Armitage XL

ETA: FOLKS YOU HAVE TO LEAVE A COMMENT TO GENERATE A DONATION. JUST SAYIN’.

[It’s actually 0:00 BST. Hope no one minds that I didn’t wait for GMT.]

A relatively early photo of Richard Armitage. Some kind of school picture, maybe? Source: RichardArmitageNet.com

Happy Birthday, Mr. Armitage!

In honor of Mr. Armitage’s birthday, Servetus will donate £1 sterling (c. 1.64 USD) for each unique comment left on this post up to 100 comments, thereafter 50 p sterling (c. 0.82 USD) to Childline via Armitage’s JustGiving page, with no upper limit on the amount of the donation. Comments will be open from the appearance of this post until I get to work on Tuesday, roughly 39 hours total or so.

Another early photo. Cats days? Source: RichardArmitageNet.com

The fine print: The donation will be labeled in the name of fans, alluding to the number of comments received, and will be made on or before September 1, 2011. The donation will be denominated in pounds sterling and made in the full face amount generated by comments; I will cover any additional bank fees / currency conversion charges generated by my bank on top of that amount. To verify the donation, I will publish a final tally and an anonymized receipt on the blog. A unique comment must come from a unique email and a unique IP address — one comment per email and IP address. New commentors are welcome, but per general blog policy a first-time comment is subject to moderation; all comments submitted before the poll closes will be counted, even if they were caught in moderation when the poll closed. I reserve the right to discard comments that I cannot verify as coming from actual unique emails / IP addresses. I am the final instance who will determine whether a comment / IP address is a legitimate one.

So leave a comment, and tell your friends! And if you’d like to donate more than a pound or 50 pence, why not make use of the JustGiving pages yourself?

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Here’s the poll, so we fans also have something fun to do today, or you have something to write about in your comment.

Forty is an especially auspicious number in the western tradition. The Israelites wandered through the wilderness for forty years, for example, before G-d allowed them to enter the Promised Land; in the Jewish tradition you’re supposed to be forty before beginning to study mystic teachings. It’s a number that says ripeness. It seems only fitting that Mr. Armitage finds himself involved in the biggest challenge of his career just as he turns forty. So I decided to ask a poll question about the number forty, but just for fun, to make it around 40 seconds rather than 40 years.

The question: If you could have only 40 seconds of Richard Armitage’s work to remember for the next year, which of the following (roughly) 40 second clips would you pick?

(Not that you’d ever be snarky about the choices, but in case you were inclined: of course, any poll like this is largely arbitrary. In my case it was related somewhat to what stuff I had available in a form I could cut. Also, it turns out that 40 seconds is kind of an awkward number for much of Mr. Armitage’s work. 50 or 60 or 70 would have been better. I tried for roughly 40 but had to make one exception. Also, I avoided many obvious choices [the sort of “desert island clips”] either because they are really long, or because they would make competition pointless: everyone would pick the kissing scene from North & South, one suspects.)

You have eight choices, offered in broadcast order.

1. John Standring negotiates the terms of his marriage in Sparkhouse, episode 3 (2002):

2. Mr. Thornton reacts to the death of Mr. Hale, in North & South, episode 4 (2004) — I overexposed this a bit because the lighting is so low, so we can see Mr. Armitage’s facial expressions a bit more easily:

3. Harry Kennedy says getting married is the right thing to do, in The Vicar of Dibley: The Vicar in White (2006):

4. Ricky Deeming makes an apocalyptic prophecy, in Gently Go Man (2007):

5. Sir Guy of Gisborne is silently cruel, or dryly funny, depending on your view, in Robin Hood 2.6 (2007).

6. Lucas North returns to MI-5 in Spooks 7.1 (2008):

7. John Mulligan asserts his honesty, in Moving On: Drowning Not Waving (2009):

8. John Porter responds to Hugh Collinson’s explanation of how the world works, in Strike Back 1.6 (2010):

You can vote here — but don’t forget to leave a comment!

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Happy Birthday month Richard Armitage! In honor of this event, consider donating your time, energy, and thoughts / prayers to an effort that’s meaningful to you. If you need a suggestion, here’s a link to Mr. Armitage’s recommended charities at JustGiving, as well as a link to means of generating a charity contribution on his behalf at RichardArmitageOnline.com, and a link to Act!onAid, a child sponsorship organization for which he recorded a voiceover in December 2010. Donate to Christchurch Earthquake Appeal here.

~ by Servetus on August 21, 2011.