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Welcome to RichardArmitageOnline.com

This is an unofficial website about the work of the British actor Richard Armitage, star of BBC Robin Hood, North and South and The Vicar of Dibley.

Richard Armitage as Harry in BBC Vicar of Dibley

Richard Armitage as John Thornton in North and South

Richard Armitage as Guy of Gisborne in BBC Robin Hood

There's information here about his television, film and theatre work, including pictures and video clips of many of his TV and film roles. You can also read Richard Armitage's comments on his various characters, taken from published interviews.

Navigate to any of his roles from the pull-down menu at the top of the page, or go to the Television Career, Film Career, Theatre Career or Voice/Audio/Radio Career pages and follow the links from there.

1st October 2008

The Spokesperson for RA would like to issue a brief message of thanks on behalf of said bloke.

A large number of gifts have been received for said blokes birthday. Said bloke would like to thank everyone who sent said gifts and is currently in the process, with the help of said blokes Mum writing thank you letters for said gifts. Unfortunately, some gifts were sent without return addresses hence this posting.

Unable to comment and refusing to speak publicly about said gifts, said bloke, said: "wow a pair of pants with a cartoon caricature of me on the rear...just what I have always wanted"

Said bloke was said to have been last seen wearing, eating, riding, and climbing all said gifts at the same time in an effort to make a public display of affection for his fans who sent them. Unfortunately two of the gifts, a donkey and a horse called Will Scarlett, who were know to be rivals, kicked off during the stunt, literally, and ran riot through the tree sanctuary where the stunt rehearsal was taking place. Apparently Will Scarlett was last seen scoffing all the chocolate gifts, slugging a bottle of German wine and trying on aftershave whilst the Donkey, who had managed to get tangled in the caricature underpants was having a crack at a Guy of Gisborne knitting pattern whilst listening to some quite funky tunes, and studying various novels, some of them not even in English. Said bloke who was attempting to ride both animals at the time they kicked off, sustained a rather difficult injury.

The animals have since been separated and returned to their respective homes, unharmed, somewhat inebriated but fairly well read...and well fed. Said bloke was last seen hobbling back to work.

Latest News

BBC Spooks interview - Richard Armitage is interviewed about his role as Lucas North in Spooks in a feature just released by the BBC Press Office. The new series will start with two episodes shown on BBC One during the week beginning 25th October, although the dates and times of transmission have yet to be announced.

Richard talked about the effect that 8 years in a Russian prison has had on Lucas and about his efforts to be accepted back on the Grid at MI5. Since Lucas is a fluent Russian speaker Richard had to learn to speak the language convincingly, although he said, "Learning to speak Russian was pretty impossible, really – I had to learn it phonetically."

Richard Armitage in The Sun - The Sun's 'TV Mag' on Saturday 4th October has a brief article about Richard in Spooks, including a photograph of his character, Lucas North, being released from a Russian jail at the start of the new series.

Richard Armitage in Sky Magazine - Richard writes about filming Spooks in the latest issue of Sky Magazine. See the article...

Richard Armitage on BBC Radio 1 - Richard Armitage spoke briefly about the future of Robin Hood during The Scott Mills Show on BBC Radio 1 on 1st September. He doesn't yet know whether Guy of Gisborne will survive into series 4, nor has it been revealed to the cast how Robin will leave the show. (The BBC recently announced that Jonas Armstrong, who plays Robin, will leave the show at the end of series 3, but that it could still continue into a fourth series.) Listen to the audioclip...

Spooks preview - The BBC Press Office has released a video previewing its autumn dramas. It includes a short clip from the new series of Spooks, in which Richard Armitage will star as MI5 officer Lucas North. (The video isn't visible to non-UK viewers, but The Guardian's website carries a copy of it which is.)

This will be the seventh series of the popular and critically acclaimed drama about Britain's security intelligence agency, MI5. The series will start on BBC One in late October.

Richard plays an officer who has just returned from eight years in a Russian jail, and his loyalties are under suspicion. Peter Firth, Rupert-Penry Jones and Hermione Norris also star. The series was mostly shot in and around London earlier this year, although some filming was said to have taken place in Moscow during August. For more information, including some pictures of filming, see the Spooks page.

Robin Hood series 2 DVD in UK - The region 2 DVD boxset will be released on 3rd November. It's now available for pre-order at Amazon UK.

United Agents' address change - Richard Armitage's agents, United Agents, have moved to new offices in Lexington St. See the About the site page for the new address to which letters to him can now be sent.

Robin Hood series 3 - The BBC has announced that Jonas Armstrong, who plays Robin Hood, will be leaving the show at the end of the third series. According to both the BBC's press release and a report in the Daily Telegraph, this doesn't necessarily mean that the third series will be the last. This series, which won't be seen in the UK and the USA until 2009, is currently being filmed in Budapest.

Richard Armitage will again be playing Guy of Gisborne. He recently revealed that two new characters are joining the show during this series - Guy of Gisborne's sister Isabella, played by newcomer Lara Pulver, and Prince John, played by Toby Stephens, who is said to be producing a series-stealing performance.

Also joining the show are David Harewood, who will play Friar Tuck, and Joanne Froggatt, playing a Locksley village girl who will join Robin's band of outlaws.

See the Robin Hood series 3 page for more information about the new series.

Entertainment Weekly - The Popwatch blog of the on-line edition of the American magazine Entertainment Weekly recently published a new interview with Richard Armitage in which he answered questions posted by visitors to the blog earlier. It includes some exclusive information about series 3 of Robin Hood.

BBC America interview - Richard Armitage was recently interviewed for BBC America about Robin Hood, and several extracts from the interview can be seen online, as follows;

BBC America showed a 30 second "Inside Look" at Guy of Gisborne during a commercial break in a recent episode of Robin Hood. Richard Armitage talked briefly about Gisborne. See the clip....

Four more "Inside Look" features can be seen on the BBC America website; about Guy, Episode 11, Episode 12, and Episode 13.

Two longer extracts from the interview can be seen on You Tube here... and here...

And finally, members of the BBC America Robin Hood messageboard were asked to post questions for Richard about Robin Hood. In another extract from the interview which is also on the BBC America website, he answered some of those questions.

George Gently DVD in North America and the UK - A Region 1 DVD of George Gently is due for release in the autumn. It's available for pre-order at Amazon USA and Amazon Canada (release date 11th November). A Region 2 DVD can now be pre-ordered from Amazon UK, but the release date is given as 1st June 2009.

The Lords of the North audiobook - Richard Armitage's recording of Bernard Cornwell's The Lords of the North for The Audiobook Collection continues to be one of their bestselling titles. Their latest newsletter shows it in fifth place in their Top Ten.

The Lords of the North is the third of Cornwell's 'Saxon Stories', a series of novels about King Alfred the Great and his descendants. See The Lords of the North page for more information about this audiobook, and for links to buy it.

Listen to an excerpt from the first chapter...

Robin Hood series 2 DVD - The Region 2 boxset of the second series of Robin Hood has just been released North America. A Region 4 boxset was recently released in New Zealand.

See this page for further details and links to order these boxsets.

The set includes commentaries on some of the episodes by the cast and crew, including Richard Armitage, Gordon Kennedy, Lucy Griffiths and Sam Troughton.

There's also a feature about the making of Robin Hood, and short features about Marian and her father. See this page for some excerpts.

Recent online interviews with Richard Armitage - Sir Guy of Gisborne has won RedEye's Most Popular Character [on American TV] contest. It was a knockout tournament, with characters from American TV programmes voted for by visitors to the RedEye Show Patrol website. Richard Armitage spoke to Curt Wagner about Gisborne's success in the poll, about series 3 of Robin Hood, and about leather trousers... The interview and a short audio clip of Richard can be found on the Show Patrol blog.

Earlier, two other interviews with Richard Armitage were published on the Web as part of the publicity for the new series of Robin Hood on BBC America.

In an interview with Show Patrol, a Chicago-based online blog, he discusses the character of Gisborne, working with Dawn French, and his new role in Spooks (MI-5)

And in his interview with Daemon's TV, he talks about Gisborne in series 2, with a few hints about series 3. He also discusses Spooks and other aspects of his career.

Forthcoming work

Richard's next project is Spooks, to be transmitted this autumn on BBC One, starting in late October. He plays MI5 officer Lucas North in the popular long-running drama series about Britain's security intelligence agency.

He is now in Hungary filming the third series of Robin Hood, in which he again plays Sir Guy of Gisborne. This will be seen in the UK early in 2009.

Apparently...

31st July 2008 Apparently, Richard Armitage was arrested on the streets of Budapest last night and is being held on charges of 'fan abandonment'. He is facing a litigation and libel charges in which he used the term "Spokesperson for Mr Armitage". The Spokesperson for Mr Armitage said "As spokeperson for Mr Armitage, I have to deny all charges. Mr Armitage refused to comment saying: "ask the Spokesperson I don't have a brain"

5th August 2008 Apparently, in a bizarre turn of events, RA has been rearrested by the Kolbasz counter in a well know Hungarian Supermarket. He is being held on litigation and libel charges for attempting to defraud the public.

A Hungarian bystander who witnessed the arrest said, in Hungarian, "it was terrible , the poor man had armfuls of Kolbasz in various shapes and sizes and the Police just tackled him to the ground."

RA is being held under the controversial '365 day Showbiz detainment bill'. He is charged with never actually writing any of the messages posted on any web site, ever.

Gagged from speaking publicly about anything, ever, and voluntarily refusing to comment, RA said:

"Its not true, I always wrote everything myself. I even put in bad grammar, spelling and inappropriate humour to appear more down to earth." RA was dragged from his interrogation screaming that he had an English degree.

Professors of English from Oxford, have been brought in to examine the archives of said messages, in a bid to get to the bottom of RA's claims.

"If he really is as clever as he says we'll find out" but an preliminary examination of the material suggests that the poor content, style and mundane subject matter, along with the grammatical errors would be impossible to fake.