Richard Armitage hopes radio series will ‘trigger the story’ in listeners

Actor Richard Armitage has curated a five-part radio series with the hopes that it will “trigger the story” in listeners.The 55-year-old screen and stage actor, known for The Hobbit franchise and North And South, has joined Classic FM for a new series, Curtain Call, which explores some of the most memorable music written for the theatre.After starting off his career on the stage, Armitage will now dive into different sides to the theatrical world for the five-part series to invite listeners to take actor’s place in the cast and imagine themselves in the tale.Richard Armitage has curated the radio programme Curtain Call for Classic FM (Dario Ciancolini/ Classic FM/PA)Speaking to the Press Association, he said: “I think a piece of music can have such a strong narrative, and that’s what we’re really enjoying doing with the programme is triggering the listener to hear that piece of music and conjure up the images of where they might have seen it or not seen it.“Mendelssohn’s Wedding March is a perfect example. Not that many people know that that comes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream yet most people will march down the aisle to that piece of music, not really knowing where it comes from.”After at trip to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, where he laughed so hard he thought he was going to “bust a gut”, Armitage was convinced that he wanted to be an actor.“That connection to theatre has been one of the the joys of putting this show together,” he said.“I started in musical theatre, but I’d moved into to much more classical theatre. So I was at the Royal Shakespeare Company for a number of years, and then most recently I was on stage in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, having started my professional career in Cats.Richard Armitage will curate music from the theatre (Ian West/PA)PA Archive“So there are there are all of these little interconnected blood vessels that sort of bring me to this place.“It’s been an absolute joy to research.Over five weeks, Armitage will explore different themes from the theatrical world including Lovers & Liaisons, Rogues & Rebels, Music in Motion, Death, Desire & Despair, and Mischief & Mayhem.The series opens Lovers and Liaisons, with one of the world’s most famous star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, before moving to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde — a tale of forbidden love and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.Meanwhile, Music in Motion will feature music from the world of ballet and musical theatre, including Khachaturian’s Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia – plus Mambo from West Side Story.Armitage added: “When I’m Laid in Earth from Dido and Aeneas was one of the the songs that comes up on the list, and I was like, that’s one of the pieces I use over and over and over again. I don’t know why it affects me.Read More“When I’m about to go on stage in Uncle Vanya, I’ll sit in the dressing room listening to a piece of music like that because it triggers something in me, and I think that’s what we’re hoping to do with the with the audience for this show is to just trigger the story in them.”Curtain Call with Richard Armitage airs every Sunday from 6pm–7pm, from September 13 to October 11 on Classic FM and Global Player.