Hilarious:Nat Makes an RA Dream Come True--He's a Monster:) + Older Post of the Day + Poll: Are They Twins?(see pix below) + Is It Christmas Choir Practice? + Excerpt from Ep 5 Review & Link + Richard's 'guilty pleasures'

New ep 6 promo pix posted by bccmee on twitter..

Following demonstrates tremendous talent from all involved(especially Nat)...no doubt the one showing him as a groom would curdle his blood the most...hehehe

Christmas choir practice??

Above pic reminded me of a classic Christmas tradition.  If we didn't know better, could almost mistake LucJohn as participating in choir practice.

 

The Crachits

http://www.byerschoicecorner.com/all-byers-choice-carolers/a-christmas-carol.html

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POLL PHOTOS: Will we discover Vaughn & Michael are actually twin brothers, or one and the same person?

Vaughn

Michael

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An excerpt from Vicky Frost's review of Ep 5..(see link below for entire review)

Quote: >Given that it's clod-footed Spooks here, rather than a programme that does political subtlety, the episode wasn't a terrible attempt at even-handedness over the Middle East.  We had bad Israelis, bad Syrians, good Israelis, good Lebanes - certainly the end effect was more subtle than Spooks' usual Islamic terrorist default setting might have suggested. (You are welcome to disagree - I make no pretence of being a Middle East expert of any kind).<

[For me, although interesting, none of the plot review comments were the most memorable in the piece.  She admits to not being a Middle East expert of any kind, but neglects to admit she suffers under a politically correct dogma that is championed by many either self-delusional or 'too brilliant for their own good' journalists on both sides of the pond.  Their naive conception is that westerners must treat with equanimity those who massacre innocents in the name of their radical religious beliefs, and those who are simply defending the insane jihadists intended victims from the cold-blooded slaughter. 

There really isn't any way to even-handedly consider both sides of the struggle, without first suspending all common sense in the process.  Of course those who buy into the notion, that it's tres chic to pretend there is a moral equivalence in the fight to halt the barbarism employed by Islamic extremeists, will consider Spooks to be melodramatic and unrealistic.  The truth of the matter will remain beyond their conviction until tragic fallout has landed at their doorstep.  History teaches us that the same was true for many politicians in the late 1930s when they were warned Hitler's aggression could result in a devastating European conflagration.

Wonder who the majority of journalists sided with at that time - Chamberlain or Churchill?

The current situation reminds me of the famous axiom.."those who fail to learn the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them."]

As for Ep 5, the best scene for me was what felt like a never-ending awkward pause in the last few moments as LucJohn, Maya and VaughnMichael exchanged furtive glances at each other.  Ep 6 can't come soon enough, can it;)

Vicky Frost's blog http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/oct/18/spooks-episode-five

Inching up on the Halloween season with one of what RA considers to be a guilty pleasure - Pixar movies including Monsters, Inc and Up...he said "I think I just want to be a kid again"..

 

'Up' was a huge surprise - an utterly adorable one - nothing ghoulish about these..they are touchingly  humorous and true--anyone who has watched their parents grow old together appreciates the 2nd..

Older Post of the Day:  An interview w/Robin Hood costume designer - Frances Tempest

http://allthingsrarmitage.blogspot.com/search?q=frances+tempest+interview

Interview w/Robin Hood Costume Designer

Here's an interesting interview with the woman who designed Guy of Gisborne's biker-style leathers.  

Excerpt followed by a link to the entire interview
FRANCES TEMPEST

Conducted and transcribed by Allen W. Wright


Frances Tempest is the costume designer for the first two series of the 2006 Robin Hood TV show by Tiger Aspect and the BBC. She has over 30 years of experience in the industry. Her costume designs have appeared at the National Theatre and the English National Opera. She has received four Emmy nominations and three BAFTA nominations.

..In 2009, Frances spoke at Robin Hood: Media Creature - the 2009 academic conference for Robin Hood studies at the University of Rochester. Her paper was titled "Robin Hood for the Playstation Generation, or Every Age Gets the Robin Hood It Deserves".


This interview was conducted in person in Rochester, NY at the October 2009 Robin Hood academic conference.
..And they really wanted to direct it (new RH series) at a young, masculine -- it was really directed at teenage boys. That's what their audience was. If they could pick up other people along the way, all well and good. But it was to be directed at teenage boys.
AWW: How about the girl audience? It seems that a lot of women liked it.
FT: Robin was supposed to be for the female audience. I don't think he ever achieved that because Guy of Gisborne came along and stole the show. It wasn't meant to be like that but just because of the casting, that's what actually happened.
AWW: I saw that with the "fanfic" discussions. [An earlier conference paper discussed how much of the stories written by fans centered around Gisborne instead of Robin Hood.]
FT: Well, I had no idea because I had never seen North and South [BBC mini-series starring actor Richard Armitage]. I didn't realize that Richard Armitage carried such a big fan base, but he already came with all these thousands of adoring fans. I had no idea about that. And so I clothed him in black leather. Suddenly there were websites all over the place! [Laughs.] I had in my head the image of a racing driver or a motorbike driver - like Alain Delon -- the young Alain Delon. He was going to be a fantastic, sexy racing driver, that was my image for him.
                                                         1.

AWW: He also had the duster that was like a western hero, and almost like a regency cape.
FT: It was a cross between a regency cape and Sherlock Holmes and How the West Was Won. I was trying to roll all of those sorts of things into it. Of course, it was tempered - like things always are - by practical considerations. He had to be able to get on and off his horse in it. He had to be able to fight in it. There were stuntmen, but a lot of the actors did an awful lot of their own stuntwork. So all of those practical considerations had to be uppermost.
                                                                
                                                         2.

AWW: You also had the other outfit for Guy, with the piping along the sleeves.


FT: Yes, which was fastened with these wolf's head clips. And then he had wolves on the knuckles -- like knuckle dusters -- on the gauntlets. All I can say is that I spent a lot of time hanging about in motorbike shops in Budapest.
                                                 

AWW: Guy must have hated his black leather in the summer.
FT: The summers were awful. I mean, it was very good. The boys loved their costumes. They were thrilled when they first put them on. They really got into them, emotionally inhabited them. It was terrific. But that was about March. And by the time August came, they were ... the temperature was over 30 degrees (Celsius). They could hardly move. And Little John in his big leather coat! But he was very good, he didn't try to take it off. Robin kept trying to ... I shouldn't tell you that ... Jonas [Armstrong] kept trying to take all his clothes off, just because he was so hot and to be firmly bundled back into them.

AWW: But Richard Armitage didn't?


FT: No, he loved black leather. He wasn't getting out of that, no matter what. [Laughs.]


AWW: So, what was the design approach to the characters? With Guy, you said it was motorcycle influences.

3.

FT: The brief, as much as it existed -- this conversation with Foz -- was to create a mixture of modern and medieval that a young audience would find a point of reference with or respond to and wouldn't alienate them. The executive producer who I talked to later about the whole process said well, we couldn't have put them in tights because it would have looked ridiculous and I thought "why?". But the boys were terrified of wearing tights.

http://www.boldoutlaw.com/robint/francestempest.html

Wonder if she designed this famous Guy costume as well

                                                       4.

Nostalgic Ian Wylie Tweets + Great New John Porter Vid by Giz the Gunslinger + Talented RA Manips by his fan 'richardsbabe' + Repost: Interview with Robin Hood Costume Designer + Pix

SPOOKS: I've only watched for 3 seasons of the 10 Spooks series yet I found these recent tweets, by Entertainment critic Ian Wylie, rather nostalgic.  The link below is to his blog..

Ian Wylie
...And my final midnight hour with Sir Harry Pearce and co...
15 minutes ago

Ian Wylie
...Spooks: The End. Last ever episode blog / preview http://bit.ly/nrU94z
17 minutes ago

Past Post Jan 2010: http://allthingsrarmitage.blogspot.com/2010/01/interview-wrobin-hood-costume-designer.html?showComment=1318556291454#c2738390689126870277 (See interview below)

Here's an interesting interview with the woman who designed Guy of Gisborne's biker-style leathers.

FRANCES TEMPEST
Conducted and transcribed by Allen W. Wright

Frances Tempest is the costume designer for the first two series of the 2006 Robin Hood TV show by Tiger Aspect and the BBC. She has over 30 years of experience in the industry. Her costume designs have appeared at the National Theatre and the English National Opera. She has received four Emmy nominations and three BAFTA nominations.

..In 2009, Frances spoke at Robin Hood: Media Creature - the 2009 academic conference for Robin Hood studies at the University of Rochester. Her paper was titled "Robin Hood for the Playstation Generation, or Every Age Gets the Robin Hood It Deserves".

This interview was conducted in person in Rochester, NY at the October 2009 Robin Hood academic conference.

..And they really wanted to direct it (new RH series) at a young, masculine -- it was really directed at teenage boys. That's what their audience was. If they could pick up other people along the way, all well and good. But it was to be directed at teenage boys.

AWW: How about the girl audience? It seems that a lot of women liked it.

FT: Robin was supposed to be for the female audience. I don't think he ever achieved that because Guy of Gisborne came along and stole the show. It wasn't meant to be like that but just because of the casting, that's what actually happened.

AWW: I saw that with the "fanfic" discussions. [An earlier conference paper discussed how much of the stories written by fans centered around Gisborne instead of Robin Hood.]

FT: Well, I had no idea because I had never seen North and South [BBC mini-series starring actor Richard Armitage]. I didn't realize that Richard Armitage carried such a big fan base, but he already came with all these thousands of adoring fans. I had no idea about that. And so I clothed him in black leather. Suddenly there were websites all over the place! [Laughs.] I had in my head the image of a racing driver or a motorbike driver - like Alain Delon -- the young Alain Delon. He was going to be a fantastic, sexy racing driver, that was my image for him.

AWW: He also had the duster that was like a western hero, and almost like a regency cape.

FT: It was a cross between a regency cape and Sherlock Holmes and How the West Was Won. I was trying to roll all of those sorts of things into it. Of course, it was tempered - like things always are - by practical considerations. He had to be able to get on and off his horse in it. He had to be able to fight in it. There were stuntmen, but a lot of the actors did an awful lot of their own stuntwork. So all of those practical considerations had to be uppermost.
AWW: You also had the other outfit for Guy, with the piping along the sleeves.
FT: Yes, which was fastened with these wolf's head clips. And then he had wolves on the knuckles -- like knuckle dusters -- on the gauntlets. All I can say is that I spent a lot of time hanging about in motorbike shops in Budapest.
AWW: Guy must have hated his black leather in the summer.
FT: The summers were awful. I mean, it was very good. The boys loved their costumes. They were thrilled when they first put them on. They really got into them, emotionally inhabited them. It was terrific. But that was about March. And by the time August came, they were ... the temperature was over 30 degrees (Celsius). They could hardly move. And Little John in his big leather coat! But he was very good, he didn't try to take it off. Robin kept trying to ... I shouldn't tell you that ... Jonas [Armstrong] kept trying to take all his clothes off, just because he was so hot and to be firmly bundled back into them.

AWW: But Richard Armitage didn't?

FT: No, he loved black leather. He wasn't getting out of that, no matter what. [Laughs.]

AWW: So, what was the design approach to the characters? With Guy, you said it was motorcycle influences.
FT: The brief, as much as it existed -- this conversation with Foz -- was to create a mixture of modern and medieval that a young audience would find a point of reference with or respond to and wouldn't alienate them. The executive producer who I talked to later about the whole process said well, we couldn't have put them in tights because it would have looked ridiculous and I thought "why?". But the boys were terrified of wearing tights.
http://www.boldoutlaw.com/robint/francestempest.html

The following are my fav of richardsbabe's excellent RA manips.  IMO, they're exactly what doctor Track might prescribe during this lonnng RA drought period.  From strikingly handsome to absolutely adorable.  If these examples leave you hungry for more, you can find richardsbabe's art forum at the RA Central website.

http://www.richardarmitagecentral.co.uk/

How adorable is the following....awwwww *so cute & cuddly* [the baby is as well*giggle*;]

And the one I believe everyone would agree is richardsbabe's masterpiece.  *to die for..a terminal wibble*

If we want to be perfectly honest about Strike Back Project Dawn, we will admit there is one feature that surpassed the first series. The John Porter version is far better than the current series in every possible way save one - the theme song. 

As always, clever and creative RA fans manage to find a way to kick the deliciousness up a notch..e.g..