Another Richard Armitage Challenge! Social Distancing Edition #5

Least favorite episode of your favorite show?

My least favorite episode of my favorite show SPOOKS(MI-5) is Season 9, Episode 1, and that first scene at the end with Lucas North and Vaughn.

That is the moment my favorite show betrayed me and I hate the SPOOKS writers for it.  Even now after years have gone by, I still do hate them. 

Lucas North (Richard Armitage) is my favorite spy.  But I've been a fan of SPOOKS since Season 1 and Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen).  We were lucky here in the US to watch S1 on the new  (at the time) A&E network shortly after the show premiered in the UK. I really felt betrayed by the writers in Season 9.


There might still be Richard Armitage fans, new fans, that have never watched SPOOKS, so I won't spoil it for them.  

And the final episode of Season 9?  Let's just say, we only saw a hand.  

Another Richard Armitage Challenge! Social Distancing Edition #4

What's your favorite episode of your favorite show?

What is my favorite show?  

North & South for me is in its own category.  It is my Star 🌟 my Sun🌞.  It is the first time I saw Richard Armitage, the moment I discovered Richard Armitage, and it helped me in one of the darkest moments of my life some years ago, and continues to be a place I go to when I need to seek comfort and solace.

This is all an introduction to say that, putting North & South in a forever #1 in my heart 💖category, my favorite show is:

SPOOKS (MI-5)

My favorite Spooks episode is from Season 8, Episode 4.

Lucas North (Richard Armitage) was in a Russian prison for 8 years and in this episode his prison torturer, Oleg Darshavin (Emil Hostina), shows up in London looking for Lucas, Lucas North.

It's a very emotional episode and great interaction between the two actors, Richard Armitage as Lucas and Emil Hostina as Oleg. There is a love/hate relationship between the two of them.  We also see some of the pain, physical and emotional, that our favorite spy, Lucas, endured for those many years. 

Of course we also have the wonderful MI-5 team working together, both supporting Lucas but also doubting Dashavin, Harry, Ros, Ruth, Tariq, and Lucas. What a wonderful ensemble. I love them all.

Yes, we get also get Lucas' love, Sarah Caulfield (Genevieve O'Reilly).  I'll confess I didn't really want Lucas to rescue her. Really, what were they thinking with this character. Lucas deserved a better love.  But yes also in this episode you know that Lucas should not trust this woman and you know she will break his heart before the end of the season.

My MI-5 Men

Spooks  (or MI-5 in the US) is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. I first started watching on the A&E Network. For several years at the start they were a network to watch for new or newer UK shows. 

Later lovers of Spooks in the US had to become intelligence officers themselves to figure out where to find the series and when it was on. PBS in my area at least is notorious for moving the series around from prime time to midnight time with no notice. 

I'm having my own Spooks marathon this evening watching my favorite spy Lucas North. 

So happy that my favorite spies are doing so well these days.

Two Examples:

Richard Armitage - Lucas North

The Hobbit Trilogy and The Crucible 

David Oyelowo -  Danny Hunter

Selma and A Most Violent Year

"Colleagues are OK"

If you want to know more about Spooks (MI-5) click HERE

More about the wonderful cast click HERE

I have to admit I'm a bit underwhelmed by news of the new Spooks film that should be out spring 2015. I'm glad Harry (Peter Firth) is still around and it also stars Kit Harington.  


(Pics from Google Images)

Why Spooks? Why?

I was lucky to be able to watch Episode 2 of Spooks (MI-5), Series 10, late last night. (Thank you friend M, for making it possible, and Ricrar for alerting me about last night's episode!).  I was shocked that another beloved character has passed on to Spooks Heaven (I won't give it away here, but the news is already out there).  But I was also not shocked because after all, this is Spooks,and as an old fan of the series,I've come to expect characters to depart in all sorts of ways. I was happy though to see that it was a heroic death and we could all have good memories even if with a tear in our eye. (*Also, I was reminded of the real life spy death that inspired last night's episode.)


But then this morning, thanks to RichardArmitageNet.com, there is this radio interview clip with Nicola Walker and Peter Firth (see link below), and Nicola talks a bit about how Richard Armitage dealt with the reversal of his character, Lucas North.


http://www.richardarmitagenet.com/latestnews.html


So here I am, angry again, so very angry again, about what the Spooks writers did in Season 9 to the heroic character of Lucas North we grew to care for and admire from Season 7 and Season 8. It wasn't very original, or original at all, to make Richard Armitage play another villain, when he had just played a villain in another BBC series, Robin Hood. (Though I confess I love Guy of Gisborne, who had the reverse story arc, starting as a villain and ending as a hero. Thanks to Richard Armitage he was the most complex character in the Robin Hood series.) Even Ros (Hermione Norris) who was not the most loyal of spies on the Grid for most of the character's career in Spooks was allowed to die a hero. So why Spooks writers, why? If Lucas had to go, because it was time or because Richard Armitage was cast in The Hobbit, why not let the character die a heroic death? 


We need more heroes in this world.

Thank you to RichardArmitageNet.com

*The Real Life Death-by-Umbrella** of Georgi Markov: In 1978 Bulgarian dissident writer Markov was killed on the streets of London after a ricin pellet was fired into his leg by means of an umbrella. His death was ordered by Bulgarian Intelligence. The real life case was referenced in Sunday's episode of Spooks in a scene with Sacha Gavrik. You can read the details HERE.  I  also thought the Spooks writers were inspired by the story of Alexander Litvinenko, a real life former agent of the KGB and later FSB. He had left with his family for the UK and lived in London. He died as a result of radioactive poisoning administered in a mysterious way after meeting with two former KGB agents. It is still an unresolved case.  Yes, truth is stranger than fiction.














** Thanks to The Compleat Sean Bean for inspiring the title :)

How was your day Lucas?

A day in the life of my favorite spy, Lucas North:

May 21, 2011 - This Just In - Lucas North finds True Love

My Interest in William Blake's Birthday

I saw today on Roger Ebert's Blog that it is William Blake's Birthday!

I knew vaguely about William Blake from my college days, but just recently I became interested in finding out more about his work because of this man:

So thanks  to Spooks (MI-5) and the character of Lucas North, played by RICHARD ARMITAGE  now I know more about Blake's work and find his artwork especially interesting:

William Blake (1757-1827) was a fascinating figure and ahead of his time.  Find out more about him HERE.

(photos from RichardArmitageNet)