “In layman’s terms, you needed a shag,” says Jodhi May as the lieutenant supervising his comeback. Mercurio wrote Bodies, which, frankly, is much more my cup of social realist tea but he does not talk down to his new audience here. I hope it loved Strike Back.

Strike Back: Meet John Porter

And the best-looking bloke in a t-shirt award goes to..:)...mother nature in the form of a pointing shadow appears to agree.
Loving dad...ahhhhh

This is what RA meant when he wished he was 5'8" and did not need to lean into other actors.  They should provide the others with stools and let him stand up straight..his fellow cast members might not agree:)

Sir Guy's crooked smile in uniform...

Nighty night..sleep tight..

New RA Photos - Thanks for the tip, Sue...also Romantic RA Interview Quotes

The following gorgeous pics have to signal RA's arrival at the summit of UK entertainment fame...watch out world - here he comes! He's leaving the Radio One Studios..tentative expression seems to reveal some hesitation about this new level of celebrity coverage.  Most likely his hectic interview schedule didn't really allow a free moment...

Photographer was gifted w/a sweet, gracious smile...

Someone hand the man a sandwich...SB promotion is taking it's toll.  Is this the new Spooks9 costume or, as Sue suggested, did he use a motorbike to get efficiently around London...

If his fans send him a new briefcase, you know it will be wasteful...he's obviously the kind of bloke:) who relishes aged leather and, as Sue stated, could easily own the one above since LAMDA..

http://www.contactmusic.com/pictures/richard_armitage/1-1

~~~~~~~

Apparently the topic is on his mind...

Strike Back star Richard Armitage full of romantic ideas

By Tim Oglethorpe 5/05/2010
The Mirror

There's no sign of eligible bachelor Richard Armitage tying the knot just yet, but his macho performance in new show Strike Back hasn't completely obliterated his romantic side.

"I got ideas on how to propose when I played Geraldine's husband-to-be in The Vicar Of Dibley, so I might put one into practice," says Richard, 38, who plays SAS rebel John Porter in the drama, starting on Sky One tonight.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/05/05/there-s-no-sign-of-eligible-115875-22235083/
Second quote comes to us via Enrich2's comment re Richard's reference to Katie Dartmouth in today's Digital Spy article..."their's is a love affair, though not based on physical attraction, a trancendental thing because of what they've been through together." 
Ahhh, lovely.  Wonder if Orla agrees w/his remark.  If she read those words would she think to herself - "speak for yourself John";)
                                                                         

Richard Armitage This Morning on GMTV

RA - GMTV Poll:  Neat & tidy or somewhat dissheveled? In recent interviews Richard mentioned he's enjoying marinating in John Porter's more 'roughed' up image.  Do you prefer rough or refined....sorry, must choose even though both versions look luscious enough to eat;)  We also appreciate his choice of THAT particular shirt...snug fit suits some people;)

                                             1.  Every hair in place? (2009)

2. Rough & Ready? (2010)

Richard Armitage Photos

Now for something completely different....not really...

 

Listen to the Velvet Voice on Twitter

Listen:  http://twaud.io/TtY  VideoLan website(VLC) http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

More interviews - thank you to  http://www.richardarmitageonline.com/articles/RA-Strikeback-Mail-on-Sunday-Live-mag-2-5-2010-p42-lg.jpg

Nicole Reilly couldn't resist the play on words--just noticed her name was cut at the bottom...

Choose RA's Castle Poll: Said he Wants A Place Where He Can Just Be - Is It Time to Clear Out Our Guest Room;)

Would wager many of the fans recently described by RA (in a SB interview) were aghast 8[] to read his first answer in the following excerpt, from yet another interview.  It's the 2nd and last answers that caught my attention.  He wishes to be 5ft 8in tall...HA! Other actors would give their Twitter followers for his height...grass always seems greener...:)  The last reply is heartwrenchingly poignant - Richard sounds as though he's definitely ready to settle down.  I'd wager again(blame all the recent Kentucky Derby coverage) that at least half the female population of London moved into high alert status upon reading "I am searching for a place where I can just be..."  Then he mentions not having the time to visit his parents often enough in Leicestershire.  Methinks RA needs us to find him a lovely small private estate, not too far from where his parents live, where he can go unshaven & unbathed as often as he wants, after SB makes him internationally sought after (not by women, which is already a given) professionally.  Who knows, perhaps one of his new neighbors might be looking for her ideal man - one with greasy hair, heavy stubble and a very strong musky aroma, and last but certainly not least - a heart of gold.   Watch for upcoming real estate poll.

This and all his recent interviews are graciously & generously available for RA fans at

http://www.richardarmitageonline.com/articles/best20100504.html

~~~~~~~~~

POLL: Which of the following homes do you feel would fulfill RA's wish to 'just be'?

Possibility #1. If it will require 'Do It Yourself' work.  14thC, so something probably needs to be repaired by now.  (Update, oops-it's actually 15thC..well then, everything should be in tip top condition;)

http://www.homes24.co.uk/doc.html?_a=view&id=949589

#2. Following is for rent..let's wave Harry Potter's wand and make it for sale for our purposes..

http://www.primelocation.com/uk-estate-agents/properties/a/JAME/uk/y/sr/r

#3. This is definitely secluded AND w/equestrian facilities...a new home for Richie as well;)

 

Scroll to E...

http://www.primelocation.com/uk-property-for-sale/details/id/FISA3547

p.s. If I've chosen houses that are located ridiculously distant from RA's homestead, let's pretend for the sake of the poll that they're actually nearby.

Richard Supports the Women of Strike Back

Green Screen TV

Did the Spooks crew really visit Moscow? - how much of SB was actually filmed in Africa?....Same type of question can be asked about all TV drama after watching the following...
http://www.shortlist.com/tv/article/tv-s-green-screen-secret-exposed/1

Certainly looked like the real thing...and no doubt it was.  In fact, RA looks in this pic as though he might've been enjoying a few vodka martinis during shooting, haha---nah, he's obviously a happy man - no need for artificial stimulation during the workday.

Luscious New Pics Found at Russian RA Forum

Look at all these gorgeous new RA pics found at a Russian website...Eat your heart out Simon Cowell  http://armitage-online.ucoz.ru/photo/fotosessii_124_photoshoots/shoot_013/040/18-0-1152