LEADING actor Richard Armitage has said work on TV productions should be spread throughout the UK.
It comes after industry and government representatives from all three devolved nations called on Ofcom to change plans which will allow Channel 4 to concentrate its budget in England.
The media regulator was criticised for suggesting Channel 4 should be allowed to spend just 9% of its budget outwith England – rather than the 16% which would reflect the UK’s population spread. Ofcom then raised the figure to 12% but critics say the percentage, which would apply to both spending and total produced screen hours, is still too low.
Ofcom is also not proposing to enforce the 12% figure until 2030, sparking further anger and questions about the legitimacy of Channel 4’s “4 All The UK” project – which claims the broadcaster is “fully committed to harnessing the power of our regional structure to increase our impact across the UK”.
Speaking to the Sunday National while visiting the Edinburgh TV Festival last week, Armitage said he was an advocate for a spread of the money available for productions.
As well as starring in many major films and TV series such as The Hobbit, Fool Me Once and Red Eye, Armitage has begun writing novels with his debut, Geneva, a best-seller last year.
His second novel, The Cut, is set in the Midlands and he said if there were to be a screen production of the book, he would want it shot there using a locally based company so that money was generated in the area.
“I advocate that and that is what we need to work on,” he said pointing out that Karen Pirie, a recent TV series shot in Scotland was a “big success”.
Armitage added he is also passionate about generating content from homegrown writers and making sure that the industry here isn’t just a service industry for the US market.
“Co-productions are amazing but we don’t want to just be servicing the US industry; we want to generate and grow our own talent,” he said.
Asked whether he is more critical of scripts since becoming a best-selling author, Armitage laughed that he’d “always been critical” of the scripts he is given.
“I am a diplomat by nature and I have bitten my lip over the years but I also think I have been a thorn in the sides of some writers and producers,” he said. “However, you can learn to do it diplomatically so they don’t get hot under the collar.”
Does it make him more concerned about possible plot holes in his novels?
“Definitely but I also understand that if you pull one thread, another thing falls apart, and if you fill in one plot hole, another one appears. It is really complicated but I have learnt from experience that in order to solve one problem, you have to create another coincidence elsewhere and it is a real juggling act.”
The Cut is being exclusively released as an Audible Original with a hardback version planned for next year.
Written and narrated by Armitage, it takes place on a Hollywood film set in a small chocolate box village in the Midlands, where a murder involving five school friends took place 30 years before.
Armitage is no stranger to audible books having recorded several, including some accompanying the first season of the TV series Robin Hood where he played Guy of Gisbourne.
“There is something very basic and raw about somebody reading and telling you a story,” he said. “You respond to it emotionally and to me the audio experience is giving you that in a very kind of modern technical way.
“People have their preferences but as long as they are receiving a story and being transported by it, I don’t mind how. Personally, I love reading a story and I love being read to, so for me, that is the gateway. Storytelling is an essential part of life.”
The Cut has already been described by Harlan Coben as “a chilling, atmospheric thriller with characters you’ll never forget” and seems likely to follow Geneva into being adapted for the screen. The latter is set in Switzerland and Armitage hopes it will move into production in time for him to play the lead role as he is a keen skier.
“I am an obsessive skier and I want to shoot a scene on skis like in Live And Let Die,” he laughed. “But sometimes development takes years and if it takes too long, I will be too old in the tooth to play it and might have to play one of the older characters.”
The switch to writing has been helped by the skills he has picked up as a successful actor and the self-discipline he has learned through his early years as a musician and dancer as well as learning lines for parts.
“Television series like Spooks and Robin Hood and all of the Harlan Coben work I have done in recent years has really helped me to understand how to structure a book and once I started writing I became addicted to that process,” he said. “It is quite a cathartic experience for me.”
Armitage fits in writing around his acting work, even using any spare time on set.
“I’ve been writing on aeroplanes, and on a film set, you spend a lot of time in a trailer waiting around to shoot your final scene for the day so there is time,” he said. “But my Sunday morning ritual is to get up a few hours early and write a chapter or two and that has been very pleasurable.”
