30th July

1. The BBC America blog Anglophenia are currently running a poll which puts Matthew Macfadyen and Richard Armitage up against each other for a bit of fun. You can vote here.

2. A second trailer for Strike Back: Project Dawn has appeared on Sky TV in the UK. Watch it on the Strike Back 2 page.

29th July

1. An early picture of Richard has appeared on a Star Wars autograph collecting site – click to view. Now added to the Miscellaneous gallery. This picture was received by the website owner in the year 2000.

2. Lots of wallpapers added to the site today, with thanks to Rossella and Teena:

• 1 Richard Armitage wallpaper by Rossella
• 5 Thorin wallpapers by Teena
• 2 Monet wallpapers by Teena

28th July

1. Some of you have already seen Captain America: The First Avenger and it is released around the world in the next few weeks: International Release Schedule. Please rate the movie in the poll on the left-hand side. I’ll keep this poll up for a few weeks. Previous poll results are here.

2. More pictures from the New York screening of Captain America, which Richard attended on 20 July have appeared on the VISA Signature Facebook page. They’ve been added to the NYC Screening gallery – pictures 20-32 are new.

27th July

1. The UK Premiere of Captain America will be held in Liverpool at the Odeon cinema at 7pm tonight. This is a charity screening for the North West Cancer Research Fund, which was founded in Liverpool. Further details on the Liverpool Echo site. There is no confirmation that any of the cast or crew are attending.

2. Empire magazine are running a feature showing the dwarves from The Hobbit in make-up alongside the actors who play them, with a short character and actor history. This is the Richard/Thorin page, page 6 of 6, but you can view the other pages from that link.

3. Gallery updates as follows. The new pictures are all extra large, so press ‘original image’ to see the full size. You may need to refresh your screen if you’ve visited the galleries recently.

• Golden Hour promotional images – #3, 4 and 5 are new and XL, with kind permission to display on this site by Sony Pictures Europe.
• New image added to the CA Premiere gallery – image #1 is new, source assignmentX.com
• Image #1 in the NYC Screening gallery is now much larger, click ‘original image’ to see full size. Source Visa Signature facebook page.
• Three larger and better quality images in the George Gently Promo gallery – #2, 6 and 9. Thanks to Izabelanna for finding these.

 

26th July

1. Gallery updates today as follows. If the galleries don’t display correctly, press F5 to refresh your screen (Ctrl-F5 on a Mac).

• Screencaps of the Captain America red carpet interview taken by Bccmee have been added to the CA Premiere gallery. See news 20 July to watch the two interviews on the red carpet in Hollywood.
• New Strike Back series 1 behind the scenes image (#11) added to the Behind the Scenes gallery, sourced by Bccmee.
• A new gallery added to the site – Strike Back Series 2 Promotional Pics. Source: Sky1 site.

2. Richard’s interview with the Scotsman which was published online yesterday, appeared in print on Saturday 23 July. Scans of the print edition are below with many thanks to Smithylass. Click to enlarge:

 

25th July

1. There is a detailed interview with Richard in The Scotsman online today. This article appeared in the magazine supplement of the print edition of The Scotsman, 23rd July. The interview covers a number of issues relating to the acting profession, including the level of detail involved in researching characters and why he is drawn to anti-heroes. And now…”I’m kind of indulging myself at the moment, doing loads of research, finding stuff that isn’t necessarily relevant, but it’s a luxury. This question people ask actors – ‘are you resting?’. It’s such a weird expression. I don’t think an actor can ever rest.”

Screenshots of the interview have been saved to the Interviews page and also below (click to enlarge and click again to read):

     

2. Today’s picture of the day was sourced by Jonia and has been added to the Lorraine interview 17 Sept 2010 gallery.

22nd July

1. An official photograph of all 13 dwarves together has been posted on The Hobbit Movie facebook page, showing Thorin/Richard in the centre of the image. This has been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery. If image #13 doesn’t appear at first, refresh your screen. Press ‘original image’ in the bottom right corner to see the full size, or click the image below:

2. Richard is interviewed in the Daily Telegraph today, due to his role in Captain America but the interview discusses other roles he has played in the past. He says: “I want to be strong enough to cope with the roles, but I don’t want to be cast as the guy that takes his shirt off. I’m looking forward to getting fat and old so I don’t have to lift weights.”

Online article here or scan below (click to enlarge):

21st July

1. Peter Jackson has published a third production video of The Hobbit on his Facebook page and it’s the best yet in terms of humour and action behind the scenes from the film. You do not need to be a member of Facebook to see the video. Richard Armitage appears a few times both in and out of dwarf costume, and it seems that Peter is currently in the UK filming at Pinewood Studios – a clue at the end of the video as to why he’s there. Screencaps from the video are in the Third Production Video gallery.

To see Richard-only parts of the video, with a transcription and closed captioning, go to Bccmee’s blog.

2. Richard was in New York last night at another screening of Captain America: The First Avenger at the AMC Lowes Lincoln Square theatre, with Hayley Atwell and Neal McDonough. The event was promoted by Visa Signature. Pictures are here in the NYC Screening gallery.

3. Update: There is a review of Strike Back 2 by On the Box, which on Thurs 21st included a huge spoiler about John Porter but today (Friday 22nd) it has been removed. Review of Strike Back 2

4. Heather and DiL have written a report after their red carpet experience at the Captain America Premiere on 19 July. Read it here. A gallery of Heather’s pictures are here. Thanks ladies!

20th July

1. Richard attended last night’s premiere of the movie at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, CA and two video interviews have been made available on the Marvel.com site (Richard appears at 2.46) and on the AP Live site (click the first clip under ‘Previous clips’, Richard’s interview appears at 3.52).

I’ve captured just the extracts of Richard which you can view or download here:

• AP Live Interview or watch on youtube below (thanks Bccmee)

Youtube clip

• Marvel Interview – poor audio in places. Alternatively, watch on youtube below (thanks Bccmee). Karyn has provided a transcript which you can download here (updated 12.00pm UK time).

Youtube clip

• Bccmee has good quality screencaps of the AP interview on her blog.

• HeathRA, who has contributed graphics & videos to this site, met Richard at the premiere yesterday in Los Angeles and will be sharing photographs with us all. Here’s a starter (click to enlarge):

• More pictures from the Premiere in the gallery with thanks to Cesta.

• Richard spoke to What’s On TV while at the premiere: “I play king of the dwarves, so it’s the first time I get to be smaller than other people,” the 6ft 2in tall actor joked.

2. The Hobbit Movie facebook page has made high resolution images of the dwarves available – all except Balin and Dwalin which I’m sure they will get hold of soon. Thorin is also available in extra large high res without any logos adorning the image. These pictures are now in the Hobbit Stills gallery. Note the old gallery format is back, but with some improvements. The new gallery didn’t display all the thumbnail images to make it easy to select a picture, nor were images loading properly on occasion, so it has been abandoned in favour of the old format once more.

3. Another small image I hadn’t noticed before on the iPad only Project magazine – the contents page makes reference to the fact that Richard is modelling winter coats:

4. The Sky1 main page introduces Strike Back series 2, with the focus solely on Richard Armitage. Apart from the picture on the main page, there are 4 more images when you click the link showing a battered and bruised Porter. No date yet when this is showing on Sky in the UK, but it is showing on HBO Canada and Cinemax in the US on August 12.

19th July

1. Liverpool is to host the charity film premiere of Captain America: The First Avenger on Wednesday 27th July and the Liverpool Echo has offered the chance to win VIP tickets to the event. Liverpool and Manchester provided the backdrop to several scenes in the film, including scenes with Richard Armitage playing Heinz Kruger – photos of him on location are toward the end of the Captain America page.  Thanks to Bee for the email.

2. There is now a 2011 birthday page on this site for you to leave 40th birthday messages to Richard if you so wish. This page will be open until the 22nd August and on that date messages will be passed to Richard’s agent. Click Birthday Tribute page on the main menu on the left, or click here. Thanks!

3. Thanks to Angelfish69 and Bccmee for these two wonderful Thorin Oakenshield wallpapers. Click the images to enlarge and save to your desktop.

4. A reminder from yesterday’s news that the Captain America premiere is in Hollywood tonight at 7pm local time, and Richard is rumoured to be attending. Watch live streaming via livestream.com or marvel.com.

5. Reelz channel in the US will be showing a behind the scenes promo on Saturday 23rd at 9.30am and 7.30pm called Captain America: Behind The Shield, which will include cast interviews and clips of the movie. Thanks to Lisa.

18th July

1. Miss Marple: Ordeal by Innocence will be shown on Saturday 30th July at 5.55pm on ITV3 and ITV3 HD in the UK. Richard plays Philip Durrant in this episode, also starring Geraldine McEwan, Alison Steadman and Denis Lawson.

2. Richard is listed as one of the attendees of the premiere of Captain America: The First Avenger in Hollywood, CA tomorrow night at 7pm here and here. While this is unconfirmed, his name was not on the Reuters site a few days ago.

Live streaming sites: livestream.com and marvel.com.

3. Theonering.net have posted a full length picture of Thorin Oakenshield with the rest of the company of dwarves – however this is a photoshop manipulation and not a true full length image of Thorin. I’ve put this image in the Hobbit Stills gallery and below. Once open, click again to enlarge to full size.

17th July

Vote on Richard’s look as Thorin in the poll on the left-hand side. Previous poll results are here.

Theonering.net have posted a picture of Richard as Thorin Oakenshield on their site. Here he is:

As a young Dwarf prince, Thorin witnessed the destruction and terror wrought when a great fire-breathing Dragon attacked the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor. After slaughtering many of Thorin’s kin, the great serpent, Smaug, entered The Lonely Mountain and took possession of its vast store of gold and jewels. No-one came to the aid of the surviving Dwarves, and thus, a once proud and noble race was forced into exile. Through long years of hardship, Thorin grew to be a strong and fearless fighter and revered leader. In his heart a fierce desire grew; a desire to reclaim his homeland and destroy the beast that had brought such misery upon his people. So when fate offers him an unusual ally, he seizes the chance for revenge.

Wallpapers of Thorin on his own and Thorin and the dwarves are available on Theonering.net’s site. There are links to multiple sizes just above the first picture of the rest of the dwarves. Here’s one of the wallpapers:

These images have been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery.

16th July

1. Richard has been interviewed for his role as Heinz Kruger in Captain America: The First Avenger, which has been uploaded on to the Trailer Addict site. He describes his character’s role in the movie and his motivation. Screencaps from the interview are in the CA Interview gallery. The video has been closed captioned with a transcript on Bccmee’s blog.

2. New wallpapers: Many thanks to Angelfish69, Heathra and Bccmee for the following:

• a Heinz Kruger wallpaper by Angelfish69 on the Other Characters wallpapers page
• a wallpaper using images from the Project magazine photoshoot by Heathra on the Richard Armitage wallpapers page.
• 2 wallpapers using images from the Project magazine photoshoot by Bccmee on the Richard Armitage wallpapers page.

3. Theonering.net’s Hobbit in 5 video, a roundup of the week’s Hobbit news, includes a character study of Thorin Oakenshield and an abridged summary of Richard’s career to date.

Youtube clip

4. There are a few seconds of Richard as Heinz Kruger in this behind the scenes clip of the Captain America shoot. Richard appears at 1.52. Thanks to Calexora for finding this. Click the image below to enlarge.

5. This advert appeared in the cinema I happened to be in this morning. It’s for the LG Optimus 3D smartphone and is on youtube:

Youtube clip

6. Joane has submitted an excellent pencil drawing of today’s picture of the day, which has been added to the Artwork page.

7. More pictures have been added to the Project magazine gallery, including the Contents page which I’m afraid I forgot to add before, sorry!

15th July

1. Issue 8 of Project Magazine has an interview with Richard in which he talks about Captain America and being cast in The Hobbit, as well as photos from a new photoshoot. Project Magazine is an iPad only magazine and can be ordered here. The UK issue costs £1.99. Since the magazine is for iPad there are videos of Richard as well as pictures, which cannot be extracted since they are part of the magazine app. The last 4 images are snapshots taken from the video files.

Spoiler warning for his role in Captain America.

You can also read the interview by clicking on these images below:

   

2. A picture of Balin (Ken Stott) and Dwalin (Graham McTavish) have been posted on TIME online. Only Thorin (Richard Armitage) left to see now! This new picture has been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery as well as an extra large high res version of the Fili & Kili picture. Click ‘download original’ to see the full size.

3. Two new pictures have been added to the Hobbit Press Conference gallery – #2 and #15 – and 3 images have been replaced with larger versions – #5, 6 and 11.

14th July

1. Peter Jackson posted a picture of Bombur, Bofur and Bifur on his facebook page last night, played by Stephen Hunter, James Nesbitt and William Kircher respectively. With any luck we’ll have Balin and Dwalin today and Thorin on Friday!

This picture has now been added, with the other dwarf images so far, to the Hobbit Stills gallery. To see each image in its full size, click ‘download original’ under each image and click on the image again to zoom in.

2. Three more high resolution stills have been added to the Captain America Stills gallery – #5, 6 and 8. Click ‘download original’ under each image to see the full size. Thanks to Bccmee for finding these and check out this site for 200 high resolution images from the film.

3. Five more images added to the Spooks Promo gallery as follows: series7-14, series8-12, series8-19, series9-18, series9-19.

4. Strike Back in New Zealand: the Prime channel is showing Strike Back series 1, the first episode aired this evening (Thurs) and episode 2 will be shown next Thursday at 8.30pm. The Dominion Post has a detailed write-up about the series with a new image of Richard from the Hobbit Press Conference – warning there is a spoiler about the ending of Spooks series 9 if you haven’t seen it yet.

13th July

1. Three new pictures of Richard as Heinz Kruger from Captain America: The First Avenger have been released on ComicBookMovie.com. Click each picture to enlarge. Thanks to Izabelanna.

All high resolution stills of Heinz Kruger are now in the Captain America Stills gallery.

2. Amazon France is releasing a french version of North and South on 2nd November 2011 at a cost of EU 24.99, and here is the front cover (click to enlarge). Thanks to Joane for the email.

12th July

1. More wallpapers have been added to the site as a result of a recent competition held on the C19 forum. The Richard wallpapers page shows 3 new wallpapers from Heathra, 1 from myself, 2 from Grendel and 2 from Angelfish69. Click on the thumbnail images to enlarge to the full size (or the links underneath for Heathra’s wallpapers).

Lots of icons and signatures added to the site today, as follows:

• 11 Richard icons: 7 by Grendel, 2 by Abigail, 1 by tpeej and 1 by ddhockey
• 6 Monet icons by Grendel
• 1 Richard signature by Abigail
• 1 Richard signature by me (#5)
• 1 Richard signature by Angelfish69 (#4)
• 2 Richard signatures by Grendel (#2 – 3)
• 10 Richard signatures by Heathra (#1-10)
• 2 Richard signatures by JaimeR (#1 – 2)
• 1 Richard signature by RA’s Rose
• 1 Richard signature and icon set by Yelloweeee
• 2 Monet signatures by Grendel

A new drawing of Lucas North by Joane has been added to the Artwork page.

Many thanks to all the ladies for sharing their lovely artwork on this site.

2. The region 1 DVD of Spooks series 9 is released today for those living in the United States and Canada. The current price on Amazon US is $28.99.

3. Peter Jackson has posted a picture of Kili (Aidan Turner) and Fili (Dean O’Gorman) from The Hobbit on his Facebook page. We’ve now seen 7 of the dwarves – 6 to go.

11th July

The premiere of Captain America: The First Avenger will take place on July 19th in Los Angeles. Richard is not listed as one of the attendees. More details on the Reuters site.

9th July

1. Peter Jackson has posted a second production video on his Facebook page, stating that the first block of shooting has finished and most of the cast and crew are taking a break. There is a brief chat with some cast members, including Richard, about what they will be doing on their break and then an insight into what is involved when location scouting around New Zealand.

To see the video in full HD, click on this link.

Pictures of Richard are in the Second Production Video gallery.

This video on youtube is also available to watch in HD. Click on the button that says ’360p’ and change to ’720p’ for HD quality, then click on the ‘full screen’ button in the bottom-right corner.

2. Entertainment Weekly has released a second Cinemax trailer for Strike Back (previously there has been a Cinemax trailer and a Sky trailer for the US and UK broadcasts respectively). Richard Armitage does not make an appearance in this trailer I’m afraid.

3. I’ve uploaded a Robin Hood series 2 outtake that was posted on youtube when the series was first broadcast, but apparently the youtube video is not available outside the UK. It’s now on the Robin Hood series 2 publicity page (video #7).

8th July

1. The twitter competition to win a region 2 DVD of The Impressionists has now closed. Congratulations to the winner @MrsBrichloos.

2. Strike Back: Project Dawn will be shown on HBO Canada on August 12th as well as on the same date on the Cinemax in the United States. I cannot provide a link to HBO Canada as the site is blocked to non-Canadian residents it seems. Thanks to Susmita.

3. After yesterday’s picture of Nori, Ori and Dori, today The Hobbit movie’s Facebook page has released pictures of Oin and Gloin, cousins of Thorin Oakenshield. Wonder if this means pictures will be forthcoming on a daily basis and soon we’ll be looking at Thorin?

4. This week the Hobbit in 5 video report on the latest news for The Hobbit film mentions the interview with Richard in Total Film. See news #1 4th July for more information and a scan of the magazine interview.

7th July

1. A scan of the full interview with Richard in the August issue of Total Film magazine is now on the Interviews page and on The Hobbit page.

2. Thank you for the emails about the poetry readings which have appeared on youtube recently. The poems are from the A War Less Ordinary radio broadcast in November 2007 and the Words and Music radio broadcast in September 2010. Follow the links for full extracts and the youtube clips are at the end of each page.

3. A picture of three of the dwarves from The Hobbit, Nori, Ori and Dori, has been posted on The Hobbit movie’s Facebook page. No picture of Richard as Thorin yet, apart from the blurry pic in Empire and Entertainment Weekly (see The Hobbit page). This latest picture of the 3 dwarves has been added to the Hobbit Stills gallery.

6th July

1. Epix News has a short interview with Richard on the set of Captain America, which is part of the youtube video below. Thanks to Izabelanna on twitter for finding this.

Youtube clip

Here’s some pictures (click to enlarge)

     

Bccmee has transcribed and closed captioned the video on her blog.

The pictures of Richard above have been added to the CA Trailer gallery.

2. The North and South Promo/behind the scenes gallery has been updated into the new gallery format and includes 3 new pictures scanned from the Classic Drama magazine (see yesterday’s news). The new pictures are #12, #17 and #29. Many of the pictures in this gallery are very large. Click ‘download original’ to see the full size.

5th July

1. BBC Entertainment in Europe and the Middle East will start showing Robin Hood series 3 on Saturdays at 7.10pm starting 23rd July. Thanks to Maya for the email.

2. Just added a scan of an old article from 2005 published in the Mail on Sunday’s You magazine on the Interviews page: ‘In a taxi with…Richard Armitage’.

3. New poll on the left-hand side asking how long you’ve been following Richard’s career, i.e. how long have you been a fan… but we hate the word fan Previous poll results are here.

4. In 2007, BBC Worldwide produced a magazine called Classic Drama and parts 6 & 7 were dedicated to the BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South. The complete series on DVD was included with the magazines. I’ve had an enquiry about this (on the RA on DVD page), so I’ve put details of how to order these back issues and some scans from the magazine on the North and South career page. UPDATE: I’m afraid the company only ships to the UK, Eire and via British Forces post (BFPO).

4th July

1. In his first interview for over six months, Richard is interviewed in the August issue of the UK magazine Total Film about working on The Hobbit. There is a short preview on their website and the full article will be out on Thursday 7th July when the magazine is for sale. A scan of the article will appear here, but in the meantime the preview is also on the Interviews page.

2. Between the Sheets is available to buy from Australian retailer JB HiFi for $28.99. Thanks to Julie for this info, who confirms that it does play in her region.

3. Robin Hood in France: series 2 starts on channel France 4 on Wednesday at 3.25pm.

4. There’s a summary of Strike Back 2 and also the first series in the Brazilian online magazine VEJA and also a poster for the second series (no mention of Richard). Here’s an English translation. Thanks to Ana Cris.

5. The picture of the day archive for June 2011 has been added to the Picture of the Day archive (under the Multimedia menu) on the left-hand side, or click here to download all the individual pictures.

6. A new series of Homes from Hell will be shown on Tuesday 12th July 9.00 – 10.00 on ITV1 and ITV1 HD, and it seems that Richard Armitage might be providing the voiceover. Locate TV has listed him as narrator.

7. Now that the site has reached 2000 followers on Twitter, I’ve launched a competition for one follower to win a brand new region 2 DVD of The Impressionists. Follow the timeline of @RAnetdotcom and reply to the tweet announcing the competition to enter. I tweeted about it once yesterday and today and will repeat the invitation to enter a few more times in the next few days until the closing date of Friday 8th July 12 noon (UK time). Thanks to all the 2000+ followers for sticking around!

2nd July

Richard has recorded another voiceover for Sky Sports promoting their new ‘Sky Go’ feature. It’s a very brief voiceover at the end of the advert and is now on the 2011 Advertisements page. Thanks to Harryslass on twitter.

1st July

1. Just added a new wallpaper of Richard by Heathra to the Richard Armitage wallpapers page. There are 3 sizes, so click the size you’d like and right-click (Ctrl-click on a Mac) and choose ‘Set as Wallpaper/Desktop Background’ if you want to admire it further!

2. Thanks to Lady Prisca for her latest drawing of Guy of Gisborne, which is now on the Artwork page. It’s taken from series 2 episode 10 of Robin Hood.

3. A short statement about Richard, in the ‘Things we’ve learned’ banner, appeared on page 18 of the August issue of Empire, but I hadn’t noticed it until it was pointed out on the C19 forum. An odd but amusing quote (click to enlarge):