I know some of you get alerts when the words ‘Richard Armitage’ are entered somewhere on the web, and perhaps you get them when ‘John Thornton’ or ‘North and South’ are entered or maybe the ubiquitous ‘girlfriend.’ Might make your heart speed up a little bit when you get one, and blast! sometimes it’s a false alarm. Whatever the case, I know some of us spend time looking at what others have written about our favorite guy. In fact, if someone needs their hit count boosted for a few days, they have only to add the name Richard Armitage somewhere on the page, and they’ll get it. LOL!
What I love is reading the comments of people who have just discovered him or who dismissed him and then finally watched something, and almost needless to say were converted. I just read one of those. :D
Before I actually saw ”NORTH AND SOUTH”, I had read a great deal about the John Thornton character and actor Richard Armitage, who had portrayed him. Granted, the man possessed unusual looks, but I never gave him much thought . . . until I saw a clip of his performance in the miniseries’ marriage proposal scene. But once I saw the miniseries in its entirety, I could see why Armitage’s performance had generated a slew of fans. His John Thornton blew me away. Literally.
Read here for the rest of the comments on RA’s performance. It’s the 13th paragraph down. At least I think it’s the 13th.
Then there are the posts where I learn something “important”:
“North and South” went through a sad process of editing when BBC America aired it in July 2005. A full hour was cut from the miniseries to make room for commercials.
Found here. The whole post is a treat.
A full hour cut?! Is that true? If so, that’s criminal! Thank heaven for YouTube.
Picture me trolling the web with my tongue hanging out.
Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com.
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RAFrenzy 
The netflix streamable version of the show apparently cuts the “Look Back at Me” scene. (I was informed of this by a friend; I’ve never watched it on netflix). Sometimes editing is just inexplicable. That saved them what? 30 seconds? And it’s one of everyone’s favorite scenes …
I regularly get hits from a google search richard armitage -cia -plame. That must inadvertently cut out some Spooks posts …
I’ve watched North and South on Netflix, but it’s been a while. When I watched it, that wasn’t the scene missing. It was one near the end that included JT going to Helstone. But the Look Back at Me scene was definitely there. Wonder why they changed it.
I also get hits with those search terms, and actually, my alerts have those as well. The minus delimiter is a must to cut out the false alerts! LOL!
Thanks for the links.
I didn’t know Daniella first auditioned for the role of Fanny nor that BBC-A cut *an hour* of the miniseries, what a shame!
“What I love is reading the comments of people who have just discovered him or who dismissed him and then finally watched something, and almost needless to say were converted. ”
Yeah, it makes me grin, I think those are the stories of most of his fans post-N&S’ original airing.
LOL, I’m sure the VulpesLibris people can testify about a page’s count hit :P.
OML :)
Cuts and commercials (on BBC Canada) are the reason I’ll wait (impatiently) for DVD availability on Region 1. Perhaps a region-free player would be cheaper in the long run. But the DVDs don’t come cheap either. The cost of actor-addiction!
@fitzg,
I assume you’re talking about other works of RA since N&S is already in region 1. I was barely aware of different regions when I started watching RA. There had been another show several years ago that I wanted in DVD and couldn’t get because it was only region 2, but I didn’t remember that until I tried to get Sparkhouse.
No you are not the only one – I also do this and sometimes I think it’s a bit unnecessary but I guess once it’s set up you don’t really think about it except when examining the results! I keep my searches broad and so they are a bit of a blunt instrument. BTW I am sure I saw the post you are referring to above some weeks ago originally.
It was actually a few months ago, and was a blogspot. When I saw it again as a livejournal entry, I thought maybe I should read it.
A full HOUR was cut?! That sounds like a really crazy amount to me. I actually watched it for the first time via Youtube, and then got it from my public library. I don’t remember seeing any differences. I did see that the DVD extras had some scenes which were cut, but they were not in the version that I saw on Youtube either.
The netflix version definitely had some cuts compared to the other 2 versions of N&S I saw, but I don’t remember it being an hour’s worth of material. Maybe despite the fact that I ‘ve seen the movie via three methods, (Youtube, DVD at the library, and netflix) have in essence seen the same version 3 times, so I don’t know that I’ve actually never seen an hour’s worth of film. If so, that stinks!
It was BBCA who made the hour long cut, or at least that’s what I read. I’m wondering what in the world they could have cut that wouldn’t greatly alter the story!
I don’t remember any scenes missing when I first watched N&S. But I either watched it on PBS or TV Ontario neither of which has commercials so therefore no reason for any cuts! Thank goodness for public television!
I just watched North & South last week on Netflix Watch Instantly. I kept wanting to re-watch certain parts, so I found a DVD version. There is SO Much cut from the Netflix Watch Instantly version (which must have been also the BBC America version). Not a full hour, but a noticeable chunk. Each episode on Netflix WI is 51-52 minutes long while each DVD episode is about 58 minutes long. Lots of things suddenly make more sense now – like Fanny had a conversation with Margaret about the water mattress before Margaret came over to borrow it in Ep 2. Whole scenes like the goodbye scene with Nicholas and Mary Higgins were cut. Lots of bits of other scenes were cut. If you have any friends, don’t let them watch the cut version first! One thing on the DVD was an “extended proposal scene” – so this wasn’t on the English broadcast version, either. That REALLY shoudn’t have been cut, since Margaret’s refusal of Thornton makes a lot more sense (she says she heard his mother and sister talking about her, and she was outraged that they were saying she purposefully put Thornton in a position where he would have to ask her to marry him). Cutting it up was a huge mistake.
Welcome, Marilyn!
Yes, that is a wonderful scene that was butchered. It says a lot about this movie and the actors that even with that butchering, we still consider it great. What a shame though.
For those who don’t own the DVD, Heather (aka Heathdances, HeathRA) uploaded it to YouTube: