Armitage’s voice in the dark

[ETA: photos from the set of the current film have appeared on Armitage Army Forum and the story around the meeting. You must be a member to see them. He looks great! And so much younger without the facial hair.]

So, yeah, you can guess what I’ve been doing the last few days: listening to Venetia. Well, of course, that’s not the main thing I’m doing — it’s a collateral benefit of what I’ve been doing. And an incentive to continue doing it even when I’d rather stop.

For some reason, for me, driving during the day demands music — usually something with a very insistent rhythm. I haven’t been a leadfoot since I was about 22, so I need the rhythm to force me to make time. And then, sometime in the late afternoon, I want to quit — and then it’s time for Regina Spektor, something like this:

And when that’s played twice, and it’s dark enough that I’ve taken off my sunglasses, my soul is calm enough to attend to Armitage. As the sun falls, and the world around me darkens to just the space illuminated by the headlights, he sits in the passenger seat, reading Georgette Heyer to me. In the darkness, I can pay attention to every consonant, every vowel, every articulation, every voice, every accent, every lilt, every moment of suppressed humor, every second of delight his voice reveals in Heyer’s ornate formulations.

Tonight it was disc 2 that caught my attention, and the deep-voice Damerel’s attempt to flirt with Venetia. What I love the most, as Armitage describes the way the two look over the garden and discuss Damerel’s past, is the way that Damerel’s voice becomes even deeper when Venetia expresses her sympathy for him — as if he’s surprised by an emotion he can’t fairly express and he only sign of his appreciation is the way his vocal tone drops even more. As if being able to receive sympathy makes Damerel even more of a man.

Richard Armitage makes me want to go on long drives by myself at night. Or rather: at night, with his voice surrounding, calming, moving me, as the miles drop behind me.

~ by Servetus on August 16, 2012.