The Squeee

Today's Tag Teams: F3 brightens up "hump day"! In fanfic , Maria Grazia presents an interview with Trudy Brasure and giveaway of her book, A Heart for Milton • C.S. Winchester helps new authors get their feet wet writing fanfic • In freeform , ChrisB continues the alphabet with "B is for Beard(?)? • jazzbaby1 puts John Porter in the hands of Frank Spotnitz • Agzy outs Armitage characters as dog lovers • In fandom , fedoralady recommends the right tunes for your Armitage fanvid • Rose Gisborne describes her Armitage day •In the Hobbit , IngeD3 reveals the deeper meaning of the dwarfs' hoods • Ana Cris reflects on Armitage and Maori ceremony • In King Richard Armitage , Fabo offers some choices to play Anne Neville • Links to all FanstRA 3 posts appear here at the end of each day. This post is inspired, but not exactly based on, Richard Armitage's character in Marple: Ordeal by Innocence . Several ideas pop into my head when it comes to

Tonight, in an hour, the UK will pass from 2010 to 2011. Almost half the world is already there, in fact! I hope 2010 has treated you well, and even if it hasn't, I hope 2011 will be (even) better. :) Here's a quick re-cap of the year of The Squeee . The Squeee in 2010 - A year of unabashed fangirling January opened with the All About the Brontës Challenge , where I set to work straight away, listening to some old radio plays of Jane Eyre , watched the 1996 film adaptation of the same and finished reading Wuthering Heights for the very first time. I also wrote about my visit to Haddon Hall the year before, and had ideas on how you might be able to make sports interesting , because let's face it, it's not exactly all that interesting. I also discovered I was Marianne Dashwood , even though I don't really play the piano. February announced the first International Magic Day , the blog got itself a makeover, and we were being spoiled rotten by Mr. Armitage n

The National Television Awards have opened the first round of voting. Spooks is nominated (drama?), as is Richard Armitage (actor) and Chris Ryan's Strike Back (new show?). Go vote! :) http://www.nationaltvawards.com/vote Winners will be announced at the ceremony on ITV1 in January. All votes must be in by one minute to midnight on Monday 11 October. Then the countdown begins!

Rejoice, everyone, rejoice! There will be more of John Porter, says The Daily Mirror today! :D Okay, it doesn't say when it's going to happen or when filming starts or anything other than there will be a series two, but hey, more Action Man stuff for Mr. Armitage. Will he be flaunting his chesticles quite as much in the new series as he was in series one, you reckon? "Hasta la vista, baby. I'll be back." Three cheers for Servetus at Me + Richard Armitage for the link! :)

For those who can - if you're abroad, see if you can access the page - the TVChoice Awards have the longlists open for voting now. From those, I guess there will then be a shortlist to vote on. Why am I telling you this? Because you can go vote for your favourite shows and actors! Specifically, Richard Armitage, Spooks and Strike Back ! Highlights: Best new drama: Chris Ryan’s Strike Back (Sky1), Emma (BBC) Best drama series: Spooks (BBC1) Best actor: Richard Armitage ( Chris Ryan’s Strike Back ) Best actress: Ruth Wilson ( Luther ) Off you go! http://www.tvchoicemagazine.co.uk/awards

Just saw a trailer for the final two parts of Strike Back , and I'm happy to announce Toby Stephens was in it! In a suit with short hair, grim expression and American accent. With regards to the episode, it seems it's the Americans trying to get rid of people this time... If it's not the Iraqis or the Zimbabwis, it's the Americans, eh? Still, it'll be nice to see Toby back on screen. Talented actor and handsome fellow that he is, although he looks a bit tired on the pic on the left (from an interview in the London Evening Standard, 23 March 2010 ). Maybe his little kiddies keep him awake at night? In the interview, he says, "On TV a lot of stuff isn't well written. You spend a lot of time trying to polish a turd. Whereas in theatre you usually don't have to expend all that energy selling the thing, because the writing is superior." I wonder what he thinks of Strike Back . Does he consider that turd-polishing too, perhaps? Still, as long as

Right now you might be wondering where the reviews of parts 3+4 of Strike Back have got to, because HELLO they were on telly YESTERDAY, so where they at?! "There's not much makeup in the army, is there? They only have that nighttime look, and that's a bit slapdash, isn't it?" Well, they're on the DVR. I set it to record as we went out last night (please stop imagining sparkly tops, high heels and loud disco music - it was a comic book and gaming store, and we partook in a 4th Ed D&D Forgotten Realms campaign :P), and as we got back late-ish, didn't have time to see it then. Or, rather, I prioritised sleep as I had to get up today and go to work! Ooo, my plastic pal to have fun with! Today, when we finally got home, there were other scheduled things to watch, namely Legend of the Seeker and Sanctuary on Syfy, of which I only tend to follow the former. (I like Amanda Tapping in the Stargate stuff, but OMG that fake British accent is on par w

They just said on Sky1 that Strike Back will begin with a double episode! :D Also, Female fans (and they are legion; when Armitage, who's single and lives in south-east London, made his romantic debut in North & South , BBC switchboards were jammed with heavy breathing) will just be happy their man spends a good part of Strike Back with his shirt off. (From Reader's Digest , May 2010 - thanks to Maria Grazia for the link!) Shirtless RA!!! Aww, but then we'll be all distracted and won't pay proper attention to the story! Oh well, I'm sure we can all live with that... ;) But - ladies and... probably no gentlemen - let's not forget who else will be struttin' their acting stuff on screen in this production: Cathy Earnshaw '98 (Orla Brady), Edgar Linton '09 (Andrew Lincoln), Miss Taylor/Mrs. Weston '09 (Jodhi May), Friar Tuck "off of" BBC's Robin Hood (David Harewood), that annoying guy in that Spooks episode (Ewen Bremner

What a brilliant day! First of all, the sun's shining and it's spring and that's great. Secondly, it started out well on the train: didn't have time to collect my ticket from the machine, but the conductor didn't force me to pay for a new one - instead I could pick it up from the train station where I got off. Thirdly, and more importantly: Walking from the train station to work, I came across this big billboard on the side of the road, so I just had to stop and take a picture. :D Strike Back is everywhere and it's only eight days to go! (And this is the second attempt at trying to submit blog posts by email.)

On the train back from work, I saw a guy who seriously looked like Sam Neill. He had glasses and reminded me a lot of this piccy here (from Sirens ). Put a smile on my face, that did. Think he got off in Hucknall, so if you look like a '93 Sam Neill in glasses reading this and live in Hucknall - you rock! Pixar/Disney have announced a Monsters Inc. sequel, apparently. Don't really remember the first one, but it was cute...? The One Show 's resident grumpy Brummie Adrian Chiles is defecting to ITV , gasp! How very dares he! Top Gear will be getting a US spin-off. Well done! Top Gear is a brilliant show. I know it's about cars, but why watch it for the motors when the guys are hilarious? Not many people would try to make a rocking chair and a blender from a V8 engine... ;) One American remake that apparently isn't going ahead at the moment is Torchwood , the Doctor Who spin-off. They were making an American version? What on earth for? I mean, the original

And I pretend to be good at the whole Internets thing and I can't even do a proper search... duh. Here's that long and lush Strike Back promo I mentioned recently . Lookit the angst! :D Seen it twice today on TV. Woohoo! And for some reason it makes me want to hum the Village People's Macho Man . Here's someone who's already done a fanvid to Status Quo's You're In The Army Now : :D

Oh SNAP! Just saw a Strike Back promo on Sky1. A proper, long trailer, probably about a couple of minutes long. Didn't realise it was that to begin with, until I saw Richard Armitage. Then all of a sudden, the telly had my full attention! Gee, I wonder why? Holy squee! Could it be that he looked angsty and just... amazing? The Commander in Chief in uniform. Leading us poor, defenceless and most of all exceedingly hormonal ladies into estrogene-infused fits of gleeful delight and awe. It mainly featured Richard and Andrew Lincoln, but it looks to be really good. Shame the trailer didn't feature Toby Stephens. I can see what attracted Richard to the part. It just seems like the character has issues coming out the wazoo. Oh, it's going to be awesome! Can't wait! :D It's said to be shown starting 1 May, six parts or so. That's at least 280 minutes of joy. Here's a short promo, only because I can't see a longer one on YouTube and kinda "take what

If it wasn't for Nat at Richard Armitage Fan Blog , I wouldn't have looked up the cast list for upcoming TV series Strike Back , which is starring Richard Armitage. As she points out , it will also feature some people RA has worked with before, such as Ewen Bremner ( Spooks 8.6), David Harewood (Friar Tuck), and - here's the clincher! - Toby Stephens (Prince John)! Hooray! It will have some other famous faces from costume dramas: Andrew Lincoln (Edgar Linton in WH '09), Jodhi May (Anne Taylor/Weston in Emma '09), and Orla Brady (Cathy in WH '98). Some other people as well, of course, but those are the highlights for me personally. It'll be fun to see Toby Stephens on screen again, and in the same show as Richard Armitage... squee! He's only going to be in two (of six) episodes, mind, and we don't know if they have any scenes together (unless you've read the book the show is based on), but still, same show! As far as I know, Strike Back w