Thanks to all your great comments so far ... I do have to give special attention to Ragtag's definition of the "white shirt":
" The 6 pack of the period drama, known to surface only during a D&M (deep and meaningful or dazed and manly)."
Phylly3 and Skully have suggested two more actors sporting the "white shirt"
David Tennant wearing white shirt in Casanova
("Deep and Meaningful")
Elliot Cowan as Darcy in Lost in Austen
("Dazed and Manly")
Toby Stephens' white shirt in Jane Eyre (for linnea)
(Deep and meaningful)
The white shirt appears on Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian
(Deep and Meaningful) ... thanks Avalon
Here is the white shirt worn by Sean Bean as Lovelace in Clarissa
(Deep & meaningful)
Thanks to iz4blue for this one and to The Mighty Bean website for the screencap.
The white shirt appears yet again on Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean
(Deep and meaningful or Dazed & manly ... can't decide)
Thanks to Nat for this suggestion
Glimpse of the cravatless white shirt on Darcy - definitely Dazed and Manly!
As this is an RA biased blog, here are two three more snaps:
"Dazed and manly"
RA, Charlie Condou and James Lance as Monet, Renoir & Bazille in The Impressionists
"Deep and Meaningful"
This last one is a D/M of a different kind ... "Definitely Malingering"
Monet is pretending to be more injured than he is in this scene. Nice view of white shirt, open collar, dropped sleeve and cuffs. (Aside: Costume department must have loads of fabric whitener in their laundries - RA hasn't a speck of dirt on him anywhere).
Keep sending in the actors in white shirts More!!!
MTA: If someone at the BBC had their wits about them, they would get one of these shirts, ask all the actors to autograph it and then auction it off for charity. (Children in Need?)