10 year fan journey

Around this time of the year, 10 years ago, I became a Richard Armitage fan / well-wisher / follower of his work, whatever you want to call it…

My parents had given me a North & South DVD for Christmas 2005, a little over a year after it had aired on the BBC. They didn’t know this miniseries but because they knew I am a sucker for a period drama, especially a BBC one, they figured they couldn’t go wrong with that. I had missed this period drama on TV and thought that, had it been any good, I would surely have heard more about it. So, I parked it – after all, 4 hours is a huge chunk out of your day and with a husband, a job and two small kids I just could not muster up the courage to invest my time in something that could very well be a disappointment. Then I became ill, struck down by flu, and while rummaging through the DVD’s for something to watch on my laptop in bed, I came across the North & South DVD again. “Oh why not?” I thought. I was going to watch one episode and then take another nap but then this happened…

Headache be damned, I could not stop watching and by the time “Look back at me” happened…

… I knew for sure that I had reached a point of no return! I watched the whole 4 hours in bed before the kids came home from school/daycare… The next day I watched again… and then after that again… and again… suffice it to say, it’s the best time I ever had being sick!

Once I felt a little better I started searching online for any info on Richard Armitage. I joined the C19 message board (one of the boards set up after the BBC message boards had crashed over fan reception of N&S), I started watching fan videos (and later started making them myself for other shows), I tried to get my hands on other work Richard had done, I hunted for interviews, I started reading fan fiction and I watched anything new he was doing. Heck, I even wrote a fanfic continuing on where N&S had ended!

To my utter delight 8 or 9 months after I had discovered Richard he had a part on one of my favourite comedies The Vicar of Dibley…

…and then of course I watched Robin Hood (didn’t like the show much, only watched for Richard) and Spooks and Strikeback and all that came inbetween and then The Hobbit happened …. and The Crucible…

 

…and here we are and it’s 10 years on!

I have always been more of a lurker in the fandom, preferring to not engage too much, because frankly, who has the time? I sure didn’t, with a job, a husband, two young children and pretending to have a bit of a social life as well. In addition, I was always a little iffy about belonging to large groups, I do not want to be part of some sort of Richard-religion, where I’d have to abide by certain rules and regulations. I just want to be my own kind of fan, on my own terms. I didn’t want to be involved in bust-ups or arguments that happened even then (I still don’t). So, I read and watched and looked and listened and surfed the net and very occasionally commented but mostly enjoyed being a Richard fan on my own. Well, not completely on my own… I have always shared my obsessions with my husband and he has always been very cheerfully supportive. Yes, lucky me. 🙂 So, I was fine with my personal fangirling ways for many years and honestly, I still would be fine with that… And then I started blogging because now, with the kids growing up, I have a little more time on my hands.

I didn’t start blogging because of Richard, I started blogging because I wanted to document certain things I am preoccupied with at any point in time. That means blogging about Richard, but also about any other number of things. Of course, I could have documented all that in private (which I used to do way back when, when I had diary) but something compelled me to do it publicly on the internet. I mean, if I enjoy something, maybe there’d be other like-minded people out there who enjoyed the same thing and they’d like reading my blog? If not, fine; if yes, fine as well! So, I finally took the plunge and this blog was born.

One of my first posts was about meeting Richard at The Old Vic’s stage door and when I posted a collection of positive reviews of Richard as Thorin Oakenshield things really started taking off on my blog (thanks to Servetus, who linked to that post!). Suddenly other Armitage fans were reading and commenting here and I started commenting on their blogs and now I find myself immersed into interactive Richard Armitage fandom more than I ever intended to be! This time it’s on my blog and therefore on my own terms and I comment on other blogs when I want to and I find I am enjoying myself.

The next immersive step I took was actually acquiring one of Guylty’s RA badges!

And now, this weekend, for the first time ever, I even had the pleasure of actually meeting a fellow Richard Armitage fan in person! We had a marvelous time, going from cafe to shops to market to cafe to restaurant, chatting and chatting all day long. We talked about Richard, and life and husbands and children and other shared interests and it was great!

So, 10 years after first discovering Richard, and after 10 years of following his career, I find I am now part of my own niche fan-experience involving other fans as well. I’ve come a long way and I wonder where will I be at, or what kind of fan will I be or I will even still be a fan, in 10 years time? One thing I do know: time flies when you’re having fun – I can hardly believe I have loved Richard Armitage for 10 years already!

It’s been quite a ride so far, from this…

… to this…

I had no idea when I started fangirling over him that it would last this long and yet it has! There is an appeal to this man that is undeniable, that will not go away and as he develops in his acting the appeal becomes even stronger than ever! Like other long-term crushes of mine (Gregory Peck and Colin Firth) he has become a permanent fixture in my life and for now he is the biggest actor-crush I have. Even if it should all end tomorrow I will forever be grateful for having ‘found Richard’ 10 years ago and for all that that has brought me so far.