Well, he's not playing John Watson, that's for sure!  So yes, this character's speech is different, but that may or may not have anything to do with those teeth -- same goes for Mr. Cumberbatch, since I believe he sometimes has a slight lisp in real life.
 

I wonder the same thing sometimes, but in my case it's not so much that I prefer the television or the internet, it's just that it's becoming harder and harder to find any "real people" to do things with.  Maybe they're all at home watching tv and surfing the web?

Good grief, that piece is hilarious!  The sort of thing Dave Barry would write if he were British.  Though come to think of it, if he were British, he would have a British sense of humour (i.e., instead of those juvenile booger jokes, he would tell bogey jokes).

Hey, Morton -- both of those links worked just fine!

It's interesting that Freeman describes Bilbo as four feet tall, which makes him a relatively tall hobbit by Tolkien's standards.  While watching the movie, I thought it looked like Bilbo might be something like 60% of Gandalf's height (around 3.5 feet), rather than Tolkien's nominal 50%.  I suppose that made the scaling tricks easier, and was therefore more practical.

Russell -- All of the items on my list (except for The Hobbit, of course) are available on DVD.  Several of them have to be ordered from the UK, but that's a simple matter, thanks to Amazon.  I'm reasonably sure that all of the DVDs are subtitled (which I also find very helpful), though I'm not home at the moment, so can't absolutely swear to that.  And yes, that's one drawback to YouTube (that and the smaller screen size).  So a region-free DVD player is the way to go if you've got the space and the money for an extra piece of equipment.

Hey, Carroll!! -- I've only seen one or two of your posts before, probably because I post mostly here in the Martin Freeman section (since I'm also on another Sherlock-related forum for the other stuff) -- so I think we've just been missing each other.  Let us know what you think of The Hobbit!

Bruiser is definitely worth it.  Freeman is hilarious, plus he does things in there (e.g., an American accent) that I haven't seen him do anywhere else so far.  Last time I looked someone had all of his bits (which are the funniest anyhow) on You Tube.

If you'd rather have the DVD, and if you have some way of playing Region 2 DVDs (e.g., if your laptop has a region-free player), by far the cheapest way to get Bruiser is from Amazon.co.uk -- when I bought it a few months ago, they had it for -- oh great, can't read my own writing -- no more than 16 pounds (about $24, plus shipping, which wasn't all that much), while on Amazon.com it was $51 (with free shipping -- whoopie!!).  If you prefer watching things on your regular tv, you can also buy a region-free player to hook up to it.  We have one, and it's great to be able to watch things that aren't available on Region 1 DVDs.

Another use for a region-free player is that assuming PBS drags their heels again on Season 3 of Sherlock, you can pre-order the DVD from Amazon.co.uk and they will ship it as soon as the third episode airs in the UK.  We did that for Season 2, and had it in early February, whereas it didn't play on PBS till May!  Besides which, the PBS version has had 8 minutes chopped out.  Per episode.

Russell wrote:

... that's kinda what I meant with Wild Target, with the "background-yet-still-there", from the stills I did get to see.  ....  But I see it's another case like War Horse, huh?  I got that movie partly just out of delighted curiosity to see my 'favorite new actor' in something else, and he's only in it for a short time!  TTSS, on the other hand, was quite good, I do recommend.... especially with Ben and Oldman balancing each other's roles.....  Nightwatching and The Robinsons, did sound intriguing, even with knowing nothing about, though...  will take your guy's words for it. .... we're all geeks enjoying the same things, right? ...

It's been a few months since I saw Wild Target, but my recollection is that most of the (brief) time Freeman is on the screen, he's right up front.  Dunno what to make of the stills you mentioned.

What did you think of War Horse, aside from the scarcity of Cumberbatch?  I've heard all sorts of opinions, and would be interested in yours.  I saw a brief clip of TTSS on an awards show, and it looked interesting -- but even though I loved Gary Oldman in the Potter films, I didn't recognize him without his "Sirius Black" hair!

If you haven't already, you might want to check out this forum's threads for some of Freeman's films and tv shows: The Hobbit, of course (lots of threads for that!), Bruiser, Pirates!, The Good Night, Nightwatching, Hitchhiker's Guide, Hardware, and Love Actually.  Several of us have posted some pretty detailed opinions (with generally very few real spoilers).  As you'll see in one of my posts regarding Nightwatching, that and The Robinsons are actually two of Freeman's personal favorites.

Right, us geeks gotta stick together!

whistling in the dark wrote:

I haven't seen Long Hot Summer or his episode of Picking Up the Pieces. ... I have intentionally avoided The Reichenbach Fall.

I love his char

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