The Squeee

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." - Thorin Oakenshield What an exciting start to a Friday morning! Reading all these lovely blog posts between trying to make a website layout. I think it's safe to say we're all tingly with excitement over the news that Richard Armitage has been cast in Peter Jackson's forthcoming adaptation of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit . This I greet with a slightly overawed: Aaaaawesomes ! I wonder where it's going to be filmed, though. Or have they sorted out the problems with the New Zealand acting union finally? Even Sam Neill got involved with that a while back and thought they should pipe down and settle it over a cuppa tea. Which I noted with considerable glee, not previously really caring about The Hobbit film because, well, who cares? I'll see the film, absolutely, but I'm not actually a fan of the Ring trilogy. I am, however, a big fan of Sam Neill. An...

The BBC have revealed who will be starring in their upcoming Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency adaptation. And it is: Stephen Mangan as Dirk Gently. Don't know the name, but recognise the face. Mr. Holistic Detective (Love the glasses!) Darren Boyd as Richard Macduff, the computer programmer. Again: no idea, see the pic: Oh him ! The owner of a stuck sofa Helen Baxendale as Susan Way. Rachel off of Cold Feet ! :) Unless they don't bugger up the script to be completely different from the book, she doesn't die in this. Yay! Yes, she has been in more things than Cold Feet . But that's the one we all know her from. There is nothing on IMDb yet (gasp), so that's actually all I know when it comes to casting so far. But oh, I'm all excited! :D Would love to find out who will portray Gordon Way and the old professor as well, but I guess time will tell. The filming has started in Bristol this week, and the show will air some time this...

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!

This is my slightly longer than anticipated comment on ‘Rise and Rise Again’ – 100 YEARS OF ROBIN HOOD: Part Two . Today the Google Alert summary on Richard Armitage actually yielded 100% articles about the actor, as opposed to the former US secretary of state ... and a US murder victim. I'm surprised - and delighted. As the comment turned out to be surprisingly long, well, I can post it here too. Because I can. *cough* Det är Robin Hood jag vill ... jag vill haaa! Leaving 2006 aside for a mo, I LOVE the Disney film. I know it almost by heart in Swedish (which, imho, has better voice acting than the original – shock horror). Prince of Thieves is fun in a “yeah Kevin Costner is soooo from Nottingham … not” and the best part is Alan Rickman’s sheriff. Men in Tights is brilliant (“I am a Robin Hood who DOES have an English accent!”), and features Matthew Porretta as Will Scarlett – the actor who went on to play Robin in that godawful New Adventures series. He left after 20-od...

Found this in an interview with Laila Rouass (who plays Lucas's old love interest in Spooks 9) and found the bits regarding Richard Armitage truly aaaaaaawww-worthy: Who do you play in Spooks? A doctor called Maya. She’s the ex of Lucas North (Richard Armitage) who comes back into her life and turns everything upside down. She’s the love of his life and he’s the love of hers. Their relationship is dynamic and explosive and it makes them both question certain things – he has to make some serious decisions. Dun-dun-dun!! But how cute is that? It's twu wuv. Naww. <3 Are there any strip searches? It gets hotter. There’s one scene where we get together in the kitchen and the director was like, ‘Come on, let’s be honest, you haven’t seen each other for years, you’re not going to get all romantic, you’re going to shag her on the table,’ and I must have looked a bit nervous because Richard whisperered, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not really going to shag you on the table, you’l...

Recently, we of course had the privilege of seeing Richard Armitage on ITV's Lorraine (on the show , not on the lady :P - although, if she's anything like the rest of us, I'm sure she wouldn't mind), where he was interviewed and then partook in looking at another Richard making a Thai green curry. Well, as it happened, the Sunday following that interview, we actually went to a Thai restaurant (not even my suggestion!) - and we picked a couple of dishes each. The Squeeze even picked a green curry, to my delight. ;) So let's get cookin'! Thai green curry with Richard Armitage Courtesy of Heathra on YouTube: Thai green curry without Richard Armitage You'll have to do your own coriander-chopping, but on the plus side, you actually get to eat the final result. Courtesy of the ITV website, where you can find the original and rather more to-the-point recipe. The one posted here is the jazzed up version because I couldn't just copy and curry p...

According to Expressen , who got the low-down from the Daily Express , a survey by Debenhams has revealed men are still seen as attractive until the age of 55. Seriously, they needed a survey to tell us that? I thought the evidence of hotness in guys over 50 was pretty obvious already: Exhibit A: Mark Harmon (1951) Exhibit B: Pierce Brosnan (1953) Exhibit C: William Petersen (1953) Exhibit D: Alan Rickman (1946) Exhibit E: Sam Neill (1947) I'm starting to stray into the 60s here, back to the 50s! Exhibit F: Ken Olin (1954) Exhibit G: Jeff Bridges (1949) Woops, relapse, let's over-compensate: Exhibit H: George Clooney (1961) I could go on. A lot longer than this. Richard Madeley, Liam Neeson, Jeremy Irons, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Martin Sheen - and sons (they're not 50 yet, are they?), Harvey Keitel, Rik Mayall, Bruce Willis, Bruce Boxleitner , Richard Dean Anderson, Michael Douglas, Mel Gibson, Timothy Dalton ... No really, I...

Found a couple of very long lists, " 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die " and " 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up ". After going through both, I think it's safe to say I'm better read when it comes to childrens books than adult ones. Although, some I might have read and don't remember - or that I am not familiar with the title in English, even if I would have recognised it in Swedish. Not to mention all the ones I've seen as movies without reading the books. Some I didn't even know were books! Anyway, here are my not-so-impressive results. How many have you read? :) 28 Books I Have Read Already 134 Trainspotting – Irvine Welsh 209 The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul – Douglas Adams 210 Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – Douglas Adams 272 The Color Purple – Alice Walker 301 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams 411 Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys 494 The Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkie...

In fact, if you're in the UK, the return of the FBI agents who bag and tag is scheduled to this Thursday at 9pm on Syfy. One is delighted to see Artie in the promos and hopes the bloke really did survive that blast at the end of season one. Warehouse 13 is back! Awesomes! AND Spooks tomorrow night as well. Going to be a good week for telly.

Just came across this: Richard Armitage doesn't like violence for the sake of violence. He'd like Lucas to go out in a way that isn't necessarily violent - maybe drowning, because it's a personal fear for him. Harry would take Lucas in an armwrestling match and he would like to do something "nice and calm and all about love". Other than that, nothing really new under the sun. Oh, and there's stubble - and you can see chest hair. Not that I was distracted or anything. *cough* Also, why not have a look at the brand new Richard Armitage Daily online "newspaper" ? It's based on people using the #RichardArmitage hashtag on Twitter. :D David A Stephenson has an audio interview available as well, for £1. I can definitely bear to part with that amount of money for a near half-hour's interview with the Man with That Voice. Oh, it just finished downloading, yay! I repeat: "Jaysus, ladies, it's Christmas!" ( said in a broad...

Wowza what a day to be Richard Armitage fan! And what a busy day for him! In the studio with Myleene Klass and then off to BBC to be on Radio 1 with Greg James. See, yesterday, the Chris Moyles breakfast show were lamenting the fact they didn't have a celeb lined up for Friday's show and I was thinking "hey, they could always get Richard Armitage in!" - and all the while, he was going to be on a later show instead. Cheered me up a lot to come across all these RA goodies thanks to fellow fans. My back has been playing up a lot lately so I finally made it to a physiotherapist yesterday so it can start to feel better and this totally made me forget about the aches and pains at least for a little bit, so thanks, ladies! A big thanks especially for all the lovely people who have made these things available for the rest of us! Grounds, walking upon, worship ... you know. :) After reforming my body from the happy puddle I got transformed into, let's see what's cr...

Found this on Norrköpings Tidningar : När P1:s "Bokcirkeln" är tillbaka i Sveriges Radio i höst går tre författare loss på en av världens mest lästa klassiker: Charlotte Brontës "Jane Eyre". Björn Ranelid, Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril och Johan Kling kommer att turas om att läsa upp romanen (i Gun-Britt Sundströms översättning). Ingen av dem har läst boken tidigare. Programmet leds av Marie Lundström, och sänds 1/11, 8/11, 15/11 och 22/11. Reader, presenter, reader and another reader To those who do not understand Swedish, it says that the radio programme Book Circle is back on Swedish Radio channel "P1" this autumn ... and that they're starting by reading Jane Eyre ! None of the people doing the reading have read the book before. It's being broadcast on Mondays in November. A look at SR's own website about the show reveals the time: 14:25 (2:25pm), re-run the next day at 18:35 (6:35pm), GMT+1 that is. I hope I can listen to it online...

Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (2000) Sam is: Thomas Jefferson There is a rumour that US president Thomas Jefferson was romantically involved with one of his slaves - the fair-skinned Sally Hemings... and even had kids. This movie is about that relationship. This was on TV in Sweden when I was struck by Sam fandom overnight and probably had something to do with it. For a good reason. Maybe the sort of story of more interest to the female audience. The Simpsons - Homer the Vigilante (1994) Sam is: Malloy Malloy, the old cat burglar. Sam was very flattered to be a part of the Simpsons, as it's one of his favourite shows. He doesn't get to say a lot, though. Sirens (1994) Sam is: Norman Lindsay Hugh Grant as a vicar, with prudish wife Tara Fitzgerald. Features one of the blondes from Ally McBeal in the nude, as well as a likewise undressed Elle MacPherson. Sam's a controversial Australian painter (he paints naked ladies - which is why the aforementioned women ...

Perfect Strangers (2003) Sam is: The Man I've heard from a non-fan who said this was a good movie. See, ask any Sam fan and they go all dreamy at the mere thought of this thriller/black comedy/romance story, written and directed by Gaylene Preston. Story is: woman (Rachael Blake) goes out and goes home with the best-looking guy in the bar (Sam). They go to his boat. When she wakes up in the morning, they're in the middle of the ocean, and he takes her to his place - on a deserted island. She is not amused at having been kidnapped. Now, any Sam fan will have a problem with her character, because if they were abducted by Sam and taken to a deserted island to be his forever... well, what's the problem? It's a dream come true! And yet, she's not happy. So fans have a bit of a hard time seeing things from her perspective. So it's difficult to be neutral, as I'm a fan (obviously) of the guy, and think the movie is great (the shooting practice scene is very fu...

Jessica (2004) Sam is: Richard Runche This is an excellent miniseries, set in the late 1800s Australia. Jessica is a tomboy, not a Lady, and she likes aboriginees, so she's not the most popular lady around, especially not as she has a child with her beau who is conned into marrying her sister and it's a lot better than it sounds. She ends up in a lunatic asylum as well. Sam plays a drunken barrister so well he was nominated for the AFI Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Television Drama or Comedy. The Jungle Book (1994) Sam is: Colonel Geofferey Brydon Sam drew from the character of his own father for this role, which is interesting, but the movie in itself isn't all that interesting as such. Good family film, but personally, I prefer the Disney version. Jurassic Park (1993) Sam is: Dr. Alan Grant Paeleontologist in a hat, who doesn't like kids. Cloned dinosaurs in a themepark on a remote island. Spielberg. T-Rex. Jeff Goldblum as a chaotician. Lau...