Richard Armitage on Winter, grief and playing an unusually spirited scientist

I have two sofas, actually. One in New York and one in London, which is where I do a lot of writing. In London, I’m on the top floor so I can see lots of rooftops, which is weirdly very Mary Poppins. If I look to my left, I can see the London Eye, and if I crane my head round to the right, I can just about see The Shard.

Why New York?

After The Hobbit, everyone said, "You’ve got to go to LA," but I’m really not a sun, sea and sand person, and I wanted to do theatre, too. Then it became a place where I went for a relationship and stayed. People often talk about retiring to the quiet of the country. Not me. I’m retiring to the city. In New York, I look at people in their 70s and they’re still cool, dressing however the hell they want, and going to the theatre every night. That’s the retirement I want.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m writing my third crime thriller. I was commissioned by Audible, so I write them to record them and they’re audio for a year and then they go to print. I’ve been dipping into all kinds of twisted worlds and it’s such a great outlet for me. My first two books have been optioned – one by Sony and the other by Jed Mercurio. I made the protagonist of the first book weak, flawed and, in a way, a villain and I got really criticised for it. Everyone was like, “We don’t want to imagine you in that capacity,” so it’s been an interesting process.

You play maverick pathologist Dr Ethan Winter in your new drama, Winter. It’s based on the Belgian drama Balthazar, which ran for five series, so are you in it for the long haul?

I hope so. I know that people roll their eyes when they hear “He doesn’t play by the rules”, but he really is unusual. He’s a scientist, but because of something that’s happened to him, he has this spiritual side to his character. That’s not something you see often in a scientist.

Have you seen any dead bodies in real life?

Only my parents when they died. Being in the room with a person who’s passed away is very different from being with the “dead bodies” of telly drama. Whatever it does to you is very, very different. I did research for Winter and went to the morgue at Leicester Royal Infirmary, which is the hospital I was born in. I didn’t see any dead bodies, but I could smell them.

Has losing your parents changed your perspective on your life and career?

Obviously, there’s the devastation of losing your parents, but then, and I feel guilty saying this, I feel untethered. You realise that so much of your drive and energy is about making your parents proud, and when they’re gone, you’re like, “What have I got to lose? I’m not going to disappoint them or shame them any more.” So, completely untethered, I played Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar at the London Palladium, because I knew they weren’t around to say, “Oh, that wasn’t very good.”

What – or where – feels like home to you?

I call it the last haven – the place you can go back to when everything else in the world goes to s**t. It’s like there’s a thread that pulls you back there. I feel like that about New Zealand. I spent two and a half years there [from 2011, filming The Hobbit] and I still have this sense that if everything else goes wrong, I’ll get on a plane to New Zealand and the Jacksons [Peter Jackson directed The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies] will take care of me.

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Winter will air on ITV1 and ITVX on Wednesday 30 September 2026.

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