Matthew Macfadyen Ripper Street: Matthew Macfadyen On The Joys Of Period Pieces & His Fancy Bowler Hat - Access Hollywood

http://watch.accesshollywood.com/video/ripper-street:-matthew-macfadyen-on-the-joys-of-pieces-his-fancy-bowler-hat/2101346295001?&page=24

Ripper Street Review - Episode 6 (Spoilers for US)

This week's Ripper Street finally reveals a few of Detective Reid's secrets. Here's Jamie-Lee's review...

This review contains spoilers

1.6 Tournament of Shadows

Now three-quarters of the way through this beautifully bloody journey through the streets of Whitechapel in the months after the serials killings of Jack the Ripper, we are finally offered a brief insight into the background and inner workings of Ripper Street's lead character. Master of the bowler hat and sardonic quip, Detective Inspector Edmund Reid is played by Matthew Macfadyen of Spooks, Mr Darcy and husband of voice of Lara Croft fame. He even does those Marks and Spencers adverts, which is why you may find yourself wanting hot chocolate pudding oozing with cream and lashings of, ohhh, anyway... He has used his brooding skills demonstrably when hiding his feelings of pain about his daughter and somewhat awkward marriage in this gritty series and his MI5 training from Spooks has proved useful for authority, particularly when dishing out the dirty work to his right-hand men Drake and Jackson. He’s also shown that he’s not afraid of a rough and tumble himself when putting Jackson in his place, or giving one or two ruffians or embassy staff a swift backhand.

Ripper Street offers a plethora of on-going interesting characters and sub-plots to keeps viewers entertained alongside each week’s main plot, and this week’s episode is once again completely different from anything we’ve seen in the previous five. The H Division are left dealing with the dock strike of ’89 and rather unpleasant anarchists are stirring up trouble. A bomber is killed in an ‘accidental explosion’ revealing a deadly Communist plot, although as this is Whitechapel and prime time BBC One viewing, all is not what is seems. When Reid thinks everything looks a bit circumspect, he faces a backlash from Special Branch. Not heeding his warnings from above, he comes across something more unpleasant and sinister than the criminals roaming the streets, and far closer to home. In addition, we get a taste of what’s to come in the future storyline, when we discover that Jackson may not be who he say he is at all. Not so happily coerced into going undercover for Reid during the strike, he performs brilliantly, saving Drake’s life in the process. However, how far does and can his acting and betrayal go?

READ MORE: http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/ripper-street/24338/ripper-street-episode-6-review-tournament-of-shadows

Richard Armitage on radio tonight - LISTEN HERE!!

JUST GOT A TWEET THAT HE'LL BE ON TOMORROW - HE'S STILL OVER LOS ANGELES OR SOMETHING - I'LL GET THE TIME OUT TOMORROW....RATS AND MICE!!!!!

TWEET REGARDING RICHARD ARMITAGE:  (THANK YOU TO RICHARD ARMITAGE ARMY FACEBOOK)

BBC Leicester
‏@BBCLeicester
Richard Armitage - star of Spooks, Robin Hood and The Hobbit - joins @davearadio live from LA after 5pm on 104.9FM to talk #RichardIII

**********Listen Here********

Matthew Macfadyen Tribute - filmography 1997-2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-C_q9i-I-Y

The "Darcylicious" Matthew Macfadyen

 Awake My Soul

Matthew Macfadyen: Ripper Street to return for second series Gritty detective drama set in Victorian London starring Matthew Macfadyen has been a hit on BBC1 and BBC America (GUARDIAN)

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ripper%20street

Maggie Brown
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 January 2013 08.57 EST


BBC1 has ordered a second series of Ripper Street, the gritty Sunday night drama starring Matthew Macfadyen.

The BBC confirmed that a second, eight-part series was due for broadcast in 2014.

Ripper Street's first series, set in London's East End after the hunt for Jack the Ripper was called off in 1889, has averaged 7.1 million viewers and a 22.9% audience share so far, according to consolidated ratings including seven-day catchup viewing.

Macfadyen features as a police inspector, with Jerome Flynn as his sergeant colleague and Adam Rothenberg an American surgeon and former Pinkerton detective.

The first episode resulted in more than 90 viewers complaining about insensitive scheduling, because of the combination of sex and violence so close to the 9pm watershed.

But critics have praised the production, by Tiger Aspect and Look Out Point, for its authentic depiction of Victorian London, and gritty contrast to traditional costume dramas.

Ripper Street is a BBC Worldwide co-production which airs on BBC America, where it has been the US cable channel's most successful drama apart from Doctor Who.

READ MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jan/29/ripper-street-second-series

MATTHEW MADFADYEN: A Modest Defense Of Matthew MacFadyen's Darcy (HUFF POST BLOG)

Rebecca Harrington

I will admit, the first time I saw Joe Wright's 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, I walked out of the theater in a fit of rage.

"The climatic scene took place outside in a garden? And it rained?" I screamed at my friend on the walk back home. "What is this crap, Jane Eyre?

My friend muttered in agreement.

"Also, changing the words of Jane Austen ever so slightly? Who does he think he is? Does he think he's cleverer than Jane Austen? He is not!" I said. I kept uttering versions of these two sentiments for the rest of evening. Really, I am a boring friend.

Flash forward several years, when I recently rewatched the film while feeling especially sick and lying prone on my couch. I still had much of the same feelings I had the first time. Why did so much of it take place outside? Why were Keira's bangs plastered onto her forehead like she was also sick?

But I was also granted another revelation about the film, and that was that Matthew MacFadyen was a great Darcy. Possibly the best I've ever seen.

I think there are two ways to interpret the character of Darcy. Explicitly, of course, he is motivated by a sense of genuine superiority. He is both cool and arrogant-- only able to get his comeuppance from meeting his intellectual equal. But I think one can give equal and perhaps more naturalistic weight to the idea that Darcy's behavior is motivated by a fundamental awkwardness. He is, we know, an anti-social man. He has few friends or aquaintances he enjoys.

When we first meet Darcy, he is refusing to dance and surveying the women in the room rather too harshly. "She is tolerable," he says to Bingley about Elizabeth, "but not handsome enough to tempt me." This sentiment is on the face of it arrogant, but it is also bespeaks a tremendous awkwardness. Who goes to a dance only to ridicule the other people there? Nerds, that is who. Popular kids, like Mr. Bingley et al, usually dance when asked. Darcy's first proposal scene, which many interpret as an immodest display of power, could really be the indelicate verbal vomit of someone unused to behaving in a socially normal way.

READ MORE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-harrington/a-modest-defense-of-matth_b_2552393.html

Ripper Street: BBC gets it right again with this ripping good unsettling yarn JOHN DOYLE The Globe and Mail Published Friday, Jan. 25 2013, 5:00 PM EST Last updated Friday, Jan. 25 2013, 7:23 PM EST

The good, gruesome new Brit drama Ripper Street (Saturday, Space, 9 p.m.) is set in 1889 and yet feels both contemporary and very familiar.

For the umpteenth time in movies and TV, we’re taken back to the era of Jack the Ripper – the filthy, teeming streets of London, brothels, bodices and earnest police officers trying to use new technology and forensic evidence to solve crimes.


The sense of the contemporary was emphatic in the opening episode. The setting was the period when Jack the Ripper seemed to have stopped his killing spree, and viewers first saw a ghoulish bit of tourism unfold – people were being led around East London to see the exact spots where the Ripper’s victims were found. At the same time, there was an avid tabloid press competing for new information about the serial killer.

A body was found. It looked like the Ripper’s work, but was it? It was the task of Police Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen), his Detective Sergeant Drake (Jerome Flynn from Game of Thrones) and Captain Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg), a former Pinkerton detective and U.S. Army surgeon, to determine what was going on.

The seediness and depravity of London during the period was on full display (in the U.K., where Ripper Street has been airing recently on the BBC, there were many complaints from viewers about some gory, blood-soaked scenes), and the series continues to be unafraid to disturb.

The second episode airs on Saturday – you can find the pilot on demand – and it becomes clear that each episode is both an excellent mystery and highlights a key aspect of the period in which it is set. The first episode dwelt much on the arrival of commercial pornography. This one deals with the role of children in the late Victorian period.

READ MORE:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/ripper-street-a-ripping-good-unsettling-yarn/article7861512/

Matthew Macfadyen, MyAnna Buring in EPIC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FbhxVHhiyJE

MUSIC BOX TV: GEORGIA


THANKS AGAIN TO MY CHIEF FIELD REPORTER - EMILIA RAVENNA!!!

Richard Armitage: Fans in clamour for actor to become king Wednesday, January 23, 2013 Leicester Mercury Follow By Gemma Peplow

Leicestershire actor Richard Armitage has spoken several times about his interest in King Richard III and ideas to tell his story on the big screen or on the stage.

And his own army of fans from all corners of the world are right behind him.


Roswitha Gerhart, who lives in Munich, Germany, has co-launched an online "support network" for a film or theatre production, and more than 1,100 fans have signed up.

Richard Armitage, who most recently played dwarf Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit, was named after the last Plantagenet king, and has spoken about his story in many publications – including the Leicester Mercury's More magazine last month.


During the interview, he said: "I managed to get home and see my parents in Huncote when we finished filming The Hobbit in New Zealand.

"It was just as they were finding the Richard III bones in that car park. I'm excited to hear about the findings of this DNA, I've watched with interest.

"Richard III, now that's a play. I was named after him. My father's a historical fanatic about his character and I've inherited that enthusiasm, but I know by the time I get the chance I'll be too old and too tall to play the role.

"I'd somehow like to realise that part of history."

KING RICHARD ARMITAGE PETITION

READ MORE: http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Fans-clamour-actor-king/story-17937749-detail/story.html

Ripper Street - Episode 2 Preview (BBC AMERICA)

http://www.bbcamerica.com/ripper-street/videos/the-dead-room/

Matthew Macfadyen filming EPIC (video) (GNFC)

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2680591830047&set=vb.114327075295743&type=2&theater

Sorry about the small video - probably better for you to look right at the main link above

Matthew Macfadyen talks 'Ripper Street' and 'Anna Karenina' New BBC America drama premieres on Saturday night BY DANIEL FIENBERG SATURDAY, JAN 19, 2013 3:33 AM (HIT FIX)

Like many a British thespian, Matthew Macfadyen has reliably bounced back and forth between the big screen and television, whether wooing Elizabeth Bennett in "Pride & Prejudice" or battling international intrigue in "MI-5."

Fresh off a well-received supporting turn as Oblonsky in Joe Wright's "Anna Karenina" this winter, Macfadyen is back on TV on Saturday (January 19) night fighting crime in Victorian England in BBC America's "Ripper Street."

During the Television Critics Association press tour this month, I sat down with MacFadyen to talk about his role as Detective Inspector Edmund Reid on "Ripper Street," which was created by Richard Warlow and co-stars Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg. We also talked a bit about Wright's highly theatrical Tolstoy adaptation, as well as his creative process.

Click through...

HitFix: I know you said on the panel that it was the script that attracted you, but what was the kernel that piqued your interest?

Matthew Macfadyen: It's the whole thing, I think. I wasn't a kernel. It was the writing, the character, the idea of doing a series sorta appealed and it took me by surprise, because it wasn't my plan to do another series. I wasn't looking for a series to do and it just sorta ticked a lot of boxes and it was... yeah.


HitFix: How much was it that you didn't want to do a series and you were surprised to find one that appealed to you and how much was it just that you weren't specifically looking to do another series?

Matthew Macfadyen: I just read it like this [he mimes flipping through the pages swiftly] and thought, "This is fabulous." That's the acid test, whether you want to read it and want to be in it.


HitFix: It seems like there are these rules that America actors often seem to stick to, like "I don't want to do television, I want to do..." And British actors seem not to feel bound by that same restrictions. And that always seen a little odd.

Matthew Macfadyen: Yeah. I feel like an actor. I'm not a movie actor or a theater actor. I'd like to work in all three mediums.


HitFix: But when you have a pile of scripts, does your eye go to what medium an individual project is destined for?

Matthew Macfadyen: No. A little bit. You sorta factor it in. It's a combination of practicalities and the script and also how much it's going to stretch you or how different it is to the thing you've done most recently. Those kinds of things.


HitFix: So tell me about how the character here, about how Reid stretched you from the thing you did previously?

Matthew Macfadyen: Well, what was the last thing I did? I'd played this buffoon in a movie before that, so it was a very different kind of character. He's quite a solid detective part. I just wanted to be part of the show.


HitFix: Is this a time period that you have an interest in? Or does that factor into your decision?

Matthew Macfadyen: Sure. Yeah. More and more I found it fascinating and I looked at a lot of... I spent hours looking at photographs before we started shooting and during the shoot, which I found endlessly fascinating. You're sorta looking to see how different it is, because I know the streets, I know the area where we were shooting, so it's fascinating life. They had these big pictures of London life in the period. So... ummm... Yeah. It's all interesting stuff.


HitFix: Where were you doing this research?

Matthew Macfadyen: At home on my computer.


HitFix: Just Googling...

Matthew Macfadyen: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.


HitFix: How does that kind of research inform you when you're actually putting together the character, what you can learn from looking at pictures?

Matthew Macfadyen: I don't know. I don't know how my performance would have been any different had I not looked at the photographs, but it's just interesting. You can't play "research." You can kind of have ideas, but it was just sort of interesting and allows your imagination to work, I suppose.

Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/the-fien-print/matthew-macfadyen-talks-ripper-street-and-anna-karenina#5GpDdYDQ06hqVFrM.99 

RICHARD ARMITAGE JOINED A CIRCUS WHEN HE WAS 19 (FANSHARE)

Richard Armitage is full of surprises, not least of which that he joined the circus when he was a young boy.  In a new interview with Nylon Guys, Armitage talks about his youth, and adds that while he didn’t run away as originally rumored, he did join the circus.  He says, “I did join a circus, but I never ran away. I was 19 and needed an Equity card.”

Armitage has become a familiar face to the global audience thanks to his strong performance as Thorin Oakenshield in ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’.  With two sequels coming out in the next few years, Armitage is here to stick around.  Of his work in ‘The Hobbit’, he says, “If this opportunity had come to me 10 years ago, I would not have survived.  I wouldn’t have known what to do with it. Now I feel like I’ve got an opinion to bring to it, my own interpretation of the character and the book, but other things as well, attitudes that I think we can make resonate with a contemporary audience: honor, loyalty, nobility, corruption.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=u6YV7mkqc1g#!

Read more: http://www.fansshare.com/news/richard-armitage-joined-circus-when-he-was-19/#ixzz2IR6ONlRn

Victorian sex & violence is gRIPPING - Says Matthew MacFadyen (THE SUN)

EXCLUSIVE By LAURA ARMSTRONG

MATTHEW MacFADYEN has defended Ripper Street against claims it is too graphic – insisting that most Brits RELISH Victorian sex and violence.

Nearly 90 viewers have complained since the BBC1 crime series, set in east London in the Jack The Ripper era, started two weeks ago.

But former Spooks actor Matthew, who plays detective inspector Edmund Reid, reckons the gritty reality shown on screen is an essential part of the show’s appeal.

He told TV Biz: “I think people are fascinated by Victorian attitudes towards sex and society. And back then in the East End there was enormous poverty.

“Actually, it was the Ripper murders that brought to light the dire poverty in the East End. They showed them up to a greater audience.”

He added: “Ripper Street is a very original thing really. The script grabs you because it is bombastic, big and colourful and grimy as well. There’s lots of stuff in there.

“And being able to go back to seedy Whitechapel is brilliant.

“The show designer is a supremely talented man and his team have been fantastic.

“All of the sets are as it was back then. There’s a toymaker’s shop, a pub, an orphanage and an asylum and all kinds of different things, so it’s great.”

He said: “My character, Reid, is a very dedicated and forward-thinking policeman. What I find interesting is that there’s nothing jaded about him.

“I wanted to get away from the classic ‘seen it all, done it all’ copper and he’s definitely not that.

“He’s progressive and interested in the innovations of the age.

“But he has also got quite a lot of anger and a fairly dark past.

READ MORE: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/4746229/exclusive-matthew-macfadyen-defends-bbc-drama-ripper-street.html

Matthew Macfadyen, (PHOTOS) PRESS CONFERENCE EPIC UK-German-Russian-Georgian

Epic by Ben Hopkins a UK-German-Russian-Georgian co-production Press Conference — with Matthew Macfadyen and Mike Downey.

PICTURES FROM THE GEORGIAN NATIONAL FILM CENTER FACEBOOK PAGE
https://www.facebook.com/pages/GNFC-Georgian-National-Film-Center/114327075295743

Matthew Macfadyen (VIDEO) Signs to Star in Ben Hopkins' 'Epic' 10:02 AM PST 1/11/2013 by Stuart Kemp (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) (now I know what this strange video was about)

The film, co-written by Hopkins with BAFTA winner Pawel Pawlikowski, is set to begin shooting in Georgia this month.

LONDON -- Matthew Macfadyen, the star of BBC's Ripper Street,  Myanna Buring and Noah Taylor have signed to star in Ben Hopkins' Epic, a U.K.-Germany-Russia-Georgia co-production.

Co-written by Hopkins along with BAFTA winner Pawel Pawlikowski, the movie is billed as "gentle black comedy."

t details the story of a washed-up Oscar winning British film director, named Emil Forester (Macfadyen), who gets invited to make a national epic in an obscure Caucasus Republic called Karastan.

READ MORE: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/matthew-macfadyen-signs-epic-ben-hopkins-411284

Time to Meet Another Character from Ripper Street: Sergeant Drake (Dread Central)

By THE WOMAN IN BLACK
   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UZpucyjPU6E


"Game of Thrones" fans love him as Bronn, but Jerome Flynn has another role he wants you to know about. He portrays Sergeant Bennet Drake on BBC America's "Ripper Street," whom he describes as "a refined musclehead." Learn more about him in this new promo video for the show.

Drake, Inspector Reid's right-hand, is a hard man with some harder demons. Ex-army, his fists often deliver the blow needed to get a suspect talking. But Drake is fiercely loyal to Reid, the Inspector who saw the potential in him - beyond a supreme ability to crack heads.

The series kicks off on Saturday, January 19th.


READ MORE  http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/62716/time-meet-another-character-ripper-street-sergeant-drake

Matthew Macfadyen and GOT’s Jerome Flynn Talk BBC America’s Ripper Street Leave a Comment Posted by gamenews123

BBC America is set to premiere their period procedural crime drama Ripper Street beginning on January 19 (the show is already airing in the U.K.).

Set in Victorian London, the series focuses on Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen), who is haunted by the failure to catch the notorious Jack the Ripper. Reid heads up H Division, the toughest district in London’s East End, as new murder investigations bring the fear that Jack could be back. Ripper Street also stars Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones), Adam Rothenberg (Alcatraz), Myanna Buring (The Twilight Saga, White Heat) and David Dawson (Luther, Secret Diary of a Call Girl).

Series creator Richard Warlow, Executive producer Will Gould, Macfadyen, Flynn and Rothenberg were all present at today’s TCA (Television Critics Association) tour to talk about the show.


Ripper Street is structured as a procedural crime drama set against London’s East End, shaken in the wake of the still-at-large Jack the Ripper.

"The whole point of the show is that its about what it was like for the police at the time, the confusion and loss," said series creator Richard Warlow.

The show does not plan to create a manufactured "reveal" of who the Ripper is at its conclusion. The intent is to focus on what the failure to capture him did to do the officers who hunted the killer, and to a community that felt the need to raise civilian forces to do the work that, some felt, the officials either would not, or could not accomplish.

The idea isn’t to solve the legend, but rather to, "do a period drama that delved into the bloodier/darker side of our past, rather than just people sitting around drinking tea," Warlow says.

"We will explore the aftermath into the second series, and the Ripper’s presence will always be a part of our characters lives," executive producer Will Gould added.

Though it is period, what interested the creators and the cast is that the characters would actually consider themselves, "quite modern," Macfadyen says.

Adding: "They would have felt incredibly cutting edge."

"I found Reid fascinating because he’s not a stock detective character, he’s a modern and forward looking man rather than a jaded copper," Macfayden says.


READ MORE: https://gamenews123.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/matthew-macfadyen-and-gots-jerome-flynn-talk-bbc-americas-ripper-street/

Ripper Street Review of Episode 2 (DEN OF GEEK)

Review Jamie-Lee Nardone

This week's Ripper Street plays out like a post-watershed Oliver Twist. Here's Jamie-Lee's review...


This review contains spoilers.

1.2 In My Protection

Imagine your worst nightmare: a plague of zombies, an infestation of giant spiders under the bed, or a massive scratch on your limited edition The Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray ... Now try and fathom something far more evil and you will have a vague idea of the level of depravity that the second episode of Ripper Street approaches. That’s right. Last week, it was Victorian snuff movies. This week, it’s Children Who Kill. And how. Think Oliver Twist, if Tarantino had been around offering advice to Dickens during a session in the local ale house, after devouring a year’s worth of penny dreadfuls.

The episode starts with the killing of a toymaker. A fourteen year old boy carrying the dead man’s possessions is brought to the police by a group of vigilantes who seek justice for the streets of London. This group is lead by George Lusk, played by Michael Smiley who, as usual, does not fail to impress. Assuming the role as a voice of the people with lynch mob mentality and the kind with lack of attention to details, he stirs up tension among the public and openly taunts Detective Inspector Reid (Matthew Macfadyen), claiming that he and his force are ineffectual and his mob need to do his job for him. Lusk rallies them to court and seeks the ultimate punishment for the boy, who refuses to neither speak nor deny the charge and is sentenced to death.


Enter Carmichael, played by the phenomenal Joe Gilgun of This is England and Misfits fame to stir things up as Whitechapel’s very own X-rated Fagin. Leading an army of orphan-criminals, he plays the perfect psychopath, demanding respect at all costs. And he’s not merely teaching them to pick a pocket or two. There’s something much darker going on with him.

But Reid is perturbed by the child’s silence, and aided by a concerned lawyer and orphanage governess, decides to get to the bottom of what actually happened and what is currently going on at the hands of Carmichael’s thirst for unyielding subservience, obedience and crime. Oh, and his army of teeny, tiny assassins.

READ MORE: http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/ripper-street/23985/ripper-street-episode-2-review-in-my-protection

Ripper Street - Episode Three

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhQmOrXKidA