Karin Blid alsBirK/ sKy1

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To shoot or not to shoot? Armitage as the conscience- stricken John Porter

Tough act

It’s a long way from Sherwood Forest and the dastardly Guy of Gisborne. In his latest role, Richard Armitage heads east to play a soldier looking for redemption. Prepare for action!

BY E JANE DICKSON

n a Soho voice-over suite, Richard Armitage is limbering

up in front of a microphone. Arms pumping, boots pounding, he sprints on the spot. On a massive, wrap- around screen, buildings explode and bodies pile up as, on cue, our hero delivers his coup de grâce, a weapons- grade grunt. He sounds like a cross between Jimmy Connors and a wounded bull. Ever since his breakthrough role as saturnine factory

boss John Thornton in the 2004 BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North & South, Armitage has excelled as the strong, silent type. He endured hard labour in Spooks, and as Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood he smouldered fit to burn the greenwood down. Now, in his latest role as Special Forces desperado John Porter in Sky 1’s new war drama Strike Back, Armitage is shouting for Britain. Adapted from the best-selling novel by former SAS soldier Chris Ryan, the six-part series is a high-impact thriller set against the conflicts in Iraq, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. Porter, unusually for a shoot-’em-up role, is a man torn between conscience and killer instinct. Armi- tage, a famously intense actor, brings a kind of existential angst to the act of kicking down doors. “They were balsa-wood doors,” he demurs, when

I enquire after his poor toes, “but I take the point.” His natural speaking voice is classically, carefully neutral; there is no hint of his native Leicestershire and no actorly Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24