Armadillo

Does anyone know where i can get a copy of this TV series or a copy of the soundtrack i'm desperately looking for a friend. This is an excellent series. I have looked every where to get a copy and need to find it. Has anyone got any suggestions as to where i could purchase it or download it even. Any information about its availability would be appreciated. I know its not a real review but if you haven't seen it i recommend you do. Then give it to me to see again lol. Thanks I cant think of anymore to add but i need 10 lines apparently so sorry for waffling on. Cheeky i know but i am getting desperate and i don't know where else to post this request.

Having seen this very entertaining program -- even the shortened A&E version -- I'm going to have to now go out and find William Boyd's book to see how closely it follows. James Frain was a superb choice to play the conflicted Lorimer Black/Milo Bloch, star insurance adjuster who finds himself in the middle of a convoluted insurance fraud scheme that lays bare the corruption behind everything he has held dear and aspired to. Catherine McCormack is delectable as the love interest he impulsively pursues; she is formidably chic with a "watch your step" edge. Hugh Bonneville's Torquil Helvoir-Jayne (!) is the epitome of a stupid jerk, but with the oddly likable quality of a guy who's just too much of a doof to be completely blamed for his shortcomings. James Fox does another of his capably elegant upper-class turns, this time playing a character much like his role in "Sexy Beast." But I have to say that, for me at least, Stephen Rea virtually stole the show -- his George Hogg, with all of his eccentric metaphors and his paranoiac rages, is so over the top at times it's hilarious. Throw in a cool, stylish music score and some excellent supporting players (including veterans such as Ian McNiece, Trevor Peacock, Stephen Moore and Ron Cook) and you have a sophisticated tale of corporate misbehavior that you'll want to watch more than once.

"Armadillo" is one of those rarities in which the screen version of an excellent novel actually lives up to the original text. This is no doubt due to the fact that William Boyd adapted the script from his own novel of the same name and that Boyd is also no stranger to script writing, having penned "Chaplin", "A Good Man in Africa" and "The Trench".

The cast is first class, a who's who of film and television, with standout performances from James Frain, Stephen Rea and Trevor Peacock (also excellent in another great TV show "The Underworld"). The plot, far from being cliched or contrived, is actually quite complex, with a mix of dodgy geezers including shady loss adjusters, even shadier insurance companies, cowboy builders, Romanian gipsies and a half-mad juggler who's convinced his wife is cheating on him.

The photography is impressive with some good shots of London which appears dark and intimidating but also sparkling with affluence.

"Armadillo" shows just how good British television can be with the right material and a good cast - in other words someone showing a bit of imagination and ambition rather than pitching yet another boring hospital or detective series.

"Armadillo" is an absolutely top-notch film with a complex, absorbing story and brilliant performances. On American tv (with commercials) the movie clocks in at three hours, but you will definitely not be bored. James Frain plays Lorimar Black, a successful young loss adjuster at a posh London insurance firm. He has a sleep disorder and is living something of a double life, but that is the least of his problems compared to what develops in his professional life.

This movie has many plot lines going on, but is always lucid and compelling, thanks to a fine screenplay adapted by the author of the original novel. The stand-out performance is the chameleonic James Frain, who is so natural he never seems to be acting at all. Stephen Rea is hysterical (in both senses of the word) as Frain's paranoid boss. The only bit that didn't quite work for me was Lorimar's romantic obsession with Catherine McCormack's character, Flavia. McCormack is luminous as ever, so we understand why Lorimar would be attracted to her, but she is so bitchy and manipulative with him, Lorimar's passionate pursuit seems slightly masochistic.

I didn't know what I was getting into with Armadillo. I'd seen the odd trailer, perhaps doctored by A&E to make it look like science-fiction; I knew nothing of the book; I suspected it might even be a TV series. My first ray of hope came when I heard Frain's voice; my second when he got out of the right side of his motor car; and from then on I was hooked. I still didn't know if it was a series or not, and so when the one hour mark approached, I looked at the clock and wondered if this was it, if there would be a quick denouement. But it went happily on, into a second hour, and as that hour neared its end I wondered the same thing again. Still I was not sure that this was not at least some kind of TV pilot, yet when we entered hour three I was fairly sure I was watching something of quality, marred only by the kind of butchering a colony channel like A&E could be guilty of. I was so in the dark that I didn't even recognise the main characters for a while (ok, Fox was relatively easy); then it suddenly went up for me who Hogg was, and Flavia looked familiar, but I couldn't place her either - it was just a good movie, and undoubtedly would have been better if it hadn't been butchered by a colonial channel hell-bent on selling laundry detergent at four o'clock in the morning. For me, one of its best features was how it was totally unpredictable: you really didn't know where the whole thing was going; another was Catherine - she was so delicious - and perhaps a bit 'picky' as others have suggested - but I just kept hanging on the 'get the girl' scenes, and for me the ending was quite yummy, although it didn't offer the same kind of exposure found in, for example, Tailor of Panama. Do see this gem, but try to get a copy sent over from England, or better yet, move to England. Oh - you'll find a good interview with Frain about the movie at the BBC site - just search for 'Armadillo'.