Joe Armstrong's first television role was a bit part in a 2003 episode of The Bill, followed by a brief appearance in the ITV mini-series Between the Sheets starring his father Alun Armstrong. In the 2004 BBC film Passer By, he had a supporting role as one of two men accused of assaulting a woman on a train. He guest starred in the 2004 Waking the Dead episode "Fugue States" as a young man who reappears with amnesia after being abducted as a child. Also in 2004, he played the son of a murdered farmer in the Foyle's War episode "They Fought in the Fields."
In 2006, Armstrong was cast in the BBC series Robin Hood as Allan—based on the legendary figure Alan-a-Dale—who joins Robin's band of outlaws in Sherwood Forest. Allan later becomes allied with the sympathetic villain Guy of Gisborne but has a change of heart and rejoins his friends. Armstrong appeared in all three series from 2006 to 2009. The series was filmed on location in and around Budapest.[5]
Armstrong portrayed Norman Heatley in the 2009 BBC Four film Breaking the Mould about the team who turned penicillin into a viable medicine. In 2010, he co-starred with Billie Piper in the two-part drama A Passionate Woman as the husband of a woman who has an affair. His father Alun Armstrong played the older version of his character.[1]
In the 2013 drama The Village, depicting life in a Derbyshire village in the early 20th century, he played Stephen Bairstow, a detective scarred by his experiences at the Front in World War I.[9] The character was originally a minor one, but writer Peter Moffat expanded the role because he was impressed with Armstrong.[10] He reprised his role in the second series in 2014.[11]
In 2023, Armstrong appeared in the Harlan Coben Netflix adaptation of 'Fool Me Once' as Alexander Dosman, ex-boyfriend of Claire Walker and father to their son Louis.
In the DC Moore play The Empire, Armstrong starred as Gary, a Lance Corporal in Afghanistan guarding an injured prisoner who claims to be British. Paul Taylor of The Independent wrote: "Gary ... veers between seething anger and low-key sarcasm, an oscillation superbly conveyed by excellent Joe Armstrong."[23] In preparation for the role, Armstrong and other cast members met with soldiers who had served in Afghanistan.[24] The play had a six-week run at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in the Royal Court Theatre from March to May 2010[25] followed by two weeks at the Drum Theatre in the Theatre Royal, Plymouth in May.[26]
In 2012, he played Jean in Miss Julie opposite Maxine Peake in the title role at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. Armstrong described the role as one of his most challenging because of the need to make his character's sudden changes in mood believable.[29] Alfred Hickling of The Guardian remarked that "Joe Armstrong's Jean ... flips back and forth between brute arrogance and fawning servility with the casual manner of tossing a coin."[30]
In a 2013 production of Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter at The Print Room, Armstrong played Gus alongside Clive Wood as Ben.[31] Matt Trueman of The Telegraph called Wood and Armstrong "two perfect Pinterians,"[32] and Fiona Mountford of The Evening Standard wrote, "Armstrong, always an actor of easy geniality, flourishes in particular with this short, sharp, light-footed humour."[33]
In 2006, Armstrong was in two short films: A Ticket Too Far and Service. The latter was part of the Coming Up series on Channel 4.[35]
He appears in Nae Caranfil's film Closer to the Moon, also starring Vera Farmiga, Mark Strong and Harry Lloyd, which was filmed in Bucharest in the autumn of 2011 and was released in Romania in 2014. The film is about the bank robbery allegedly committed by the Ioanid Gang in 1959 Romania. Armstrong's character Răzvan is based on the journalist Haralambie Obedeanu who was one of the accused.[36]
Armstrong performed in the BBC radio plays Girl from Mars in 2008[38] and Hitched in 2010,[39] and he read the story Gifts by Garry Kilworth as part of a Christmas radio programme.[40] In 2011, he co-starred with Richard Briers and Edna Doré in the Radio 4 drama A Shoebox of Snow.[41] Armstrong reprised his role in DC Moore's The Empire for a BBC Radio 3 production.[42] He was in the radio serial Ruthless by Tim Loane on Radio 4 in 2012.[43] In 2013, he played Sergei in a Radio 4 adaptation of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,[44] and he appeared in the series The Corrupted by G. F. Newman.[45] He performed in the drama Ghosts of Heathrow in 2014[46] and in adaptations of The Bone Clocks,[47]The Book Of Strange New Things[48] and The Trial.[49]
^ abcHayes, Martha. "My Family Business: The New Tricks star on the advantages of sharing a role with son Joe in BBC1's A Passionate Woman", TV Times, 10–16 April 2010.