UPDATE: screencaps with corrected aspect ratio (below); looks more like RA.
[note: this video is sometimes set to “private” so may not play; check back sometime to try it again]
This video popped up on YouTube last week, and I was not going to put it up, but then Natalie put up a blog entry, Busting a Groove. Clever. Love that Nat!
I’m putting it up as well because my gut tells me it is him, and this is my part in making the video viRAl. LOL! Wonder how many of us will put it up on our sites. It is kind of fascinating. I took the liberty of making some screencaps. I feel like I’m analyzing the Zapruder film. Who was that on the grassy knoll, uh, yard? I’m not sure where to look to confirm it’s him, but the hands seem to be like his. Tell me what you think. Is it RA or not?
Follow-up post, Diggin’ Dorktastic.
Candid shots courtesy of my feeble efforts at capping.
edit: I have the video, but I never said that. ;-)
another edit (and almost four years later): since Tim Ward has released the video so publicly on Twitter, I’m going to post it with corrected aspect ratio. I made this at the time I first saw the video, and I have Elvira to thank for her insistence and education about AR and its importance. And if we’re going to view RA when he was a green lad, I’d rather not do it with him looking like a yard gnome.
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RAFrenzy 
..if it is he’s probably wishing right now that the earth would open up and swallow him. I know I would if it was me.
Do you really think it’s him?
I think not enough evidence is available to make a decision. Someone on the youtube comment page has written that the poster of the video was in a musical with Mr. Armitage at the time, so that speaks for it. On the other hand, if this is 1991, he would have been working in musical theatre for several years already at this point, which makes me less certain this is him.
Oh, and I am going to write something about it, I think, later today. Maybe. If I can get my act together on a few other pressing things…
I don’t know. I’m a natural skeptic so I corrected the aspect ratio and slowed the video way down on play back to really check it. When he’s dancing with the girl, it looks a lot like RA. He moves the same way and he looks down at her the way I’ve seen him do with actresses countless times. That’s quite a coincidence. He also has the same facial features, and he would be about the right age.
But you make a good point about him being a professional. The guy in the video is okay as a dancer. Not great but can hold his own.
Now I’m on the fence again. LOL!
Can’t wait to hear what you have to say.
Well, to play advocatus diaboli to my own argument, it’s very possible that they were at a party or something and just screwing around, and put this together in fifteen minutes, which professional dancers could do, so it looks sloppy because they just slapped it together for fun, not because they were not skilled professionals.
I’ve taken that into consideration. I’ve replaced the screencaps above with the ones from the clip with corrected aspect ratio. At least I think I got it right. Look how much more this looks like him, and once again he towers over everyone. Oh, and look at the profile in the second cap. I think I’m off the fence now. It’s him! LOL!
Yeah, these caps are a lot more convincing than the video was. OK, I’m willing to go in for it being him.
Yeah, it’s eerie how much it looks like him. That coupled with him and this Tim guy being in the same musical, and it sounds convincing.
BTW, I will try to post my objectification piece soon. I’m just not happy with it and keep changing it — as if it’s some treatise that will rock the RA Fandom. LOL!
Aaaaaaah!!! It totally looks like RA in your screencaps! HAHA! I laughed out loud at the end when he’s posing on the grass and the two other guys start rubbing the girl’s legs. I’m hoping they were just goofing off and not seriously trying to be sexy. :)
You have Elvira to thank. She is the video goddess! It really does make a big difference. I knew the AR was off, but I didn’t think it would make much difference. That was wrong. LOL!
I’m not sure if I’m still dubious because his face features are not clear enough to be sure or because I don’t want it to be him, LOL!
I agree with servetus, this might have put up just for fun, this looks like their putting on a show, smiling and having fun with what their doing.
If it is RA, I bet he must be saying ‘bloody internet!’ LOL
I don’t think he has anything to be ashamed of. I hope he doesn’t feel that way since I believe the video will become viral. I just couldn’t help participating in that. LOL!
It does look like Richard in these screencaps BUT, thought his natural haircolor was more of a medium brown which was first dyed black as JT? It looks black in this video. Of course, if it was posted by one of the other men in the play, and he identified RA – case closed. Has anyone identified the female? Did she appear in ’42nd Street’ as well?
[…] dorktastic past Note posting and comments at Richard Armitage Fan Blog and RAFrenzy on new video footage of Richard Armitage that surfaced on youtube recently. I’m linking, but […]
I don’t see anything here to be embarassed about. It just looks like fun.
However — whoever the fashion designer was in the ’80’s who invented the baggy jeans should just go shoot themselves!! Gaah!
@Phylly3,
Obviously, I agree with you about it not being embarrassing. I even like the baggy pants! :D
[…] Making it viRAl […]
That style of jean was actually good for certain figures, better than the low-rise jeans of the late 1990s and early 2000s. I actually think for someone with a generous posterior and broad thighs, it’s not a bad look.
[…] RAFrenzy. As far as I know the vid itself has been made […]
Coming up private when I try to view it so not sure what that is.
IIRC several years ago this video was put on You Tube by one of the lads who actually appears in it (not RA) They were all at the same school. Of course loads of RA fans viewed it – then it went private. It’s interesting to see it reappear again – gives everyone a chance for more RA forensics!
That’s actually his video that’s linked in my piece. He makes it private and then takes it off at times. He’s the same person (Tim Ward) who put up on Twitter the very youthful pics of RA.
I think it’s him!
At first I looked at the guy with black hair because I’m used to RA having black hair, but when he came into the scene and danced with the girl I knew it was him. God I’m laughing so much! This video is hilarious! And it’s totally something you would do with a bunch of friends in a gathering “Hey! I know all the moves to this song! Let’s do it!” The fact that the girl recording is laughing at the end just tells us how much a of a fun, jokey, thing this was supposed to be.
I doubt RA is embarrassed by this video, he seems like the guy who would just laugh his head off at it “God I forgot how weird I was back then!”
Bless. Everyone should have skeletons like this in their closets! :D
I think it’s him, too. The timing, the connection to someone in it. And his dancing is definitely that of a trained dancer. Maybe not a routine worked on for months, but as others said, thrown together by friends in a backyard. Even in that setting, their moves are not those of dorky kids from the 90s just having fun (I know, I was one!) Try learning that routine and executing those moves with pointed toe and clean falls. It’s harder than it looks.
And damn them for getting that stupid song back in my head after all these years! ;-)
If you look at the other videos posted by this person on YT the exact same video is uploaded 1 x month earlier…this time tagged with the names “David Massey, Tim Ward, Heather Sargent and Wayne Kurr having fun up Bristol!”. So Richard Armitage is not mentioned in the earlier upload. (I also thought it could have been him, but now, I don’t think so).