Thursday, October 28, 2010

HANGING ON IN QUIET DESPERATION: Having played Tim Canterbury (of The Office, original version), Arthur Dent (Hitchhiker's Guide), and now Dr. Watson (updated Sherlock), is Martin Freeman currently the Britishest working actor?

37 comments:

  1. Depends on whether The Hobbit gets made with him as Bilbo Baggins.

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  2. Depends on whether The Hobbit gets made with him as Bilbo Baggins.

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  3. Depends on whether The Hobbit gets made with him as Bilbo Baggins.

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  4. And, of course, he was in Love Actually, which I believe is required to compete for the title.  Still, my vote's for Firth.<span> </span>

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  5. isaac_spaceman11:23 AM

    Is there a British actor who wasn't in Love Actually?  And the Shire is not in England, duh.

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  6. Michael Caine, Rupert Everett, Ralph Fiennes.<span> </span>

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  7. sconstant11:35 AM

    Yeah, British actors, etc., pretext for me to say: Loved the new Sherlock, and went to go read A Study In Scarlet again right afterwards (it's all over in etexts) and loved it even more.  Also Hulu-ishly available at the PBS website for a limited time: http://video.pbs.org/video/1619685888

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  8. The kids from Harry Potter, Maggie Smith, Kenneth Branaugh, Richard Griffiths.

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  9. christy in nyc12:04 PM

    Hugh Laurie :(

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  10. Also, Martin Freeman may be Britishier in personality, but Benedict Cumberbatch has a more British name. 

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  11. J. Bowman12:18 PM

    I'm pretty sure everyone listed so far was in that scene at the end where all the little scenes merge into a big heart. Most viewers have either stopped the video or gone into diabetic coma by then, so I'm not surprised you all missed it.

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  12. isaac_spaceman12:22 PM

    I downloaded the complete Sherlock Holmes for $0.99 on Kindle.  I have to say, Study in Scarlet is a really fun read right up until, and no further than, the point when it shifts from Watson's perspective to an omnicient third-person narrator in Utah. 

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  13. The Other Kate12:29 PM

    Pronounced "Bert Combs."

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  14. The Other Kate12:31 PM

    My Ultimate Brit vote goes to Bill Nighy. He's got the Love Actually credit, a Harry Potter gig, AND was Sam in that BBC Radio production of Lord of the Rings.

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  15. gretchen12:32 PM

    Also loved the new Sherlock.  I thought it was really fun and fresh. 

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  16. Benner12:47 PM

    Vinnie Jones

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  17. Joseph J. Finn1:00 PM

    Hell, J. Bowman, I love the movie and even so I thought that was hysterical.

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  18. Joseph J. Finn1:01 PM

    Seriously, I've been reading all of Holmes over the past year, and what the hell is with the 100 page Mormon interlude?  

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  19. Joseph J. Finn1:01 PM

    I thought it was Mangrove Throat Warbler.

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  20. Benner1:28 PM

    Reminded me of this:  http://www.theawl.com/2010/07/68-fantastic-british-names-gathered-while-watching-bbc-credits-over-the-years

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  21. My vote is always for Firth.

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  22. Eric J.2:11 PM

    The Shire may not be "In England," but I submit that it is the Platonic Form of England of which England itself is a pale copy.

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  23. Genevieve2:51 PM

    The Shire is what was eventually to become England.  Also, what Eric said.

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  24. Genevieve2:53 PM

    It needs a whale drawn in the margins a la Louis Sachar's The Cardturner, to let you know it's fine to skip that section.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/books/review/Vizzini-t.html

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  25. Genevieve3:04 PM

    Bill Nighy as Sam?  That scares me.

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  26. Watts3:32 PM

    What? No love for Michael Sheen? He's done: Tony Blair (more than once); David Frost; Brian Clough; Kenneth Williams. So you have actual Britons: 1 prime minister, 2 tv personalities, and a football coach. Politics, telly, and footie, what could be more British?  And honorable mention for playing Canadian Robbie Ross.

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  27. And he played the quintessentially British Wesley Snipes in 30 Rock, which is one of the reasons I was going to suggest him before Watts beat me to it.

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  28. isaac_spaceman5:21 PM

    I don't know -- Wesley Snipes was really a projection of a New Yorker's view of a Brit.  I may be suffering from the same kind of myopia, but I don't know that there are two more English Englishmen than Arthur Dent and Dr. Watson. 

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  29. Agreed!  (I finally watched it last night.)  And I loved the little callbacks to ASIS.

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  30. Joseph J. Finn6:14 PM

    Jeeves and Wooster, Isaac?

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  31. isaac_spaceman6:15 PM

    Okay, and Wallace (of Aardman), but still. 

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  32. The Other Kate6:28 PM

    No, no, he was awesome! As was Ian Holm as Frodo. But Robert Stephens was a bit too pompous an Aragorn for my taste. Viggo all the way.

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  33. The Other Kate6:31 PM

    I believe there will always be love for Michael Sheen in ALOTT5MA-land. Love to weather even the strongest of allergic reactions.

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  34. Joseph J. Finn9:42 PM

    Though for the record, my definition of British does not include Scottish people, so Tony Blair doesn't count.  But I'm a crank that way.

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  35. Felix Pickles!

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  36. christy in nyc10:23 AM

    I read Study in Scarlet for the first time not that long ago and LOVED it. I hadn't read a Holmes story since high school and was gratified that my hormonal teenaged brain hadn't imagined the awesome bromance (this was around the time the Doyle estate was being pissy about the undertones in the Downey/Law movie when I knew in my heart that those undertones were there all along). Watson has such a man-crush on Holmes from the very start! I liked how they addressed that in the PBS one as well.

    I actually did love the Utah parts too because I am a polygamy geek and I thought it was especially interesting to imagine Doyle interpreting American polygamy from across the pond as a contemporary.

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  37. Genevieve11:34 AM

    Love this list, Benner!  I sometimes check out the credits for really British names.

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