The Squeee

Yesterday was Red Nose Day here in Britain and it saw Comic Relief getting over £74 million to projects in Africa and the UK. Credit crunch? Not when it comes to being charitable! :) Richard Armitage is doing his bit for charity as well. He did a 24-hour thing at the Old Vic last year, which was a fundraiser for the theatre, and together with the Vicar of Dibley team (thanks for the reminder, MG !), he was in a sketch for Comic Relief in 2007: There are also these funny clips from BBC Children in Need a few years ago: Guy being charitable? Well, of course not! (I love Guy's final line. Bitter much?) Instead of just accepting gifts that his fans send him, Richard Armitage has instead urged fans to NOT send him anything, and have given away most of the gifts to charities. Good on him! He also reminds us that he's fine as he is, no need to send him any money or anything, so instead, could we please think of those who are not as well off as he is and give it to the

What if Richard Armitage was gay instead of straight? What would you do? No, I mean that sincerely. Would it change anything? Would you be disappointed? After all, if he was gay, he wouldn't be interested in you, regardless of how far-fetched the fantasy of meeting him in person is or isn't, but odds are he wouldn't give you the time of day regardless, as he once said he would never date a fan. Would you enjoy his works less? Or, would you perhaps like him even more? There are plenty of women who love to hang out with gay men, and hanging out with Richard Armitage - regardless of his sexuality - I can think of a whole host of worse things, for sure. The question of Richard Armitage's sexuality has popped up before, many times, and I'm not going to provide a definitive answer to it, simply because the only one who can give a definite answer it is the man himself, and he ain't here. I'm not exactly hiding him in a closet or anything. Pun intented

Last Saturday, we happened to venture to the old market town of Southwell in east Nottinghamshire. (It's either pronounced "south-well" like you'd expect OR "suth-ull" - haven't had a definitive "it's this way or the highway" yet, because there are people who argue both sides.) We walked around town for a bit - lots of old houses, particularly of the Georgian fashion (which I love). I'm happy to announce they have a very nice greengrocer's hidden away on a back street, and a nice little chocolate shop on the high street and a selection of cafés and restaurants. They also have a great big church for a fairly small town: the Southwell Minster. As we were walking back to the short stay car park (free parking for up to two hours), we came across this ... touristy informationy thingy: You should be able to make out that it says "SOUTHWELL MINSTER" and "IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ROBIN HOOD" and that a green-clad gu

One of the things Richard Armitage is very fond of is sports. He likes skiing and seems to have looked into buying a little chalet in the French Alps (or how else would he actually know how much one costs?). In one interview, when talking about extreme sports, the interviewer said something about he wouldn't fancy a holiday on a river boat, Richard quickly - and emphatically - said "No!" I could do a whole post about him training until he throws up in preparation for Strike Back , good locations for skiing in the Alps (Chamonix maybe? Isn't that one they normally show on telly when there's winter sports on?), he wasn't keen on swimming when he took the role as Lee in Cold Feet and I've mentioned already that he enjoys watching rugby. So he keeps himself active. However, if there's a topic I care very little for, it's sports. And I thought there has been far too few piccys of Himself this week (especially today), so I went looking for something

Is it true that if a person is artistically inclined and talented in one way, they are more likely to be artistically inclined and talented in other ways too? That is the question. Judging by Mr. Armitage, the answer is yes, very much so. We all know he can act, so that's one just for starters. He has mentioned on several occasions that he plays the cello, and that, to me at least, makes him a bit artsy. If he was just into music like most people, he'd be strumming an accoustic or maybe even electric guitar from time to time, because that's the most common thing, really. Or play the piano. But a CELLO? That's pretty impressive. (Thanks to Angelfish via Skully for this one!) If someone can play an instrument well, then they probably can sing as well, right? You'd think. With regards to Richard Armitage, from what I've gathered, he's said he's not a singer. However, listen to the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa and yo

In two words: Pizza and Beer. Oh and something about watching rugby on telly, but as rugby is a total mystery to me and I really don't get any of it, I'll focus on the first two things - both of which I can relate to very well ... one more than the other. I know a lot about how to eat pizza, I can make many different ones and the Squeeze and I have gone to the Robin Hood Beer Festival in October for the past four or five years now. It's the one time of year I get drunk, and then it's not for the sake of getting drunk, it's because I'm not very used to alcohol (seriously, I'm such a cheap date) and love trying lots of different flavours! I don't know anything about beer more than "ale is darker and drinkable, lager is lighter and tastes absolutely awful, and stout is black with a creamy head" - oh and the water, malt and hops bit - so as I was thinking what kind of beer would go best with which pizza and finding I haven't got the foggies

I'm a creature of habit when it comes to rustling up dinner. I'll happily make the same dish over and over again until I'm sick of it. At the moment it's salmon with couscous and tomatoes. I got it off the Jamie Oliver app on my iPhone. [ Sunday Times ] That's a challenge too good to miss! So, off to find a recipe for said concoction. Not having an iPhone to hand, I had to trust Google - and found it on a blog called Feelings of White , which also has a nice video to show how it's done. So a while ago, I printed the recipe as a PDF so I wouldn't have to try and find it again and fail when all the ingredients were purchased, and then, once all the ingredients were gathered, I set to work. Arthur doubling as a cookbook For this recipe, we need: 2x 7oz (200g) salmon fillets, thaw if frozen 4oz (~115g) cherry tomatoes (a.k.a. "a handful"), cut in half 1 cup (~225 ml) couscous 1 small bunch fresh basil 1 medium red onion, finely chopped 1

The subject of food is one a little too dear to my heart (there's being voluptuous and then there's just being fat, aaight? :P), and - hooray! - there seems to be some of this in Dear Richard too. After all, was he not the one who mentioned fantasising about kissing Nigella Lawson after she's eaten some of her sumptuous chocolate cake? To that, I say: Hey Mister! I make wicked brownies! *polite cough* So today, the topic is going to be food! Yeah, I could've posted a piccy of a chocolate cake here, but decided Nigella is better for our collective waistlines. Unless we eat her , but then that would be rather disturbed. Our man's also been on telly with another Richard, making a Thai green curry with Myleene Klass in the way, he's been known to make smiley faces out of chunks of stilton and he's also mentioned how he's fixated on a certain dish from Jamie Oliver - one which I have actually tried making! (How it went will be revealed later today.

One of the interesting comments Richard Armitage was when an interviewer asked him, because he's a great dancer, is if we'd ever see him on something like Strictly Come Dancing . His response was that we'd never get to see Richard Armitage as Richard Armitage on TV. Basically, he's not the kind of celebrity to show up as soon as someone waves an invite to a reality TV show. Richard Armitage as himself. On telly. But not in a reality show. Things that make me love and respect the man: +1! Before I read that interview, I was thinking about him on Strictly , and then started to think of a host of other reality TV shows and whether or not he would be a suitable candidate. This is what I came up with ... Top Gear What it is: This is a car show, or ... a comedy show with cars in, depending on how you look at it. Rupert Penry-Jones and Peter Firth came on it to promote series 7 (?) of Spooks , so why not Richard Armitage? He does drive a car, after all ... Why

When the news broke about Richard Armitage landing a major role in The Hobbit , I couldn't help but being filled with mixed emotions. One part of me was absolutely thrilled that he's been given such a chance, and another part of me wants to start writing sympathy cards or "I'm sorry for your loss ... of privacy". Bearded goodness, courtesy of Richard Armitage's Beard @ Tumblr Don't get me wrong, I think The Hobbit is a great opportunity for advancing his career. Being disguised by the beard, he's not going to get admirers from an "OMG he's GOWGEOUS!" point of view (although those of us who are familiar with him will of course go "OMG that's one smoulderingly hot dwarf!" - especially now that we know what the man looks like in a beard) but rather, he'll be judged on his acting merits. Which is great! Those eyes can express what a thousand words struggle to, and there's still The Voice. He'll get to act an

Hello and welcome to the second annual FanstRAvaganza - a week-long festival of everything to do with Richard Armitage. There are a number of participating bloggers with the most amazing Richard Armitage fanblogs (or, like this one, it's not an RA fanblog per se , just that he happens to be an often recurring topic) - see below - and we'll be discussing a lot of Richard Armitage over the coming week. If you're here, you've arrived at a blog called The Squeee . It's run by myself (Traxy, hello! *waves*) and is normally a place of film and book reviews and stuff like that, when I'm not busy fangirling over Richard Armitage or Jane Eyre , or a number of other things. My topic for this year is: An Ordinary Leicestershire Lad I'm not going to post about Guy of Gisborne, Claude Monet, Harry Kennedy, John Thornton, John Porter, John Standring, John Mulligan, John Bateman, (yeah he has done a crapload of roles where he's been using his dad's name, bless

For the upcoming Richard Armitage FanstRAvaganza , my topic is going to be to delve more into the man behind the actor, to try and figure out why we're so drawn to him. Aside from talents and good looks, how come many of us can't read an interview with him without going completely potty and fancy him even more? What's up with that? Why are we so infatuated with this ordinary Leicestershire lad? I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions when it comes to interviews he's done where he talks about himself. I don't mean really personal stuff (like that one where he's lured into talking about how he lost his virginity and stuff like that) but you know, where he talks about having a BMW but would prefer an old, bashed up car; where he talks about food, sports, hobbies, DIY and all that sort of thing. Are there any articles that you've read that have stood out in particular for you that you can give as suggestions for me to have a closer look at? :) P.S. We