31st December

George Gently in Australia: ABC1 will be showing Richard’s episode on 1st January at 9.50pm. Thanks to Pauline.

30th December

1. Strike Back Project Dawn in Poland: episode 1 and 2, featuring a brief appearance from Richard, will be shown on 7 January starting at 22:00 on HBO, 8 January at 22:00 on HBO2 and 10 January at 22:30 on HBO2. Here is the TV Schedule including the Spooks series 8 episodes mentioned in yesterday’s news. Thanks to Sylwia.

2. George Gently on PBS New York: WLIW21 are showing the pilot episode of George Gently at 4.30pm on 6 January. Richard played Ricky Deeming. Here is the TV schedule – change the date to see programming on 6 January.

3. Spooks (MI-5) series 7 on PBS Los Angeles: series 7 started on Wednesday 21 December and is showing every Wednesday at 22:00 on PBS KCET. MI-5 page on KCET. Thanks to Squidknox.

29th December

Spooks series 8 in Poland: BBC Entertainment will start “Tajniacy” series 8 on Sunday 8 January at 23:00. Here is the TV Schedule for 8 January and here is the list of Spooks 8 broadcast times. Thanks to Ania.

28th December

1. There’s a new Thorin Oakenshield wallpaper on the Other Character Wallpapers page with thanks to Angelfish69. It’s the last Thorin wallpaper in the list. If you want to display it on your desktop background, click to enlarge and right-mouse-click to set as desktop (on a Mac, save the image to your HD first).

2. Thanks to Lady Prisca for her latest drawing of Guy of Gisborne now on the Artwork page.

3. The Story of the Costume Drama is available on Canada’s TVO webpage – only available in Canada I think. See news #2 below in yesterday’s news for more information about this broadcast. Thanks to kitkatcdn on twitter.

27th December

1. Robin Hood series 3 in Australia: series 3 is being shown on ABC every afternoon this week and next at 1.30pm. Thanks to Pauline.

2. The Story of the Costume Drama: this five part documentary is being shown in TVO in Toronto/Ontario from 26 – 30 December at 8.00pm. Richard appeared in the third episode entitled ‘Affairs of the Heart’ talking about filming North and South, so this will be shown on Wednesday. The clip with Richard and Daniela Denby-Ashe is on the Costume Drama downloads page and here is the Costume Drama gallery. Thanks to Susmita.

3. Spooks series 9 in Canada: BBC Canada will be playing the whole of series 9 of Spooks, starting 8.00am EST on Wednesday 28 December. Thanks to Calexora.

4. Thank you to Joane for her brilliant drawing of Thorin Oakenshield now on the Artwork page.

5. North and South in Hungary: North and South starts today at 7.30pm in Hungary on the STORY4 channel and will be shown each day until Friday 30 December. Here is the TV Schedule, here is the North and South page and here is a page of promotional pictures. All the pictures that include Richard are in the North and South Promo gallery. Thanks to Karima.

6. Spooks series 7 in Germany: ZDFneo will show all eight episodes of Spooks series 7 on Monday 2 January at 10.40pm. Scan from TV Guide below – the picture is from series 9 but the description is clearly series 7. Thanks to NicK.

Translation:”Old friends, new enemies”. The seventh series starts dramatically: at the start a British agent loses his life in a fight against terror. A new man, Lucas North (Richard Armitage) is released from Russian imprisonment. The focus of this series is on the Russian mafia. Eight episodes, starting Monday.

 

24th December

1. Richard has sent a Christmas message to his fans on RichardArmitageOnline.

2. I’ve added the Misty Mountains song to the Sounds page, so that you can listen to it from this site. It’s included in the download link on that page or you can download it here: mp3 format (right-click the link to download).

23rd December

Peter Jackson has posted another video blog on his facebook page, showing the cast and crew on location. Most of the video shows the incredible logistics involved in moving all of their facilities around New Zealand. There are only very brief glimpses of the dwarves and Richard can be seen on a couple of shots which are now in the gallery. I’ve included the location map and a shot of the ‘Thorin mask’. Masks are often worn by the scale doubles.

Also added the last shot of the crew – that might be him dressed as Thorin on the platform in the top left, but a little difficult to tell. It’s a great shot anyway.

22nd December

1. The International Business Times has a great review of The Hobbit trailer with specific mention of Richard: “Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) is especially convincing. He has the arrogant majesty of a deposed king and the underlying steeliness of the dwarves Tolkien fans know.”

2. Empire magazine has an excellent breakdown of the Hobbit trailer with descriptions and pictures of pivotal scenes. Praise for Richard’s performance too.

3. This clip of the Misty Mountains song on YouTube is edited so that the ending fades nicely without dialogue. If you click to reveal the description there is a free download link, and here it is again in mp3 format (right-click the link to download).

21st December

1. The Hobbit trailer is here on the Apple Trailers site – make sure you watch in HD! If you have RealPlayer or QuickTime Pro you can download while watching, otherwise a download is available on Bccmee’s site. Her YouTube video on the blog has closed captioning and a transcript.

Warner Bros have also put a HD version of the trailer on YouTube (below). Press play then change the settings to 1080p to see HD and zoom out to full screen.

Link to youtube.

2. There is now an official Hobbit website – press ‘Skip’ then change the Viewing Options to view in HD.

3. Eric Vespe has posted his sixth behind the scenes Hobbit report.

4. Screencaps from the trailer are in the Hobbit Trailer gallery. These images are high resolution 1920×1080 size images. Press ‘original image’ when viewing a picture to see the full size. Refresh your screen (press F5) if you cannot see the latest version of the gallery.

5. The Guardian mentions Richard in its review: “The dwarves look suitably jolly, though rather more youthful and fresh-faced than I’d imagined them. Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield has a certain Aragornish regality to him that I did not expect, though it makes a sort of sense in the context of the later films.” Thank you for all the emails regarding this review.

6. Peter Jackson has posted a teaser on his facebook page. Hopefully we’ll have an answer to this “Christmas treat” soon.

20th December

The Hobbit trailer goes online at 7pm PST, that’s 10pm EST in the States, 3am GMT here in the UK, 4am Central European Time and 4pm in New Zealand. As soon as the trailer is online I will provide a link on this site. It is likely to appear on the Apple Trailers site, Official Hobbit facebook page, Peter Jackson’s facebook page and/or The Hobbit Movie Blog as well as uploaded to YouTube.

19th December

1. On the Official Hobbit Facebook page today: “Return to Middle-earth on Tuesday, December 20th, with the worldwide debut of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” announcement trailer at 7pm PST!”

Also you can see a larger, uncropped version of the still of Bilbo first seen online a couple of days ago.

2. Three new images have been added to the North and South Promo gallery – #7, #8 and #13. If you cannot see the new images, press F5 to refresh your screen.

18th December

1. In 2002 Richard appeared in a play in the Jackson’s Lane venue in London called ‘Use Me As Your Cardigan’. It was his first lead in a theatrical role and Jonia from the C19 forum has managed to find out lots of information about it, including pictures of Richard on-stage with his co-stars. Here is a link to the theatre production company site Charm Offensive – click to enlarge the photos – and here is Jonia’s blog with more details of the production. Thanks to Jonia for sharing.

The pictures of Richard are now in the gallery.

2. More Hobbit images (sorry no Thorin) and an interview with Martin Freeman in Total Film magazine – scans here with thanks to DarkJackal’s site. There’s a short quote from Richard on page 5.

17th December

Warner Bros have announced that satellite feed of The Hobbit trailer will go online on Dec 20 and 21, and also that it will be shown in cinemas on Dec 21 in front of the US release of Tintin. More details on Examiner.com who also show the latest image which was released by Empire magazine of Bilbo – click the image of Bilbo to enlarge. Empire magazine is released next week and the image appears in their ’2012: The Best Year for Movies Ever’ feature – more details on ComicBookMovie.com.

Update: scans of the two page article on The Hobbit from Empire magazine have been posted on TheOneRing.Net’s forum (post #3 from Jim). You don’t have to be a member of the forum to read the posts or see the scans. This is an interview with Martin Freeman only.

A link to the trailer will appear on this site as soon as I have it.

16th December

1. Episode 2 of Lost Land of the Tiger will be shown on the Eden channel in the UK today at 6pm. Thanks to SandraC.

2. The 19 minute interview with Richard that accompanied the four Robin Hood series 1 audiobooks has been freely available for download for many years from gr8buyaudiobooks.com but I’ve noticed today that this website is no longer available. The 2006 interview is now on this site and you can listen or download from the RH series 1 career page. At 7m 35s Richard talks about The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings: ‘I was read The Hobbit at primary school by a very good teacher who had a great reading voice…I did get quite obsessed with Lord of the Rings’.

3. Lego have been awarded the rights to make Lego Hobbit and LOTR toys. The official press release is here on Collider.com. So we can hope to see a miniature Thorin lego figure available late 2012!

4. Thank you to Joane for her latest drawing of Guy of Gisborne which is on the Artwork page.

5. Richard Armitage on TV in Hungary: The Golden Hour, North and South and The Impressionists will all be shown on various channels in Hungary over the next view days. Here’s the full TV schedule. Thanks to Zsuzsanna.

15th December

The Vicar of Dibley in Canada: Vision TV will be showing the Christmas special 2006 featuring Harry Kennedy on December 22nd and 23rd at 8.00pm EST. Thanks tyme4t.

14th December

1. The Impressionists in Poland: this three part series will be shown several times in Poland on the VIASAT History channel from 23 December. TV Schedule here. Thanks to Sylwia.

2. Hobbit filming at the Pelorus bridge in New Zealand has been halted due to poor weather, reports The Nelson Mail.

3. One year from today The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released in cinemas. Warner Bros have issued a press release today with a synopsis of the film: follow this link.

13th December

1. Thanks to arclarkpig for sharing her latest drawing of Thorin Oakenshield which is on the Artwork page.

2. Four more jigsaws have been added today to the Jigsaws page. The newest jigsaws are at the bottom of the page.

3. There’s a new poll on the left-hand side asking if you’ve ever met up with other people as a result of following Richard’s career. Previous poll results are here.

12th December

The Hobbit trailer was shown at the BNAT movie festival this weekend organised by Harry Knowles of Aintitcool.com: report here. According to reports on twitter the trailer was shown three times back to back but those who saw the trailer have been forbidden from revealing any details. Elijah Wood and Eric Vespe (from the Hobbit set reports, see 1st Dec below) attended BNAT to deliver the trailer.

Elijah Wood has said that he believes The Hobbit trailer will be shown before Tintin when it is released in the US. Tintin is already showing at cinemas here in the UK, so the trailer is rumoured to be shown before the second Sherlock Holmes film.

 

11th December

1. Best Movie, an Italian movie magazine, has an article about The Hobbit with large pictures of Richard as Thorin in their December issue. There is no mention of Richard in the text though. Scans courtesy of Mamma_T.

     

2. Thanks to Gratiana for her wallpaper of Guy of Gisborne which is now on the Guy wallpapers page.

8th December

1. Here’s another scan from Grendel’s Mum and Jade, from the Macbeth tour of Japan in 2000. Perhaps that is Richard on the left? Click to enlarge.

Here’s another image from the same production with thanks to orpheus11. This one definitely looks like Richard:

 

2. Screencaps of Richard in two BBC dramas, Casualty and Doctors, are now in the gallery. Richard appeared in one episode of Casualty in 2001 and two episodes of Doctors in the same year. All screencaps are gratefully received from the admin of the Richard Armitage Acemarsupial site, which is no longer online.

Update: if you cannot see the new galleries, its because your computer has retained the gallery page in its cache and you need to reload the page. Press Ctrl-F5 when viewing the gallery (Cmd-F5 on a Mac) to empty the cache and reload correctly.

7th December

1. I’ve added a RichardArmitageNet 2012 calendar to the site, which you can find under the Artwork menu on the left or here. This calendar is for personal use only – print off yourself as required.

2. Thanks to Joane for her latest drawing of John Porter, which is now on the Artwork page.

6th December

1. Added a new career page for the National Geographic Wild documentary Leopards of Dead Tree Island, including a clip from the programme.

2. Captain America: The First Avenger will be shown on Sky Box Office and Sky 3D in the UK from Monday 19 December on multiple showings throughout the day.

3. I’ve added some TV magazine scans to the Robin Hood Reviews page reporting on the first week of Robin Hood series 2, which aired in the UK in October 2007. The scans are from Total TV Guide, Inside Soap, TV Choice and TV Quick. The last 3 magazines are also on the Interviews page as they contain specific interviews with Richard. With many thanks to Smitkit for sharing these scans.

4. Four more jigsaws have been added to the Jigsaws page (newest jigsaws at the end).

5th December

1. Strike Back: Project Dawn in Germany: the second series of Strike Back starts on Friday 9 December at 21:55 on the Fox channel. Richard appears in the first episode of this series. Thanks to Bee.

2. Thanks to ItsJSforme for her Thorin Oakenshield wallpaper, which you can find here (click to enlarge).

3. In 2000, Richard travelled with the RSC to Japan playing the role of Angus in Macbeth, a production directed by Gregory Doran and staring Antony Sher. Grendel’s Mum has passed me a brochure from this production, courtesy of her friend Jade – many thanks to them for sharing this with us. Click the scans below to enlarge.

For further info, Antony Sher wrote this article in The Guardian about the tour.

       

At the bottom of image 2 it says “the play was first performed in February 1999 at the Swan Theatre, Stratford upon Avon. The Tokyo performance was at Tokyo Globe Theatre from March 24 (Fri) to April 8 (Sat) 2000.”

Translation for image 4:

Richard Armitage (Angus)
Trained at LAMDA
Theatre: Hamlet, The Four Alice Bakers (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), The Long and the Short and the Tall, The Real Thing, The Woolgatherer (Edinburgh Festival)
TV: Boon
Film: Star Wars Episode 1/The Phantom Menace, This Year’s Love, Cleopatra

 

 

1st December

Filming of The Hobbit is still on location in the South Island of New Zealand, with very few details about the scenes they are shooting. There’s a report in the Otago Daily Times, a new blog from Sir Ian McKellen (29 Nov) and as mentioned below, Eric Vespe’s latest (#5) set report is on Aintitcool.com.