Career Audio Work - Audiobooks & Performances

Richard Armitage - Audiobooks & Performances

PART III

Lovelace finds Clarissa hiding in lodgings and, in disguise, tricks the landlady into revealing Clarissa. Introducing her to his "Aunt Betty" and "cousin", Charlotte, Lovelace tricks Clarissa and takes her back to Mrs Mrs Sinclair's where he completes his revenge and her degradation by raping her.

I really liked the potential to do as many different characters as possible and find some real story-telling quality in my voice ... which is a big challenge. (Richard Armitage 'Venetia' interview for Naxos Audiobooks, March 2010)

On 20th December, 2011, Warner Bros released the first trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Featured in the trailer was a song sung by all the dwarves, Over the Misty Mountains, led by "Armitage’s impressive basso" (Empireonline, 21st December, 2011).

Whenever I'm asked to do audiobooks, I always jump at the chance 'cause it's a real challenge to, to sit still with just a page in front of you and really create a whole, a whole world of pictures and voices and characters. (The Siege, Robin Hood 3 audiobook, interview).

Words and Music - Symphony of the City (BBC Radio 3)

Sunday 12th September, 2010, 10.45 pm - 11.45 pm, GMT

Richard Armitage and Emilia Fox read poetry and prose from Swift, Dickens and Wordsworth, T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf and William Carlos Williams on the theme of a 'Symphony of a City'. This episode, which uses the music of Gershwin, Varese, Byrd, Steve Reich and Charles Ives, is drawn from the silent 'city symphony' documentaries of the 1920s, from Walter Ruttmann's 'Berlin: Symphony of a Great City' to Dziga Vertov's 'The Man with a Movie Camera'.

"These were among the first documentaries to take the city as both character and subject, highlighting the inherent musicality of the heterogeneous mass of the modernist city. The rhythms of daily city life are evoked not just in the subject matter of this poetry and prose but in the very rhythms of their performance. And yet, we also see that the study of these daily movements of city life does not just belong to the modernists. The beauty, the energy, and the strange terror of city life, are evoked here by poets and authors across time".

Lords of the North is the third in Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Chronicle series set in the time of Alfred the Great. The series tells the story of Uhtred of Bebbenburg, a Saxon warrior brought up by Danes. Lords of the North follows Uhtred on his journey to avenge the death of his foster-father five years before at the hands of a Danish warlord, Kjartan the Cruel. On his journey, spanning nearly three years, Uhtred rescues an enslaved king, falls in love, battles enemy Danes, and is himself enslaved. The audiobook is 12 hours and Richard Armitage performs all 32 main characters as well as several sundry characters, with voices including those of Danes, Irish, women, children, and men. In February 2008, the audio book was No. 3 in the Audio Times Top Ten Ratings.

The 10 cd boxed set may only be purchased through GoAudio:

Customer Service - +44 (0) 1225 443400

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Presented by novelist Jane Feaver, Richard Armitage reads previously unaired letters written by Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, between 1952 and 1972 for the BBC 4 radio program, The Ted Hughes Letters, which aired on October 29th, 2007.

As part of Remembrance Day celebrations in 2007, Sarah Lancashire presented poetry and songs of those who stayed behind in England, fighting their own kind of war in a BBC 2 radio program, A War Less Ordinary, on November 10th.

In 2006, Tiger Aspects/BBC produced audiobooks of the first four episodes of Robin Hood series 1 to complement the series: Will you tolerate this?; Sheriff got your tongue?; Who shot the sheriff?; and Parent hood. Each book, and all the characters, is performed by Richard Armitage. The dvd boxed set also includes four interviews with Richard in which he discusses his role as Guy of Gisborne, life in Hungary and making the audiobooks.

I really, really enjoyed doing it and trying to do all the voices, and it’s been a great experience in storytelling for me, so hopefully I’ll do another one. (Robin Hood 1 audiobook, Parent Hood interview)

In 2009, to complement Series 3 of Robin Hood, Big Finish Productions produced six audiobooks of original stories drawing on episodes of the series. Two, "Witchfinders" and "The Siege" are performed by Richard Armitage.

In Witchfinders, Guy is troubled by dreams and haunted by Marian while Robin must rescue Kate, arrested for witchcraft.

Witchfinders download and audiobook may be purchased at Big Finish Productions.

In July 2009, Naxos released an abridged cd audiobook of Sylvester, a novel written by Georgette Heyer, considered to be the doyenne of historical romantic fiction, and performed by Richard Armitage.

Sylvester, Duke of Salford, travels to Winchester to look over a prospective bride, Phoebe Marlowe - the goddaughter of his mother's old friend. Phoebe, having encountered Sylvester during a brief stay in London, is by no means happy about the idea and, escorted by a childhood friend, runs away to her godmother in London.

The cds may be purchased through Amazon.co.uk and ABC shop online.They may also be downloaded through iTunes.

Sylvester may be purchased through Naxos, Amazon.co.uk, and Audible books.

I think it’s a good thing for an actor to do because you only have your voice and nothing else and so for a start it makes you become kind of more literary aware, you know, with regards to what works and what doesn’t work and, and more discerning when it comes to looking at a script as well ... (The Siege, Robin Hood 3 audiobook interview)

It’s storytelling.
(The Siege, Robin Hood 3 audiobook interview)

The Siege is the second of the Robin Hood audiobooks produced by Big Finish in 2009 and read by Richard Armitage.

Robin and Guy are together hiding from Isabella's mercenaries in a now deserted castle where Robin spent his childhood.

The Siege audiobook and download may be purchased at Big Finish Productions.

You just have to have an idea of the story that you’re trying to tell and the most clear way you can tell it. It’s very difficult moving between different characters. You have to just pitch very specifically and commit to what you’re doing and know exactly whose voice you’re doing, when you’re doing it, whether they’re male or female, where they come from. And also trying to get variety into all the voices ... (Robin Hood 1 audiobook, Parent Hood interview)

THE CONVENIENT MARRIAGE (audiobook)

The Convenient Marriage is the sixteenth novel written by Georgette Heyer and the third in the Naxos series to be read by Richard Armitage. Published first in 1934 by Heinemann Press, it is the story of the young and very dashing, Horatia Winwood, who, having married the Earl of Rule for his money in order to save her family's fortune, becomes ensared in the vengeful plans of her husband's rival, Lord Lethbridge.

The Convenient Marriage, can be ordered through Naxos, Amazon.co.uk, and the Book Depository.

Venetia was first published in 1958 and is the 46th novel written by Georgette Heyer; it is the second Naxos audiobook to be read by Richard Armitage. It is the abridged audio version of the novel and was released in 2010. The audiobook may be ordered through Naxos, the Book Depository (free international postage), as well as Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and Audible Books.

CLARISSA (Radioplay)

Richard Armitage took the leading role in BBC Radio 4's production of Samuel Richardson's novel, Clarissa. The production has been dramatised by Hattie Naylor and directed by Marilyn Imrie and was produced by Catherine Bailey Productions.

The rake, Robert Lovelace (Richard Armitage) courts young and beautiful Clarissa (Zoe Waites). Having tricked her, he carries her off to London and rapes her. "Clarissa then falls into decline. Lovelace becomes involved in an avenging duel with Clarissa's cousin, and Clarissa's family and friends must live with the guilt and shame of their own neglect and betrayal of her."

Clarissa aired weekly from March 14th to April 4th 2010.

Cast
Robert Lovelace - Richard Armitage
Clarissa Howe - Zoe Waites

Also in the cast are Alison Steadman; Deborah Findlay; Miriam Margolyes; Oliver Milburn; John Rowe; Julian Rhind-Tutt; Adrian Scarborough; Stephen Critchlow; Cathy Sara; Sophie Thompson; Ellie Beaven; Lisa Hammond; and Linda Broughton.

PART I

In this first episode we are introduced to Clarissa, her family and Robert Lovelace. Clarissa, the youngest daughter has inherited a fortune from her grandfather. Her sister, Bella, and her brother, James, are resentful and when Clarissa attracts the attentions of the known libertine, Robert Lovelace, they try to bully her into marriage with a wealthy neighbour. Lovelace tricks Clarissa into running away with him.

PART II

In Part II, Lovelace has taken Clarissa to London to a house of some friends where he hopes to either convince her, or trick her, into marriage.

PART IV

Clarissa's tragic tale draws to its close. Having found refuge with Mrs and Mr Smith, and with Jack Belford, now her friend and supporter, and her cousin, Colonel Morden at her bedside, Clarissa dies having forgiven Lovelace. Lovelace seeks a duel with Colonel Morden and is mortally wounded. A few days later he dies, crying "Let this expiate!".

I listen to a lot of radio and more recently something which has occurred is when you listen to a radio phone-in and you get members of the public that call in, it’s really useful to sort of listen because you don’t have the visual contact, you’re just using your ear to hear somebody’s voice ... (Richard Armitage 'Venetia' interview for Naxos Audiobooks, March 2010)

I do enjoy Georgette Heyer, I think she’s a really comic writer. I’d like to strangle her, actually, for writing these incredibly long sentence constructions; but, actually, that’s part of the fun of it because we speak in such short sound bites these days and everything is so short and immediate that when you’re faced with a sentence which is really a paragraph long and you have to drive the thought through and keep the idea and the syntax all in the right place, I find that frustrating but really challenging, and when you get it right and you hit it, it’s very satisfying. (Richard Armitage 'Venetia' interview for Naxos Audiobooks)

Doing an audiobook for me is exactly where I get myself a little vocal workout. As I haven’t been on stage for a few years, it’s essential for me to remind myself what words do, and when you don’t have the essential line that you desperately need it doesn’t always work on film, so coming to this I, I find myself bathing in rich, super vocabulary that had been forgotten for me and reminding myself that four words that all mean the same but actually they feel different in the mouth, and there is one of them that’s the essential word and, and a writer like Georgette Heyer really understands that and uses her words really beautifully. (Richard Armitage 'The Convenient Marriage' interview for Naxos Audiobooks.)

Music is really important to me … I think music hits a certain different part of the body and I think it’s to do with the vibration of sound …, so I use music a lot with acting. I almost create a sound track to anything I’m doing even … sitting down to read, there’s almost an imaginary sound track happening in your head … I do think that there’s a resonance in music which is also the same in words; and … you can see the progression from the spoken word into the sung word is fascinating because as a character becomes more animated, so the vibration in their speech grows and eventually you go into song. …

(Richard Armitage, 'The Convenient Marriage' interview for Naxos Audiobooks.)