Welcome to RichardArmitageOnline.comThis is an unofficial website about the work of the British actor Richard Armitage, star of BBC Spooks, Robin Hood, North and South and The Vicar of Dibley.
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 his comments about his characters, taken from published interviews. Navigate to any of his roles from the menu at the top of the page, or go to the Television Career, Film Career, Theatre Career or Voice Career pages and follow the links from there. Also see... - News (below)
This site is an Amazon.co.uk Associate and a BookDepository.co.uk Affiliate, and all commission earned from sales referred from the site will be donated to charity. If you follow any of the links on this site to Richard Armitage's DVDs or audiobooks at Amazon UK I hope you enjoy looking around and will visit again soon. Annette
News
There's also an interview with Richard Armitage about the series. He says, "Deception and betrayal are key. Of course there are also exciting and intriguing stories of the week but the overall series arc really unravels the character of Lucas North and blows his whole world apart. His loyalty and his future at MI5 are all under the microscope." He also introduces the new characters joining the Grid, and the Government, in this series, and reveals that after Ros's death, Lucas becomes head of Section D.
Surgery School A documentary series about ten high-flying trainee surgeons, Surgery School, begins on ITV1 on Monday 6th September at 10.35pm. The three episodes follow the ups and downs of their first year of training. In some listings, Richard is listed as the narrator for the second episode,although it's likely that he's narrating the whole series.
Strike Back repeated Sky 1 is to repeat the first series of Strike Back, starting on Sunday 12th September.
Sky Sports adverts Richard Armitage is currently providing the voiceover for television and radio advertisements for the Sky Sports channels. They're part of a campaign fronted by Eric Cantona that includes posters on advertising hoardings in London and elsewhere. Two television advertisements can be seen on SkySports' YouTube channel - the first advertisement, and the second, entitled "The Word".
The Convenient Marriage reviewed Sue Arnold reviewed Richard Armitage's recording of The Convenient Marriage in The Guardian (14th August). She didn't comment on Richard's reading of the novel, but said of the author, "What distinguishes Georgette Heyer from that other doyenne of romantic escapism, Barbara Cartland, is her intelligence. Her heroines aren't silly, they're charming.... Heyer makes you laugh and long to be in love all over again."
Spooks 7 in Sweden Kanal Nio begins showing series 7 of Spooks, in which Richard Armitage joined the cast, on Thursday 12th August at 21:00 CET. The showing begins with the first two episodes. George Gently in Sweden Kanal Nio will be showing George Gently on Tuesday 10th August at 21:00, repeated on Sunday 15th August at 12:45.
Strike Back second series confirmed The Guardian (2nd August) reported that Stuart Murphy, Sky 1's Director of Programmes, has commissioned a ten-part second series of Strike Back. According to Digital Spy (2nd August) the series is likely to be broadcast in late 2011. Speaking on behalf of Left Bank Pictures, the production company that makes Strike Back, executive producer Andy Harries said, "Sky are leading the market with confidence. This is the kind of commission that gives Left Bank Pictures the opportunity to push boundaries and take the series into the international marketplace. Elaine Pyke [Sky1 head of drama] and Stuart Murphy recognise that British drama is a huge asset and their belief and commitment in UK production companies is to be applauded." Earlier, the Daily Mirror (28th July) reported unofficially that there would be a second series. It quoted 'an insider' on the show as saying that although part of series 2 will be shot in South Africa, the new stories will take John Porter further afield, possibly to South America, the USA and Europe. The first series, set in Iraq, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Pakistan, was filmed in South Africa. The intention had always been to make more than one series if possible. Speaking at a public screening of the first two episodes at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in London in April, Andy Harries said, "There's no end of potential places John Porter could go."
Cold Feet in Australia Series 5 of Cold Feet, in which Richard Armitage played the life guard Lee, is being repeated on ABC2 at 9.30pm on Sunday evenings. Episodes can also be seen on the ABC's iView.
One of Heyer's historical romances, it's set in the late 18th century and tells the story of the "convenient marriage" between young Horatia Winwood and the much older and more experienced Earl of Rule. The path from the couple's union of convenience to mutual love and understanding is told with Heyer's customary warmth and good humour. As with Richard's previous audiobooks for Naxos, Sylvester and Venetia, it's an enjoyable listen. He brings the characters of the novel to life with a wide variety of voices, equally at home with young girls and gossipy women, highwaymen and Macaronis. Naxos has kindly made available a four minute extract from the beginning of the recording. And in this interview, also courtesy of Naxos, Richard discusses the reading of the audiobook. He talks about the importance of music in his life and in his acting, both on film and in reading audiobooks. He describes the progression of the spoken word into the sung word. "As a character becomes more animated, so the vibration in their speech grows, and eventually you go into song." He continues, "It's very useful for characterising voices, because you almost have to sing certain voices, particularly in this book - I think Horatia has a certain musical vibration in her voice." The audiobook can be ordered directly from Naxos Audiobooks, either on CD or as a download. The CDs can also be ordered from Amazon UK More information about the audiobook...
Like the last series, it told the stories of the disasters that house owners have suffered. See the Homes From Hell page for a video clip from the series.
New Santander advert A third advertisement for Santander voiced by Richard Armitage has recently started running on British television. It can be seen at the visit4info website.
Strike Back in Australia The ABC has bought the rights to screen Strike Back. As reported on Mumbrella, they intend to screen it later this year. Strike Back in Canada Canwest has announced that it's to broadcast Strike Back in November. The series will be shown on Fridays at 10pm, starting on 11th November. Spooks 9 interview A journalist from TV.com's website (among others) interviewed Richard Armitage about the new series of Spooks on 25th June. TV.com's interview won't be published until September, but she tweeted a picture.
Robin Hood 3 in Australia ABC 2 began broadcasting the final series of Robin Hood on 1st May. Dianne Butler of the Herald Sun (28th April) commented on its return. In The Age's Green Guide (29th April) preview of the week's television, Michael Idato called it "sharp, irreverent and polished." Tim Elliott commented on episode 2 in The Age's Green Guide (6th May). He described the series as "adequately produced and good fun, with a cracking schedule of sword fights and other pieces of derring-do. But there is something unmistakably camp about it." To mark episode 3, The Herald's TV Guide carried an interview with Richard Armitage about the third series. And Melinda Houston in The Age's Green Guide (27th May) professed herself delighted with Guy of Gisborne's return in episode 5. But the Herald Sun (9th June) bemoaned the fact that "Robin Hood seems to have lost his way, somewhere in Sherwood Forest... Not as merry as it was." However, the Sydney Morning Herald's The Guide (7th-13th June) gave the same episode the thumbs up, describing the series as "a guilty pleasure", while in The Age's Green Guide (10th June), Paul Kalina pointed out that "it's often the villain the audiences remember best.... Full marks to Toby Stephens as the sadistic yet foppish Prince John, Richard Armitage as the duplicitous, callous and tortured Guy of Gisborne, and Lara Pulver as Isabella." Previewing episode 8 in The Age's Green Guide (17th June) Bridget McManus said, "If Shakespeare had needed to earn a bit of extra crust writing scripts for a TV serial about the adventures of the Sherwood Forest gang, it might have looked something like this. Loaded with high drama, treachery and betrayal, with jesters for neatly spaced comic relief, and scheming, lustful maidens, Robin Hood is a delightful romp through a well-worn tale that's pleasing on the eye and exciting to the last." In the Herald Sun (16th June), Dianne Butler proclaimed Robin Hood the gayest show on television, citing Guy of Gisborne's experiments with eyeliner (among other things) in support of her case. In previews of episode 9, the series is described as "slick" in The Sun Herald's TV Guide (20th June) and also in Sacha Molitorisz's columns in both the Sydney Morning Herald's The Guide (21st-27th June) and also The Age's Green Guide (24th June). The Region 4 DVD of the series was be released on 1st July. It can be ordered at the ABC shop.
Jewellery adverts Richard has recorded two radio advertisements for jewellery. The first is for palladium jewellery, and the second is for platinum jewellery. They've been heard on Heart FM Bedford, advertising a Bedford jewellers, John Bull.
BAFTA report Sharon Marshall reported from the BAFTAs on ITV's This Morning on 7th June. Richard Armitage was among those she spoke to on the red carpet before the ceremony. Watch...
The eighth series of Spooks was nominated in the category of Best Drama Series, but the award went to Channel 4's Misfits. Spooks has been nominated five times for the Best Drama Series award, and won it for its first series in 2002. These awards are the most important of the year in British television, and the ceremony, presented this year by Graham Norton, is attended by the cream of the industry. See Picture 24 at the BAFTA website's gallery for a photo of Richard arriving at the ceremony.
More from Sunday Express interview On 2nd May, the Sunday Express published an interview with Richard Armitage by David Stephenson, the Express's TV critic. Stephenson had previously posted parts of his audio recording of the interview online. But he has now placed a 25 minute recording of the whole interview on his blog. Richard discusses Strike Back and Porter's character at some length, but the interview also touches on other areas, and it's a fascinating listen. On his blog, Stephenson describes Richard as "a thoughtful, intelligent, sensitive actor... Armitage, a gentleman, didn’t disappoint in the chat."
Comparing John Porter and Lucas North he says, "Porter is what Lucas wishes he could be – SAS men get to go all over the world and operate in deep cover, while in Spooks we only get to walk up The Mall and go onto a few London rooftops. Lucas would love to be shooting out of an aircraft." Asked if he himself is a macho man, he says, "I’m probably more of a new man. I’m not particularly alpha. ‘Nourish and nurture’ are my watchwords as opposed to ‘search and destroy’. I kept asking myself why on earth have they asked me to play this character, rather than someone who’s really hard. But I suppose it’s because I bring something softer to the character."
Strike Back viewing figures The Guardian (6th May) reported that the first two episodes of Strike Back on 5th May were watched by more than three times as many viewers as Sky usually achieves in these time slots. The first episode had 398,000 viewers (1.7% share) while the second episode reached 370,000 viewers (2.1% share). Episodes 3 and 4, first shown on 12th May, got audiences of 337,000 (1.4% share) and 294,000 (1.5% share) respectively, according to The Guardian (13th May). The audiences for episodes 5 and 6, broadcast on 19th May, were 386,000 (1.7% share) and 386,000 (2.3% share) respectively, as reported by Digital Spy.
Strike Back location manager interview and Behind the Scenes pictures TV.com has an interview with Jaco Espach, the location manager for Strike Back. A series of photos of the filming can be seen on the same page. Asked about the best location used in Strike Back, he said, "The Basra safe house that features at the beginning of the first episode was a great location. It was actually situated in a suburb of Johannesburg called Yeoville. It had great architecture for the fact that it was supposed to be in Iraq. There were somewhere in the region of 50 occupants living in that building and we filmed there in both day and night so it was quite a challenge logistically."
Strike Back reviews Episodes 3 and 4 of the series have attracted some more reviews. In the Metro, a free newspaper, Keith Watkins said, "It was a bold move to spin a plot around an assassination attempt on Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe but it paid off. It gave a sharp tang of reality to the politicking mix, double-crossing flip-flopping back and forth between the personal and the political. It also gave Armitage the opportunity to do more than scowl manfully, his blokey banter with Shaun Parkes, as the sniper he sprung from prison, offering some light relief amid all the macho posturing.... It already seems a shame that Strike Back is only around for another week. Expect it to be back." Dan's Media Digest said, "Exactly like last week's double-bill, these two episodes were similarly heightened realities of occasionally broad and clichéd moments, but also undeniably enjoyable and fantastically-paced. A prison escape and its ensuing manhunt is inherently compelling drama, no matter how many times you've seen it done before, and the African location shooting definitely helped give the story a sense of freshness. Strike Back's unoriginal and frayed around the edges, but it's also a comfortably engaging drama with plenty going on to keep you watching and entertained... Armitage makes for an enjoyable if thinly-drawn hero, the storyline's links to real-world concerns give it a certain edge, there are genuinely exciting sequences every 10-minutes, and plenty to giggle at in-between (like a snake-in-a-bag door trap.)" The IndieLondon, while admitting that "elements of the story did grate and stretch credibility to breaking point," also said that "For the most part, this was superbly well put together with the sun-baked African locations providing an unforgiving backdrop to the action taking centre stage. The battle of wits between Armitage’s Porter and Andrew Lincoln’s Hugh Collinson continued to build nicely, and served as a nice simmering back story, while the camaraderie that gradually built between Porter and Masuku was pretty good fun... there’s no denying the quality of the action, during which Strike Back really comes alive. Indeed, it’s then that the central characters are really put through their paces, as loyalties, motives and ethics are tested in the thick of the fight."
The Scotsman (7th May) is less impressed, but concludes, "It's hokum, all right, but polished, watchable hokum. And at least Ross Kemp isn't in it." Reviews in the Sunday papers (9th May) are rather negative, in particular The Observer and the Independent on Sunday, although in the latter, Rhiannon Harries admits that she "sort of enjoyed it". In the Sunday Times, AA Gill concedes that, "It all zips along at a fine old pace, keeping the tension as taut as a Wag’s G-string, with just enough violence and pyrotechnics; and while the script is the full rucksack of military clichés, and the plot runs on rails as familiar as your commute home, if this is a genre you like, then it’s pretty damn good." A number of websites also review Strike Back, including On The Box, Indie London, Arts Desk, The Medium is not Enough, the Sunday Sun Blog and Obsessed with Film.
Radio Times TV drama feature The Radio Times (8th-14th May) carried a six page feature about the current state of British television drama. Kathryn Flett, TV critic of The Observer, questioned the widespread belief that the Golden Age of British drama is long gone, arguing that in spite of budget cuts in the television industry, a new generation of writers and independent producers is making drama as fine as that of the golden years of the 60s, 70s and early 80s. Several leading British actors are asked for their views, among them, Richard Armitage, who said "Deep down, I'm searching for another North and South." The feature was prompted by a series of events in May and June at the British Film Institute in London called 'Second Coming: The Rebirth of TV Drama', which showcases some of the best British television drama from the last decade.
Interview in the Daily Mail Another interview with Richard, this time in the Daily Mail (7th May). Interview in The Stage Richard is interviewed in The Stage (6th May). It's an expanded version of the article on 22nd April, in which he spoke of the possibility of appearing on stage later this year in a production of Aphra Behn's The Rover.
Strike Back reviews The first two episodes of Strike Back received mixed reviews in the papers on 6th May. Tom Sutcliffe in The Independent was dismissive, while Sam Wollaston in The Guardian also had some criticisms, but admitted that he enjoyed it. The Daily Telegraph's John Preston said that it was "a slick affair, crisply directed by Daniel Percival, scripted with considerable sharpness by Jed Mercurio and full of belting action sequences." In The Times, Andrew Billen said, "[Richard Armitage] 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." The Metro said, "Richard Armitage is perfectly cast as conflicted anti-hero John Porter, a soldier troubled by secrets from the past. With pumped-up pecs and buttoned-down emotions, you can read pretty much what you like into Armitage’s moody scowl. There was a skin-crawling bit where, in the midst of rescuing a female Sky News hostage, he suddenly turned into a patronising knight in shining armour but mostly his turn as haunted hero hit the mark."
Feature in Sky Magazine The May edition of Sky Magazine devotes its front cover to Strike Back, and has a three page feature which includes interviews with Richard Armitage and Orla Brady. (The magazine is only available to Sky subscribers - it isn't available in newsagents.) Richard reveals the tough training he underwent to get fit for the role. "I've always trained, and I thought I ws really fit before, but nothing like this! There was a lot of physical training, which I started back in May last year. Filming Spooks is demanding, but nowhere near as physical as this." Of his character John Porter, he says, "He's a damaged hero - but he's got to be. If he's all hero, then he's not appealing. You have to look for the hero and then find what makes him weak. The failings are what make him human." The interview can also be seen on the interactive version of the magazine, available at the Sky Magazine Live website. This version has an animated cover as well as the interview (with a preview of Strike Back) on pages 4/5. And on pages 2/3, Richard presents an introductory video to the interactive magazine.
Interview on Digital Spy Richard was interviewed for the Digital Spy website about Strike Back and Spooks on 5th May. Interview in The Guardian Vicky Frost interviewed Richard Armitage about Strike Back in The Guardian's TV & Radio Blog on 5th May. Interview in Northern Echo Richard is interviewed about Strike Back in the Northern Echo (5th May).
Radio interviews about Strike Back Richard did several radio interviews about Strike Back on 4th May. These included the Hawksbee and Jacobs show on talkSport (listen...), the Scott Mills show on BBC Radio 1 (listen... ), and the Richard Bacon show on BBC Radio 5 Live (listen...).
Strike Back previews in the papers There were half-page advertisements for Strike Back in 5th May issues of The Guardian, The Independent, Daily Telegraph, The Times, Scottish Daily Record, Daily Mirror, Daily Star and Sun.
Article in Metro The free newspaper Metro (4th May) carried an article about Strike Back, with an interview with Andrew Lincoln. Strike Back previews in Sunday papers Strike Back featured in several of Sunday's papers (2nd May). It was Pick of the Day or Pick of the Week in the Observer, Independent on Sunday, Sunday Times, Sunday Mirror, News of the World and Mail on Sunday, which also carried a short article. The Sunday Express had an interview with Richard Armitage by TV critic David Stephenson, who also posted a recording of the interview on his blog.
Strike Back previews in Saturday papers Strike Back was Pick of the Day, Pick of the Week or Digital Choice in Saturday's Guardian, Independent, Times, Telegraph, Sun, Daily Express and Daily Mail (1st May).
More Strike Back coverage Frost magazine has an article about Strike Back, which includes some comments from Richard Armitage. TV.com previews the series, and is impressed. And there's another video report from the premiere at Talk Talk.
Interview in FHM The men's monthly magazine FHM carries an interview with Richard aboutStrike Backin its June issue. Interview at AOL The AOL UK website carries an interview with Richard Armitage, again talking about Strike Back, and comparisons with Spooks. Andy Welch interviewed him during filming of Spooks earlier in the week, while he was "about to go and break into a Chinese Embassy... ".
Behind the scenes trailer Sky's Strike Back microsite now includes a three minute trailer about the series, which includes contributions from the director Dan Percival, Richard Armitage and Colin Salmon. Among other recent additions is a video about John Porter, in which Richard and others talk about the character.
Readers Digest interview There's a long interview with Richard Armitage in the UK edition of the Readers Digest (May 2010). Shortlist interview The free weekly paper Shortlist (29th April) has an interview with Richard Armitage about Strike Back. Report from the set of Spooks There's an article at the TV Choice website about a visit to the set of the new series of Spooks, currently being filmed in London. Very little is given away about what's to come, except that there are "big surprises in store" for Richard Armitage's character, Lucas North.
Interview at TV.com Richard Armitage is interviewed about Strike Back at the TV.com website. Asked about the similarities between John Porter and Lucas North, he said, "It's probably because of Lucas that someone had me in mind for this character, but I removed them from the situation and try to look at them as universal figures. John's situation, his search for atonement, is not something that is necessarily specific to the military so it can apply to everyone in any situation. Then you put them back into their environment and then start playing them. I think that, in a way, John is a very broad canvas for anybody that feels that some sort of injustice has happened to them and is searching for an exit. "
Chris Ryan in the Daily Telegraph There's an interview with Chris Ryan in the Daily Telegraph (28th April), in which he talks about his experience as an SAS soldier. Ryan wrote the novel on which the TV series of Strike Back is based, and the interview provides an interesting background to the drama. Many of his experiences, for example the PSTD he suffered, are woven into the character of John Porter.
Interview in The Times Richard Armitage is interviewed in The Times's 'Body and Soul' section, 27th April. He talks about how he keeps fit and healthy. He says, "If I wasn't doing this job, looks wouldn't matter to me. But acting makes me more conscious of aging. I didn't like the way I looked when I was younger. I wanted to have a nose job. But now I think I have grown into my face." He continues, "Confidence is manufactured. It comes with experience, I wasn't confident at all when I was younger.The first time I went to drama school and got through a full reading of a Shakespeare play, I gained a lot of confidence. I lost control of myself and became the character. Acting on screen doesn't give you the same chance to do that, as there are so many takes."
TV Choice (1st-7th May) and TV Quick (1st-7th May) also have features. Best (4th May) has a short feature which includes pictures of many of Richard's previous roles, while men's magazine Nuts (30th April-6th May) has a two page spread of pictures from the series. The Radio Times (1st-7th May) carries an article by Chris Ryan, the author of the novel on which Strike Back is based, in which he writes about war and his time in the SAS. The series is chosen as the magazine's Pick of the Day. Smaller mentions of Strike Back appear in many other magazines, including What's on TV (1st-7th May) and Inside Soap (1st-7th May), both of which interview Richard's co-star, Andrew Lincoln, as well as TV Times (1st-7th May), TV Easy (1st-7th May), Woman's Own (3rd May), Woman (3rd May), Closer (1st-7th May), and Reveal (1st-7th May). Many of the television magazines choose it as a Pick of the Day. Claire Webb in the Radio Times says, "Boasting a battalion of top-notch actors, this six-parter is ambitious, with the double episodes as beefy as the star... it'll soon have you hooked." Charolotte Richards in Woman describes it as "a cracking good story". Closer's Susanna Galton says it's "gripping, gritty, great TV." And Total TV Guide commends its "movie-style production values, top directing talent and a star line-up. There's something for everyone in this drama." Time Out (29th April-5th May) is less impressed, although it admits that "it holds the attention."
Interview in Daily Express Richard Armitage and Orla Brady are interviewed for a feature about Strike Back in the 'Saturday' magazine of the Daily Express (24th April). Richard says, "I think what attracted me to Strike Back was the idea of taking an established genre - action - and trying to find something different inside this character. It was about the challenge of trying to locate the human being inside the killing machine."
Interviews from the Strike Back premiere Some short snippets of interviews with Richard Armitage at the Strike Back premiere in Leicester Square last week can be seen on the Getty Images website. On the ambition of Strike Back... On the challenges of working on a war epic... On the possibility of becoming James Bond... He's also interviewed in a report on the Daily Express website.
Richard Armitage on stage? In an interview published in The Stage (22nd April) Richard says that he hopes to return to the theatre after filming on the ninth series of Spooks ends in July. The most likely option is a new production of Aphra Behn's Restoration comedy, The Rover, a project which he says is still in development. His last major role on stage was in the 2000/1 RSC production of The Duchess of Malfi. But he says he's keen to do more comedy work, after working on several action series on television in recent years. He said of The Rover, "I did it at drama school, and it's something that has come back on the horizon for me. It would be a great big bawdy romp through a carnival with lots of sex and naughtiness. It would be very different for me."
Interviews with PA The Press Association has released two short items which include interviews with Richard Armitage. In the first item, about Strike Back, he talks about the pressure he feels in portraying an SAS soldier in a story written by someone who was actually an SAS soldier himself. "It's useful because I can go to the book in search of the truth and find the military character, but trying to recreate that for his eyes is always going to be difficult, and knowing that there are a lot of Army guys out there that may watch this, you've always got that in your head." The second item is about Spooks. He reveals that "what's really interesting about Lucas this year is he's much less physical than he has been in the past, it's almost as if, and not through choice, John's been out there doing all the fighting, and Lucas is back engaging the cerebrum, if you see what I mean." He added, "It's a very interesting juxtaposition and I quite like that I've now got both those characters under my belt."
Strike Back lives up to its billing as a major new drama for Sky. Made with high production values, it's cinematic in scale - indeed, Elaine Pyke said that the use of HD was intended to help create a cinematic experience in people's own homes. It's well-paced, and ultimately nail-biting, but it has quieter moments amongst all the action. It's inevitably violent in places, but it works well as a piece of drama with many excellent performances, not only from Richard Armitage as former SAS officer John Porter, but also from Andrew Lincoln, Jodhi May and Orla Brady. Elaine Pyke said that in commissioning Strike Back, she wanted "a heroic piece", something that would sit alongside Sky acquisitions like 24. Andy Harries said that it was a quintessentially British drama, but with the ambition of American drama series, the kind of drama not attempted these days on British television. In the current climate, he felt, only Sky could have made a series like this, which was one reason why he took the idea to Sky rather than to the BBC or ITV. The producers had a long search to find an actor to play Porter, even looking in the USA. Richard Armitage very nearly missed the chance to play the role, as he was unavailable when the series was first scheduled to be filmed. However, the shoot had to be delayed and by that time he was free, having finished filming on Spooks' eighth series. As Andy Harries said, at that point "he became a natural choice for us". Harries had worked with him in Cold Feet, and thought he was "fantastic" in Spooks. However, he commented that Richard, whom he described as "wonderful" as Porter, had drawn a line between what he did in Spooks and what he did in Strike Back. He said he took the role very seriously, "he really worked on it" - and that included working out to achieve the necessary bulk for an action hero. He added that Richard "brought a northern gruffness and gentleness to the role." Dan Percival also praised his performance, which he felt portrayed a character of both strength and vulnerability. He mentioned a scene in which Porter, having resigned in disgrace from the SAS in 2003, is reduced to begging for a job from the man he helped to rescue. He stands in a corridor, nervously trying to 'sell himself' to this man, reading from notes he's scrawled on a piece of paper which he holds in a visibly trembling hand. "Powerful, affecting, and moving too," said Percival of the scene. He described Porter as "a blue-collar hero, low tech, low rent." He said that Porter isn't driven by patriotism or duty, but by "morality and his own motives, his own sense of guilt and search for atonement." It's this that has produced a three dimensional character, set in a drama which tackles, in a thrilling way, big human themes, he added. The producers have high hopes of Porter becoming "a major character" in more adventures. "There's no end of potential places John Porter could go," said Harries. According to Elaine Pyke, Chris Ryan, who was an advisor on the series, is thrilled with the adaptation of his novel, even though changes have inevitably been made to bring it to the screen (the character of Collinson, for example, was changed considerably). BBC Worldwide (who part financed it, along with Sky and Ingenious Media) took the series to the industry's MIP TV event at Cannes the previous week, where it sold well.
Explaining why he wanted to play Porter, he said, "I wanted to take this character, which reads as an action hero, and turn him into something else. The challenge is to make him appealing to people who don't necessarily like this genre of film and television. Trying to mine something new from this and trying to put a human being inside this type of character is what attracted me to it."
Reactions to Strike Back After the premiere last week, comments about the show have begun appearing in the media. Michael Conroy, TV Editor of GQ (a men's magazine) said of it, "excellent cinematography, stellar performances and a surprisingly balanced global perspective makes this story of two former British SAS soldiers a thoroughly enjoyable action romp." And Dean Piper, writing in the Sunday Mirror, said, "Strike Back is the newest Sky1 show to blow me away. Think 24 crossed with Spooks and Hurt Locker. It's big budget, full of twists and keeps you gripped."
Richard Armitage was interviewed for a short video report on the premiere that can be seen at The Independent's website. He said of his character, John Porter, "He starts off as somebody that’s absolutely black and white, by the book, top of his field and then it starts to fall apart. He makes an error of judgement (it’s seen as an error of judgement by the people he works for) and it falls out as ending his career. He goes on a journey of atonement looking for the reasons why that happened, within himself, and in the world that he’s working in, because he always believes he made the right judgement."
Strike Back in The Sun There was a small feature about Strike Back in The Sun's TV Mag (10th April). Richard Armitage talked about the training for the role, and about having to bulk up for it. "I'm now obsessed with food. I keep having to run off set to fill my face with sandwiches!" he said. Strike Back in TV & Satellite Week The issue dated 10th-16th April carried a short article about Strike Back in its Coming Soon section.
Spooks in The Sun There's a little snippet about Spooks in The Sun (31st March), which says that in the next series, now being filmed in London, Lucas North (Richard Armitage) becomes "embroiled in a dark secret that leads to the ultimate betrayal".
Forthcoming workIn September, Richard will return to BBC One as Lucas North in the ninth series of Spooks. And in late 2011, the second series of Strike Back will be broadcast.
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Spooks 8 DVD The release date for the region 2 DVD boxset of 
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More Strike Back reviews John Lloyd, writing in the 
Screenrush interview Richard Armitage talks about 
Strike Back in the weekly and TV magazines Articles and interviews with the Strike Back cast appear in many of the weekly and television magazines published on 27th April. Richard Armitage appears on the front cover of 
Strike Back premiere at BAFTA The first two episodes of Strike Back were given a public premiere at BAFTA's Princess Anne cinema in London on 19th April. They were shown back to back, forming a 90 minute film which tells the story of Chris Ryan's novel (the remaining four episodes tell two more stories based around the same characters). The screening was followed by a discussion between the director Dan Percival, the executive producers, Elaine Pyke (Sky's Head of Drama) and Andy Harries (Chief Executive of the production company Left Bank Pictures), and James Rampton of The Independent.
Strike Back website Sky's website has now launched a 
Strike Back premiere The series was premiered at the Vue West End cinema in London on 15th April. Richard Armitage and other cast members attended. Pictures of their arrival can be seen on the