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Benedict funny moments Youtube compilation by fans

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Benedict funny moments Youtube compilation by fans

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It's clear that fans love Benedict's authentic humour and unpretentious presentation, which doesn't conflict with his other gentlemanly traits

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sweet moments~ Benedict cumberbatch and his wife Sophie at CBE ceremony

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Benedict Cumberbatch is enjoying being a father so much he is already considering expanding his brood. The Hamlet star, who welcomed his son with wife Sophie Hunter in June, discussed his memorable year in an interview with Graham Norton, due to air on Friday.

"I've become a father and a husband, and in the right order - just," the Oscar-nominee joked on The Graham Norton Show. "I might go for a Cumber-batch of boys!"
Benedict Cumberbatch said he wants to have more children
The 38-year-old also revealed that he loved coming home to his family every night during his recent three-month stint in the Shakespeare play Hamlet.

"It's everything. I have a new life form that needs his father's help in the world and his mother needs a little help once in a while," Benedict said. "It's what being a parent is about so it's not an excuse to get away from what I am doing - it's what I ought to be doing. After three and a half hours of Hamlet, I think that's okay."

It has been a monumental year for Benedict, starting with the announcement that he and his fiancée Sophie were expecting their first child together. The couple made a number of loved-up appearances together throughout awards season, during which Benedict was nominated for prestigious awards at the Oscars, BAFTAs and Golden Globes among others.

Benedict and Sophie welcomed their son in June
Benedict and Sophie married in a romantic ceremony on the Isle of Wight on Valentine's Day, and welcomed their baby boy just four months later on 13 June, announcing that they were "delighted" to have become parents.

The low-key couple are keen to raise their son away from the spotlight and have revealed few details about the new addition to their family, but in August it was reported that they had chosen to name their baby boy Christopher Carlton Cumberbatch.

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Benedict Cumberbatch talks fatherhood: 'I might go for a Cumber-batch of boys!'

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Benedict Cumberbatch is enjoying being a father so much he is already considering expanding his brood. The Hamlet star, who welcomed his son with wife Sophie Hunter in June, discussed his memorable year in an interview with Graham Norton, due to air on Friday.

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Sherlock actor Rupert Graves is impressed by Benedict Cumberbatch's ability to follow a strict diet of fruit and vegetables.

Rupert plays Inspector Lestrade in the hit BBC detective drama, a police officer who reluctantly engages Benedict's Sherlock Holmes to help him with tricky cases.

Now, the 54-year-old actor has revealed that during filming his co-star, who has gone on to star as Marvel superhero Doctor Strange, insisted on having healthy food delivered to the set.

"He ( Benedict) keeps himself in very good shape by eating very sensibly," Rupert told the Daily Mail. "He only eats bananas, hummus, vegetables, and nuts. And then he has a special lunch brought in."

The fourth series of Sherlock aired earlier this year (17), and more series are reportedly in the works despite Benedict, 41, becoming a coveted Hollywood star.

Sherlock co-creator Steven Moffat has planned another season and Benedict is open to returning when he can find an opening in his busy schedule.

"We love doing the show and all I'll say about it is that we're all very busy," he told the Associated Press previously. "For now, it's not going to happen again at the same regularity that it has been happening. But we'll see, we'll never say never and when it's right, and if it's right, we'll do more."

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Benedict Cumberbatch 'Only Eats Fruits and Vegetables'

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Sherlock actor Rupert Graves is impressed by Benedict Cumberbatch's ability to follow a strict diet of fruit and vegetables. Rupert plays Inspector Lestrade in the hit BBC detective drama, a police officer who reluctantly engages Benedict's Sherlock Holmes to help him with tricky cases. Now, the 54-year-old actor has revealed that during filming his co-star, [...]

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A very good family background enabled Cumberbatch to acquire an aristocratic and high education from an early age.

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Cumberbatch was born on 19 July 1976 in London, England, to actors Timothy Carlton (né Timothy Carlton Congdon Cumberbatch) and Wanda Ventham. He grew up in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. He has a half-sister, Tracy Peacock, from his mother’s first marriage. His grandfather, Henry Carl…

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Benedict resents the appropriation and defamation of his private life by some crazy fans. As a regular guy, a father of children and husband of a wife, he is standing up for doing his duty by speaking out (but will obviously be met with resentment from his fans)

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Benedict Cumberbatch finds behaviour of some fans 'scary' - Times of India

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Actor Benedict Cumberbatch says the possessiveness of some of his fans is hard to digest and he calls this behaviour 'deluded and scary'.

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Benedict doesn't seem to be fully comfortable with going from actor to star. He doesn't yet know how to deal with fans interfering with his normal work life (and will publicly express his disgust)

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London [UK], Sept. 20 (ANI): The ' Consulting Detective' doesn't like to get his work affected because of his fans.

British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who portrays the iconic detective Sherlock Holmes in BBC series ' Sherlock', has whined about fans asking him to pose for photos while he is working, reports Mirror.

While talking about his new series ' The Child in Time', he said, "We had to shoot the supermarket scene early in the morning. We started at 6.30am. It was very difficult for me and running out into a busy street and people going 'Can I have a selfie?'. It was hard."

He added, "That was difficult. I was like 'Not now - go away. Please go away'."

The ' Imitation Game' star also revealed that when they filmed along the Embankment in London it was "like street theatre, it got pretty weird".

"It was like 'Oh the Thames and then 500 f***ing people'. That is odd. It is part of the gig I suppose," noted Cumberbatch.

He also shared that he is happy doing TV rather than films, saying: "The lines are blurred now between the small and big screen." (ANI)

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Benedict Cumberbatch is fed up with fans begging for selfies

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London [UK], Sept. 20 (ANI): The ' Consulting Detective' doesn't like to get his work affected because of his fans. British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who portrays the iconic detective Sherlock Holmes in BBC series ' Sherlock', has whined about fans asking him to pose for photos while he is working, reports Mirror.

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Shingler, M. (2012) Star Studies: A Critical Guide. London: BFI Publishing.

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Shingler, M. (2012) Star Studies: A Critical Guide. London: BFI Publishing.

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The audience is eager to see the real personality underneath the image of the star, in which case the behind-the-scenes interviews create a balance between portraying the star and satisfying the audience.

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Even the ‘Cumberbitches’ admit he looks like an otter. So here, for the benefit of baffled men, JAN MOIR reveals why we women think Benedict’s a sex god

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Even though Cumberbatch regularly appears on Sexiest Man Alive lists, not everyone is bowled over by his odd, vulpine features and singular charm, writes JAN MOIR.

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Benedict Cumberbatch has said he would fight religious extremists to the death in defence of the right to express one's sexuality.

Cumberbatch, who stars in The Imitation Game as Alan Turing, the brilliant second world war codebreaker who was persecuted by the British authorities for being gay, lamented the horrors faced by gay people in many countries and fiercely declared his determination to stand with them in an interview with Out magazine.

"People are being beheaded in countries right now because of their beliefs or sexual orientations," he said. "It's terrifying. It's medieval - a beheading! I'd take up arms against someone who was telling me I had to believe in what they believed or they would kill me. I would fight them. I would fight them to the death. And, I believe, the older you get, you have to have an idea of what's right or wrong. You can't have unilateral tolerance. You have to have a point where you go, 'Well, religious fundamentalism is wrong.'"

Despite his status as a wartime hero credited with cracking the German Enigma code at Britain's Bletchley Park, Turing's life was destroyed by the period's anti-homosexuality laws. Police arrested him in 1952 after learning of his sexual relationship with a young Manchester man. After being found guilty of gross indecency Turing accepted injections of synthetic oestrogen intended to neutralise his libido. He continued to work part-time for GCHQ, the postwar successor to Bletchley Park, but his mental health is said to have suffered, and he was found dead - of cyanide poisoning - by his cleaner in 1954.

Cumberbatch said The Imitation Game should be read as "a warning that this could very easily happen again" and dismissed the pardon handed posthumously to Turing by the Queen in 2013. "It's an insult for anybody of authority or standing to sign off on him with their approval and say, 'Oh, he's forgiven,'" Cumberbatch explained.

"The only person who should be [doing the] forgiving is Turing, and he can't because we killed him. And it makes me really angry. It makes me very angry."

The actor also said during the interview that homosexuality remained a "huge obstacle" in Hollywood for those hoping to carve out careers as a leading man. "We all know actors who are [gay] who don't want to talk about it or bring it up, or who deny it," he said. "I don't really know what they do to deal with it. Human rights movements and sexual and gay rights movements have made huge social progress in the last 40 years, without a doubt, but there's a lot more work to be done."

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Benedict Cumberbatch: I'd defend gay rights 'to the death'

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Benedict Cumberbatch has said he would fight religious extremists to the death in defence of the right to express one's sexuality. Cumberbatch, who stars in The Imitation Game as Alan Turing, the brilliant second world war codebreaker who was persecuted by the British authorities for being gay, lamented the horrors faced by gay people in many countries and fiercely declared his determination to stand with them in an interview with Out magazine.

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Benedict Cumberbatch Is Housing a Ukrainian Family That Fled the War: ‘I Want to Give Them Stability’

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Benedict Cumberbatch confirmed to Sky News that he will house a family of Ukrainian refugees at his home in the United Kingdom. The family fled Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion. “The…

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Benedict Cumberbatch And Marvel Studios Bring Hope To Children Around The World

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Benedict Cumberbatch And Marvel Studios Bring Hope To Children Around The World

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In a special video message, actor Benedict Cumberbatch, star of Marvel Studios' upcoming film "Doctor Strange," has announced the launch of Marvel Studios: Hero Acts, a brand-new charitable initiative focused on bringing help and hope to kids around the world.

Marvel Studios is launching the first Hero Acts campaign today, and from now until the end of the year, Marvel Studios will donate five dollars ($5) to Save the Children, up to U.S. one million dollars, for every fan who uploads a photo of themselves in their favorite Marvel hero pose. Marvel Studios is collaborating with Fotition, a new social change platform, to power the experience on a brand-new website MarvelStudiosHeroActs.com. Fans will be able to visit the site to upload their photo and choose from a selection of custom Marvel-themed overlays. They will then be able to post their photo directly to the Hero Acts gallery and to their other social channels using the hashtags #marvelstudios #heroacts.

"After the experience of filming portions of 'Doctor Strange' in Nepal, our team was inspired to give back to the kids there and wanted to establish a larger ongoing program in support of children facing extraordinary circumstances," said Kevin Feige, Producer & President, Marvel Studios. "For our first Marvel Studios: Hero Acts effort, we're thrilled to team up with Save the Children, an organization with decades of experience improving the lives of children around the world."

With fan participation, the donations made through Hero Acts can help Save the Children provide much-needed learning materials for as many as 123,000 kids in Nepal, Haiti, and the United States. Together, Marvel Studios and its fans can help put these children on a path where they can learn, thrive, and strive toward a better future.

"Save the Children is extremely grateful to be the first nonprofit organization to be part of Marvel Studios: Hero Acts," said Carolyn Miles, President & CEO of Save the Children. "Even though more children are enrolled in primary school worldwide than ever before, many are struggling to learn and to get a quality education. That is why this collaboration is so valuable. The funds raised through Hero Acts will provide much-needed learning materials in communities where there are few resources, and will boost children's basic skills to help them succeed in school and in life. The actions taken by Marvel fans will make a meaningful difference for children."

Whether visiting children in hospitals, granting wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses, or inspiring kids and families through our content, Marvel Studios: Hero Acts builds on the tradition of lending a hand to children in times of need. From our filmmakers to our fans, we believe we each have our own superpower to lend to the world, and Marvel Studios is dedicated to bringing that out in everyone.

To learn more, visit MarvelStudiosHeroActs.com.

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Benedict Cumberbatch And Marvel Studios Bring Hope To Children Around The World

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In a special video message, actor Benedict Cumberbatch, star of Marvel Studios' upcoming film "Doctor Strange," has announced the launch of Marvel Studios: Hero Acts, a brand-new charitable initiative focused on bringing help and hope to kids around the world.

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-Sexy men
-British cultural icon
-the thinking woman's crumpet
-Cute otter..
-sweet family with wife and sons
-Committed to charity
-supporter of LGBT+ rights
-anti war
.....

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Cumberbatch discusses the commonalities in the two characters he plays: the same high level of intelligence and self-absorption. In talking about and playing the similar kind of characters, Cumberbatch's stardom actually blends with his character (the good part is that he absorbs the good and leaves out the bad) and the audience sees Benedict as intelligent, well-mannered and warm.

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness star Benedict Cumberbatch compares his role as Stephen Strange to another of his previous characters, Sherlock Holmes. Set to follow on from the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Cumberbatch will return to reprise his role as Master of the mystic arts, Doctor Strange. So far the film has been kept tightly under wraps, leading to much speculation as to who, or what could appear within the bounds of its multiversal story. Elizabeth Olsen will star alongside Cumberbatch, reprising her role as Wanda Maximoff, otherwise known as the Scarlet Witch, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, and Rachel McAdams also set to appear.

Prior to joining the MCU, Cumberbatch appeared in a number of stand-out roles, including leading a modern-day reimagining of the beloved detective stories of Sherlock Holmes alongside fellow MCU co-star Martin Freeman, who played John Watson. ran for 4 seasons, with many considering it to be one of Cumberbatch's career-defining roles. The star has previously reflected on his time as Sherlock with fond memories, often citing the series' immense success and how he never expected it to be the hit that it was. Now, Cumberbatch has compared these two major characters, drawing on their similarities and discussing what he feels makes them alike.

Related: How Sherlock's Unaired Pilot Would've Changed Benedict Cumberbatch's Character

Sitting down recently with The Treatment podcast to promote his latest film The Power of the Dog and to discuss the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Cumberbatch discussed how Stephen Strange views " people as a problem to be solved" much in the same way Sherlock does. The star went on to say that with both Strange and Holmes, their " human touch" and " bedside manner" are non-existent and that both characters' main focus is consistently on " solving the case," and, in Strange's case, the " difficulty of surgery. " Cumberbatch then went on to explain how this ultimately plays into Strange's doomed relationship with Christine Palmer (McAdams) and the pain of that goodbye. Check out Cumberbatch's full quote below.

For sure. And I think it's the sort of slightly Sherlockian coloring of his character, and God knows they were influenced by him. He definitely viewed people as a problem to be solved in a very Sherlockian way. His human touch, his bedside manner is kind of never in existence. It was all about the process of solving the case, in his case, the difficulty of surgery. And then I think with the sorcerer supreme as well, not that he is a sorcerer supreme. He's a master of domestic arts, but his state is a little lower than it is in the comics. But that's a different story, and one that requires another interview, probably with Bennie Wong to explain why. But I think it's very apparent that he's in isolation there. And it costs him a relationship in that first film. And that's a choice. I think he only realizes once he's had the evolution at the hands of the ancient world, what he's screwed up and is going to miss in Christine. And so that is a painful goodbye. He realizes that there could have been a future with them and that seed is sown in that moment in the film. But you're right; maybe that is part of what he actually is fine with. He's fine with aligning himself with creatures and spirits and everything else that's thrown at him and that's why he can be a slight outsider as an Avenger.

Throughout his recent promotional endeavors, Cumberbatch has discussed his time as Doctor Strange at length, previously comparing the Sorcerer to Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man. The actor cited how both of these characters often let their egos get the better of them, which is certainly also a trait that can be seen in Holmes. Many have felt as though the MCU has been gearing up for Doctor Strange to take over the mantle from Iron Man following his tragic demise in Avengers: Endgame, withMarvel President Kevin Feige recently calling Doctor Strange the " anchor of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "

There are a number of aspects within both Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Strange where one could certainly see similarities, so it's interesting to hear that Cumberbatch also acknowledges these slight echoes of his previous character within his performance. Cumberbatch has been notably coy about any future plans to return to his much-loved role as Sherlock, offering a glimmer of hope for many by previously stating that he would " never say never." In the meantime, audiences can look forward to seeing Cumberbatch return as Stephen Strange when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hits theatres on May 6.

Next: Doctor Strange 2 Already Has A Better Multiverse Than No Way Home

Source: The Treatment Podcast

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Benedict Cumberbatch Compares Doctor Strange to Sherlock Holmes

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Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness star Benedict Cumberbatch compares his role as Stephen Strange to another of his previous characters, Sherlock Holmes. Set to follow on from the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home , Cumberbatch will return to reprise his role as Master of the mystic arts, Doctor Strange.

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‘’ It was a case of life imitating art‘.’
Benedict proves with his own actions that he not only plays a superhero, but is also a man with real courage to save others. By highlighting the location of the incident near Baker Street, the report creates a connection with Benedict's character Sherlock, portraying Benedict as a courageous, brave and selfless guardian of Baker Street.

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Benedict Cumberbatch saves Deliveroo cyclist who was ‘beaten by gang of muggers’

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The actor took on the gang after spotting the attack near detective Sherlock Holmes’ fictional home in London’s Baker Street

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Avengers Infinity War premiere arrivals, red carpet, photocall: Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch

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The censorship that heterosexuals should not play gay roles troubled Benedict as well. He expresses respect and sensitivity to diversity. His expression of opinion is as rigorous and profound as his persona traits.

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Benedict Cumberbatch opened up about his role in The Power of the Dog, which explores themes of sexual repression and toxic masculinity.

In the upcoming Western movie set in 1967, Cumberbatch stars as a grizzly cattle rancher who unexpectedly falls for the young son of a widow, played by Kirsten Dunst, who recently moved to his ranch. The character grapples with his sexuality in an era and place that emphasizes binary gender roles and expectations.

"He had this burning love affair in his youth, which wasn't tolerated, which wasn't allowed, couldn't be spoken of and the tragedy of that is what twists him into this sort of form of masculine toxicity," the British actor told reporters of his character at the New York Film Festival premiere on Friday.

Cumberbatch explained that the character's toxic masculinity made him project "hate on the world, and for the world, hate on him, and I think his sense of loneliness is exacerbated by that and his sense of jealousy."

Of the time period, the star said, "I think it speaks to a time of intolerance and a lack of acceptance where people couldn't live any kind of their authentic self."

"[Queer men] had to bury that and cloak it in masculinity, which while not necessarily inherent on the face of it, became so," he continued.

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Cumberbatch also said his character's feelings about his sexuality are more complex than "self-hatred."

"I don't think he's disgusted with himself, he has privacy, he has moments of recollection; he communes with his memory, but I don't think he knows any difference," the actor explained. "It's so hard for us to view it through his lens, that's the trickiness of it."

Cumberbatch, who is straight and has previously played a gay character, has faced increased scrutiny in this role. The actor previously played mathematician Alan Turing, a gay man, in 2014's The Imitation Game.

"I feel very sensitive about representation, diversity, and inclusion," he said at the Telluride Film Festival earlier this month regarding The Power of the Dog, according to IndieWire. "One of the appeals of the job was the idea that in this world, with this specific character, there was a lot that was private, hidden from view."

Cumberbatch added, "It wasn't done without thought."

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The actor ultimately said during the press conference that scrutiny about his casting should be addressed with director Jane Campion who "chose us as actors to play those roles."

"That's her question to answer," Cumberbatch said.

The Power of the Dog hits theaters on Nov. 17, followed by Netflix on Dec. 1.

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Benedict Cumberbatch Reflects on Playing a Repressed Gay Character in 'The Power of the Dog'

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Benedict Cumberbatch opened up about his role in The Power of the Dog, which explores themes of sexual repression and toxic masculinity. In the upcoming Western movie set in 1967, Cumberbatch stars as a grizzly cattle rancher who unexpectedly falls for the young son of a widow, played by Kirsten Dunst, who recently moved to his ranch.

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Benedict Cumberbatch on Playing Gay Icon Alan Turing in The Imitation Game

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In this video, Benedict is portrayed as more composed than the mischievous Tom Holland, who needs to keep everything in track. Benedict looks more composed and reliable in the cheerful chat, and he is already a big star with plenty of experience.

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benedict cumberbatch babysitting tom holland for 15 minutes straight

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Entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe was an important point in Cumberbatch's career shift from television to film. He plays a proud and stubborn wizard with amazing magical powers.

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Haastrup, H.K. (2015)  ' Hollywood Icons : Contemporary Film Stars in Celebrity Genres ' , Akademisk Kvarter, 10, pp.161-173.

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Haastrup, H.K. (2015)  ' Hollywood Icons : Contemporary Film Stars in Celebrity Genres ' , Akademisk Kvarter, 10, pp.161-173.

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‘’the live Oscars red carpet is not only an example of the collapse of the star as brand and the stars’ ‘commercial extension’ but also works as a platform for managing the star’s image." (Haastrup, 2015)

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Benedict Cumberbatch Talks Sex & Sherlock

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Benedict Cumberbatch Talks Sex & Sherlock

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Benedict limits talk of sex to the character. The fact that sexuality is austere to the extreme is instead a form of sensuality, which makes him all the more infatuated by women

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Ever wondered what Sherlock would be like in bed? Wonder no more

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‘’I‘m ripped, doing something I wouldn't normally do with my body...involving Watson‘’

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‘’I‘m ripped, doing something I wouldn't normally do with my body...involving Watson‘’

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Benedict talks about fans' sexual creations of himself in a coy and inclusive manner. Being heterosexual he didn't try to pander to his fans or wear them down, still responding in an humorous way.

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I found this article from Digital Spy to be hilarious XD.

It details Benedict's thoughts on fanfiction and tumblr...looks like he approves somewhat :D.

Benedict Cumberbatch has said that he finds explicit Sherlock fan fiction to be "flattering".

The actor, who plays the titular role in the BBC drama, revealed that he was alerted to the "racy" stories by his co-star Martin Freeman, who discovered them while in New Zealand shooting .

"I am startlingly aware of it. I don't go seeking it, but Martin Freeman, who was an absolute luddite on the first series, suddenly came back from New Zealand... and he had this beautiful Mac with him and said, 'Hey, look at this Tumblr'. And I said, 'What? Tumblr? What?'" Cumberbatch recalled in an interview with .

"He knows more about it than I do and he was showing me some of them. Some of it is really racy, un-viewable even on MTV.

"It's cool. I suppose my bodily proportions are quite flattering. I'm ripped, doing something I wouldn't normally do with my body, or having done to it, involving Watson. So that's as far as I'll hit about that one, but it's all there on the web if you want to find it."

Cumberbatch went on to say that he was surprised to see such a high quality of writing amongst the fan-penned pieces, adding: "I was amazed at the level of artistry; people have spent hours doing it. And there's some really weird cross breeding stuff that goes on.

"The news got out that I was playing Smaug in Hobbit and suddenly there were lots of dragons with purple scarves flying around so it's crazy, it's crazy."
Me: Wait what?! There's a fanfic with a dragon wearing a scarf?! Where is this lulzworthy fic?!!! XDXDXD

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Benedict Cumberbatch's Thoughts On Fanfiction and Tumblr

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I found this article from Digital Spy to be hilarious XD. It details Benedicts thoughts on fanfiction and tumblr...looks like he approves somewhat :D. Benedict Cumberbatch: Im flattered by racy Sherlock fan fiction Published Wednesday, May 2 2012, 22:35 BST | By Jennifer Still |...

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Fans' passion for character couples is not likely to be limited to just the characters, but often rises to the level of real people. Just as the two are not explicitly gay in the show (even Watson already has a wife) the reality of Benedict, who is heterosexual, and another man's relationship is still being written about with passion by fans

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1. Tags

Summary

Year 27 B.C. the Herculean Greco-Roman Epiphanes, undefeated gladiator, has to risk his life in every bloody battle in the arena for the banal entertainment of the Romans, driven to continue surviving solely with the purpose of collecting revenge one day, against the presumptuous Caesar Augustus, who betrayed him and led him to his misfortune. But in the midst of so much blood and sand, Epiphanes will discover that the gods still have another purpose for him, when suddenly Cupid shoots him with his golden arrow to a serene young slave with beautiful golden hair named Martin, whose proprietor is Benedictus, the richest consul from Rome. Richartin AU. Thorin / Bilbo's love burning again in a new life.

Series

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Summary

En el año 27 a.C. el hercúleo greco-romano Epífanes, gladiador invicto, tiene que jugarse la vida en cada sangrienta batalla en la arena para el banal entretenimiento de los romanos, impulsado a seguir sobreviviendo únicamente con el propósito de cobrar venganza un día, contra el presuntuoso César Augusto, que lo traicionó y lo llevó a su desgracia. Pero en medio de tanta sangre y arena, Epífanes descubrirá que los dioses todavía tienen otro propósito para él, cuando repentinamente cupido lo flecha con su flecha de oro a un sereno joven esclavo de hermoso pelo dorado llamado Martinus, cuyo amo es Benedictus, el consul más rico de Roma.
Richartin AU. El amor de Thorin/BIlbo ardiendo de nuevo en una nueva vida.

Series

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Summary

没想到吧高贵路人居然搞出了遗产之四！
起因是歧路那篇的第十四章：每一位导演/编剧/制片的第一部作品都很容易暴露真实的自己，千万不要轻易搞现代的东西：）
镜头是导演的眼睛，观众看到的东西正是导演想表达的东西，拍艺术作品有它自己的一套逻辑和隐喻在里面，像TJLC提到302的圆盘隐喻菊花这种，但作为新手主创而言，他可能还没摸到隐喻的边界，在创造的时候只觉得这里有个圆盘是正确的，却没想过为什么会是这样。
所以作为马丁参与编剧的第一部现代作品，养育者里掺杂了各种马丁视角的freebatch私货=w=只等待着我们把它发掘出来。
注意，这里特意强调了是【马丁视角】而不是上帝视角，因为身处一段关系之中的时候，任何人都没办法看清事件的全貌，所以养育者的内容不一定是事件的真相，但一定包含了马丁私人的感受。
毕竟↓
Sentiment is a chemical defect found in the losing side.

PS：虽然我个人站潮缺，但这篇内容的攻受完全无差，之前也成功给纯缺潮粉安利了我写的东西（以前的评论里有），没有嘤嘤怪的放心：）
PPS：btw，不管ao3统计如何，全文9k1，注意阅读时间：）

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Summary

高贵路人的宝贵遗产之三。
我一直觉得你圈应该有一篇叫《歧路》的镇圈文，完全走写实向，它包含了freebatch从一见钟情到事业爱情之中选择了事业的完整故事。
可惜真的没有，我自己又实在是忙，完全懒得动手。
更重要的是我只是路人啊我又不是粉丝！【敲黑板
它应该包含宿命般的相逢，应该包含不可为而为之的爱情，包含婚内（没婚也算婚）出轨，包含沉痛的抉择，包含盛大却有人缺席的婚礼，包含决裂，包含I don't love you，包含轰轰烈烈的分手。
很可惜，我没见到能让我拍案叫绝的镇圈文，无论是洋妞圈还是简中圈，好吧我承认我也没认真找，如果存在请务必安利给我，please。
所以把和各种人的脑洞口嗨整理在这里了，说是整理，其实还是挺散乱的，更像是整合到一起的聊天记录，然后按照文（？）里大纲的时间线拉了一下顺序。
或者说是按照现实时间排了一下顺序，不能白整理一遍时间线啊（笑
前十九章是各种各样的口嗨，第二十章是我心目中《歧路》的完整大纲，自行调取食用w

PS：我个人主要站的是福华/潮缺，和你圈所有人都是对家（不是），不过床上的攻受对我而言完全不重要，也存在缺潮h：）

尽兴就好，毕竟二位的那个就这么大（比划）

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Summary

高贵路人的宝贵遗产之一。不用去别的地方找了这个就是简中圈最全的：）
以神夏s1234为时间轴，拉了一下潮缺的时间线，证明我尽心尽力的磕过了：）
内容包含两个人的热恋期和分手期，以及最近的旧情复燃趋向，以及相应时间点两个人各自都在做什么工作，打【？】的部分为内容存疑，（）的部分是一些批注？
也包含大部分经典梗的时间点=w=
腾讯文档不方便分享，所以这边留个底，抠到新的旧料时记得过来看一眼时间点，绝对会有不一样的体验。
欢迎补充~

PS：仍在不断更新中，二周目如有改动，不是你看漏了，是我新填的

PS：另一位作者安徒生与院，细微差别在于我们两个写日期的习惯不一样~不影响查阅

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Summary

The final series of Sherlock (series 5) has wrapped up and now both Benedict and Martin are going on publicity tours regarding the show. Their privately known romantic relationship is still a new and fragile thing, and needs to be nourished and focused on to thrive.

However, can they truly do this?

Series

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Benedict Cumberbatch/Martin Freeman - Works | Archive of Our Own

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While we've done our best to make the core functionality of this site accessible without javascript, it will work better with it enabled. Please consider turning it on! Tags Summary Year 27 B.C.

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Milions of Fan fiction: Sherlock and Waston

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Milions of Fan fiction: Sherlock and Waston

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Johnlock is the slash ship between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson from the Sherlock Holmes and BBC Sherlock and it is the most popular pairing in the fandom. Fannish interest in the pairing has increased recently following the Sherlock Holmes 2009 film and the BBC's 2010 TV series Sherlock. A variety of portrayals of Sherlock and John's sexualities and their relationship are common in fandom. One very common plot of fanwork is the usually romantic storyline of how Sherlock and John come to discover their romantic and sexual attraction to one another.

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While we've done our best to make the core functionality of this site accessible without javascript, it will work better with it enabled. Please consider turning it on!

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Summary

Mycroft Holmes is accustomed to exchanging intelligence with foreign agents; it's all part of the Great Game.

And then there's the obscenely genial American who appears out of nowhere -- literally -- in his office one morning.

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Summary

After the events in Season 4... Eurus died, but the damage had already been done. While John Watson and many others finally got the therapy and help they needed to begin recovering from her manipulations; Mycroft Holmes' political position and authority had been gravely damaged. With political enemies surrounding him, he was forced to leave the comfort of his office, and travel to handle events that would once have been delegated... that, unfortunately, left him very vulnerable...

And then he discovered that some myths and legends, are based in fact.

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Summary

Bouncer for The Peacock Room, John Watson spots a rival Queen in the Queue one night.

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The boys have had there ceremony at home and they consider themselves Husbands, will they be able to enjoy the Clearing Skies, or does someone else have other ideas? Could the ghosts of the past come back to haunt them?

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Sherlock Holmes/John Watson - Works | Archive of Our Own

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While we've done our best to make the core functionality of this site accessible without javascript, it will work better with it enabled. Please consider turning it on! Tags Summary Mycroft Holmes is accustomed to exchanging intelligence with foreign agents; it's all part of the Great Game.

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For relatively young stars such as Cumberbatch, he tried to make his image more special and memorable on the red carpet. While dressed in a Savile Row tuxedo by Spencer Hart like a impeccable gentleman, Cumberbatch presented himself as a red-carpet prankster when he photo bombed the rock band U2, an image that ensured he was not only perceived as a rigorous and serious artists or a ‘a ‘stiff upper lip’, but also as someone who can make a joke.

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Oscars 2014: Benedict Cumberbatch's excitement on the red carpet

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In ‘The many lives of Benedict Cumberbatch’ in GQ (December 2013), the studio photo shoot depicts Cumberbatch with a serious stiff upper-lip expression and dressed primarily in contemporary men’s outerwear, with plaid and wool linking the images to his Sherlock Holmes persona.

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A third series of Sherlock, three new films and the world on his shoulders. The man who's cheated death more often than his famous alter ego is just getting started...

Depending on your point of view, Benedict Cumberbatch has almost died on five separate occasions. The first (hypothermia) occurred when he was a baby. The second (bomb explosion), when he was a student. The third (dehydration and starvation), when he was on his gap year. The fourth saw him taken hostage, tied up, bundled into the boot of a car, driven to an unknown location, forced to the ground on his knees and the cold muzzle of a gun trained on the back of his head.

He never heard the shot of a bullet, but then, of course, he never would have.

By that point, he was an actor. But none of the above is fiction.

And yet, when people think of Benedict Cumberbatch, it's likely the only near-death experience that comes to mind is the fifth one, the one that didn't actually happen - at least, not to Cumberbatch.

It's the one at the end of the second series of Sherlock, where the 37-year-old, who will be seen in no less than three Hollywood films in the next two months, leapt from the top of St Bartholomew's hospital, trademark

Belstaff greatcoat flapping in the wind, and seemingly plummeted to his death - only, of course, to be seen to have cheated it.

Talk to most people - his friends, his co-stars, his directors, your next-door neighbour - and they will tell you that it was the

Sherlock role that changed his life, that transformed him from a respected character actor into a household name and, from there, an international star. Which is undeniably true.

But talk to Cumberbatch himself and he will also tell you there is a deeper reason for it all - for the career that, despite mainstream success coming in his thirties, has not for one moment seen a lull, a break or slowdown of any kind; a kind of non-stop career sprint that has included 14 theatre productions, 17 TV roles, 30 films and, really, he's just getting started.

The three films he's in this winter - as a kindly slave-owner in the red-hot Oscar favourite 12 Years A Slave; as fearsome dragon Smaug in tent-pole blockbuster The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug; as an unemployed screw-up opposite Meryl Streep in August: Osage County - come after a summer in which he outshone the Enterprise crew as super-villain Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, and gave an uncanny performance as Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate. Then there's the new series of Sherlock starting next month, the biopic of code-breaker Alan Turing ( The Imitation Game), which he's currently filming, Hamlet on stage and, after that, the lingering hope of the rebooted JJ Abrams-directed Star Wars ("There's a possibility, of course there is - JJ knows how much I'd love to be part of it").

As his good friend Matthew Goode, a co-star in The Imitation Game, says: "I remember him coming to our house after he'd just finished something at the National Theatre and yet another film, and my wife said, 'How are you Ben?' And he said, 'Yeah, um, I'm all right, I mean, I'm unemployed at the moment...' He'd been unemployed for two days!"

After recalling the third time he almost died, Cumberbatch will say to me: "These seismic events give you perspective on mortality, on the sacredness of it... to realise not to sweat the small stuff.

And just to enjoy the ride of being alive."

After recalling the fourth time, he will put it more plainly: "The afterburn, the follow-on stuff from that experience, is impatience. And I think that might still be ongoing. About me trying to cram a lot into my life."

To put it another way: Benedict Cumberbatch might be one of the few people whose post-traumatic stress has made him a superstar.

The truth - as always with life, as often with Cumberbatch - is a bit more complicated.

His first memory is of staring at the sky. His parents - both actors - lived in a top-floor flat in Kensington, London ("bought in the Seventies for something like three grand"), and when Benedict would cry, they would carry his pram up to the roof and point him skywards. Then, he would become still. He would smile.

And often, he would sleep. He remembers, still, the wonder he felt at this: " A vision of sky."

His first word was helicopter. "They were the biggest things in the sky."

It was around this time that he first cheated death. His half-sister, Tracy, from his mother's first marriage, was babysitting him in the middle of winter. She put a crying Benedict on the roof to calm him for a moment or two. "Then," says Cumberbatch, laughing, "she forgot about me! I mean, it was funny. She was in the kitchen with her friends and she suddenly saw the snow falling through the window..."

When she ran upstairs, she found Benedict serene - teeth chattering, but still smiling, still in awe. He had to be thawed out on a radiator before his parents returned home ("I had turned blue").

Still, he remembers his childhood as idyllic. Even when, at eight, he was packed off to boarding school. "I was an only child, but I was very gregarious. I thrived; an amazing five years. But yes, eight seems a bit of a wrench. I don't know if I could do it with a kid of eight."

He started acting early. At the school nativity, he remembers, he played Joseph - and shoved Mary off the stage because she had forgotten her lines. "It was very unchivalrous."

Confidence was never a problem. Nor was a belief in his ability.

By the time he went to Harrow he was cast in most of the lead roles - including, as it was an all-boys school, Rosalind in As You Like It - and from there didn't much doubt acting was for him. "I think, going into it, I always had self-belief in my talent.

You have to."

It was at the end of his time at Harrow that Cumberbatch had a run-in with mortality for the second time. He was at home, studying for his A levels in his bedroom, when all of a sudden the whole flat shook from a huge explosion. The windows shattered, a dust cloud enveloped him, his ears rang. "I just thought, 'F***!' I ran through the flat. My mum and dad were saying, 'Are you all right?

Are you all right?' I said no - I couldn't hear out of one ear."

It was the 1994 attack on the Israeli Embassy, a car packed with 30lb of explosives. Cumberbatch remembers a deafening silence, then a sound - schrrlllllll, schrrlllllll. It was the sound of glass falling to earth.

When he went to Manchester University to study drama, he had a blast - girls, drinking, clubbing. Pills? "I was a student in Manchester," he says with a laugh, by way of an answer. "But, uh, I'll take the Fifth." Yet he soon overdid it: "I got very ill in my first year. I got glandular fever. I had to calm down a bit. It was my body going, 'What the f***?'"

After he graduated, he decided to take a gap year, teaching English in Tibet. And that's when he had his third near-death experience. He got lost while hiking with friends. Armed only with a biscuit and a piece of cheese between four of them, he remembers walking across outcrops lined with ice and down semi-frozen rivers, "nearly breaking our necks", poking yak droppings in the hope they were warm - "to see how far we could be from some kind of civilisation".

He remembers, finally, breaking through the tree line, falling on his knees near the home of a Sherpa shepherd and "making the universal hand-to-mouth gesture of food". He remembers getting a meal of spinach and meat, and the dysentery he got straight after eating it. He remembers it as the best meal he's ever had.

But it was the fourth of his near-misses when he really thought he was going to die.

Interviewing Benedict Cumberbatch is a bit like being a matador, but one trying to influence the direction of a train.

We meet in a pub at the end of Cumberbatch's road in Hampstead, north London, just below the Heath, where he owns the top two floors of a Victorian house. He is wearing dark-blue jeans, white T-shirt, purple pea coat and a smart grey flat cap, which, when removed, reveals a short back and sides propping up a neat quiffed wave of hair, breaking left to right.

It's not that he's rude, you understand - he's unfailingly polite, funny, generous with his time and wonderful company. It's simply that, when he begins a sentence, you're locked in for the paragraph, and if you try to interject, often he'll just keep talking while you talk.

As Goode, who has known Cumberbatch for more than a decade, will tell me a few days before the interview, "He gives his time and his thoughts, but he likes to follow a point through to the end. But I love that. And it probably stands his acting in good stead - he's able to get from point A to point B and finish it with extreme clarity."

It is also, I think, down to a feeling he has of being misrepresented by the press, and it's only by giving the exact line, his exact position, without distraction, that he can hope not to be misquoted.

Partly, perhaps, this stems from the confected "row" that erupted in the tabloids last August when he told the Radio Times that he felt "castigated" for his privileged background. "All the posh-baiting that goes on," he said. "It's just so predictable, so domestic, so dumb." Cue more castigation.

For the record, Cumberbatch has this to say about his social standing: "I'm an upper middle-class kid. I know that's counted as posh, but then I know people who I would call posh, and I don't talk like them."

And, no, he's not leaving for the United States any time soon.

This was not the only run-in Cumberbatch has had with the press.

In fact, his cuttings file is littered with occasionally tetchy exchanges with interviewers. Even a recent cover story in The Hollywood Reporter - which proclaimed him the key player of "The New A-List" - was awkward, beginning with the sentence: "I am 45 minutes into an interview with Benedict Cumberbatch, and frankly, it's not going well."

A recent interview with the Guardian to promote The Fifth Estate, meanwhile, ended with Cumberbatch feeling he'd been quoted out of context concerning Chelsea (nee Bradley)

Manning's incarceration, and saw him ask for a clarification to be posted online (it was), and the relevant transcript published (ditto). "It was very irresponsible of them to do that," he says. "It's like, what are you going to gain from my opinions? Oh, I see, you're going to turn it into a piece that makes me sound like a big schoolboy who thinks that people who break the rules should be punished."

It's also probably no coincidence that this, too, circled back to a veiled dig at his social class.

We speak, on and off, about his true thoughts on politics, whistleblowers and terrorism in greater detail than could be included even in a profile of this length, but suffice to say his position is, like most people's, not black and white: he understands the reality of whistleblowers, and why the relevant governments seek to punish them. But at heart he's a liberal, and wouldn't want Manning punished. He's not a security- expert, but understands the complex balancing act between civil liberties and protecting the population. I tell him it's an utterly reasonable, balanced position to take, and one I share. "And yet, the minute you do that, you're accused of sitting on the fence," he says.

While filming the third series of Sherlock, meanwhile, Cumberbatch held up a piece of paper to the paparazzi hovering nearby that read: "Go photograph Egypt and show the world something important". Then, later, a four-page treatise he'd written about civil liberties regarding the Guardian and the government's attempt to muffle the paper. Yet it was the

Guardian once again - this time via Marina Hyde - that stuck the boot in, referencing his class with a piece headlined, "Benedict Cumberbatch's vital mission to educate the hoi polloi". "I was really shocked with what was going on," he says, "so I just thought, if this culture is so fixated on me, I may as well use it to ask questions. I wasn't trying to trash popular culture.

I don't belittle the appetites of people who just want to see shots of Sherlock."

He sighs. "I guess that's my nearest flirtation with social media, and if I get misinterpreted in print, or if the perception of me is edited in print, then this is clear: I'm holding up the words."

As for the article: "The Guardian really does have its cake and eat it. Their offices are being raided for these hard disks, and I find it extraordinary they [ran] that [piece] as well."

Benedict Cumberbatch worries a lot. I suggest, in fact, he might worry too much. "I know. And I am getting better at that. I remember something happening during the filming of Sherlock and someone said,

'You've got a thin skin.' And it was like, 'I've done it again.

I've f***ing done it again.' I mean, I do [have a thin skin] when something is said at my expense. But I'm learning. Regret is too big a word, but I'm learning."

And yet there is a clear and wonderful flip side to all this concern of his, which is unbelievable enthusiasm. As much as he seemingly worries about everything, he's excited and thrilled about everything else.

He's excited about the coffee we order (the barman gets a lengthy grilling on what exactly is a flat white); by how this magazine works; by wild swimming in Hampstead Heath; by the burgers we order; even, as we leave the pub - him to stroll home, me to unlock my single-speed racer - by my bike (he recognises the make of frame, the bike nerd in me is impressed).

Seeing all these enthusiasms - and these are just the minor, slightly unexpected ones - I can't help but think two things.

First, the follow-through of rampant enthusiasm is often naivety, and I understand why his Sherlock co-star Martin Freeman says he's easy to "screw over" ("He's sweet and generous in an almost childlike way. I could take advantage of him playing cards"), or how Simon Pegg convinced Cumberbatch while they were filming Star Trek Into Darkness in a nuclear facility that he needed to wear a special face cream to protect him from radiation; he obliged, and even became convinced it was why he kept screwing up his lines ("Guys, I'm sorry," he said. "I've got a real headache. I think the ions were getting to me").

But mostly, I feel, compared with Cumberbatch, like someone going through existence with the contrast dial turned down. To him, it seems, everything is neon bright. The barbs may sting more sharply, but his sun must shine that much brighter.

It's not hard to imagine how this sensitivity - both bad and good - feeds into his acting. He feels more, notices more, hears more. It's in his nature - he's a human tuning fork. When he was a child, he says, he used to carry around a Dictaphone wherever he went, recording anything he found of interest, trying out voices, practising sounds. It didn't last too long, but only because he became the Dictaphone. For every person he quotes during the three hours we spend together, he can't help but drop into a pitch-perfect impersonation of them, body, voice and all. It's uncanny, not least because this cast list includes Madonna ("She said, 'You're the one with the strange name.' I said, 'Yes, I am - Madonna'"), Meryl Streep ("She just said, 'Well, I

love what you do'") and Ted Danson ("It was a pre-Oscar party and he just screamed across a crowded room, 'Oh my God! F***!

It's Sherlock! You're Sherlock! Oh God!'"). It occasionally feels like I'm getting the best one-man show in the world.

On the Graham Norton show he did Chewbacca from Star Wars. Harrison Ford, sitting next to him, almost jumped out of his seat. "He's got a remarkable ear," says Steven Moffat, the co-creator of Sherlock. "He can pick up people seriously fast. He could do me. He could do you. When he got into trouble a short while ago for saying he was pigeon-holed as posh - he can do it all, that's all he meant. And yet he gets pigeon-holed for parts because he is, let's be honest, the son of Timothy Carlton - a posh boy."

When Cumberbatch was featured recently on the cover of

Time ("An unbelievable honour"), the cover line read: "Playing Genius". It's a cliché - playing slightly odd yet often brilliant men - that has stuck with him over the years, ever since his stunning breakout role in his twenties as Stephen Hawking in a TV biopic. And it's one that's only been solidified by playing the likes of Vincent van Gogh (another TV biopic), Assange, Sherlock, Khan and his forthcoming role as Turing. This, despite roles as varied as a hostage negotiator in Four Lions, a major in Spielberg's War Horse, a rapist in Atonement and a gay spook in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. "Look, I know that everything I do now will have flavours of

Sherlock. Everyone wants those dark, complicated antiheroes, and of course I play them. But I also play Charles in August: Osage County, Ford in 12 Years A Slave and Alexander in Stuart: A Life Backwards - he's a pretty open book; smart man though he is, the complexity is all about Stuart [a homeless man played by Tom Hardy]. Alexander's an everyman; he's not super-sleuthing or cracking code or breaking algorithms. I mix it up."

The truth, I think, that you can see in all Cumberbatch's best roles is not really that he plays genius or even intelligence exactly (one of the most slippery of thespian tasks; trying to "act" intelligence is a bit like trying to feign coolness - it doesn't work if you force it). The thing that binds them, from Frankenstein on stage and Alexander in Stuart: A Life Backwards to Sherlock, is something more fundamental: a sense of wonder.

The day I meet Cumberbatch, it is the Monday after opening weekend in the US of The Fifth Estate, and the film has tanked. On an estimated budget of $30m (£19m), it took just $1.7m (£1.1m) from 1,769 cinemas across the country, making it the worst opening weekend for any major film released in 2013. "Well, I always thought that Disney and Dreamworks were odd bedfellows for such a specialist topic, really. The parallel is

The Social Network, but everyone uses Facebook; not everyone is au fait with WikiLeaks," says Cumberbatch, adding, "This was never going to be a popcorn multiplex film."

Box-office gross - now he's in the market to play the leads - is seemingly one more thing he has to fret about. That morning,

Variety ran a piece titled, "Does 'Fifth Estate' Bombing Hurt Benedict Cumberbatch As A Leading Man?" "Water off a duck's back," he says. "I'm just thankful that it has positioned me as someone who is capable of doing that kind of a role. And whether the film has a big box office or not, the response to how I have performed [as Assange] has done me huge favours. You know, it's the first lead role I've had and it's caused this much attention."

Has it harmed his Oscar chances though? "I think so. But then I never really held out for that." He never really held out for TV superstardom either, but that doesn't mean he didn't get it. Despite it airing in the summer, despite it being brought forward on the schedule, despite minimal PR, the first episode of Sherlock, in July 2010, got nine million viewers. Cumberbatch wasn't an overnight star - he was one at the end of 90 minutes.

It was the perfect fit - the pinnacle of the tormented, brilliant loners he'd made a specialism of; a role that would play on, as co-creator Mark Gatiss puts it, the fact that "in a certain light, his face is quite alien. And then in another, he's iconically handsome."

Details of the third series are tightly under wraps, but Cumberbatch will tell me this much: there will be a reunion, an explanation (of how he cheated death), a marriage, a speech and a new villain "who is the opposite of the otherworldly Moriarty, who is painfully real and possible - that's what's chilling". There will be another cliffhanger ending ("that makes you go, 'What the f***?'"), fewer lengthy deduction monologues ("Maybe people won't miss them; although saying that, episode two is almost one entire monologue"), and a new haircut. Well, actually... "I've said for quite a long time I'd like him to have a different haircut. I quite like my hair being short. You know, we've been away two years, let's f*** around with his outfit, let's f*** around with his haircut, let's do something different."

Was he allowed to? "Not really, no."

And yet, as hard as it is to imagine now - with the fan army of "Cumberbitches" that are name-checked in every Cumberbatch profile, and duly get a mention here - the BBC almost didn't go for him, because they said he wasn't attractive enough. "We kept saying to the BBC, we're going to give you a sexy Sherlock Holmes," says Moffat. "And I remember the BBC saying,

'Hmm, really? We don't think he is.' And now, he's the sexiest man in the world."

It begs the question: do his army of devoted female followers want to sleep with Sherlock, or with Cumberbatch? "I suppose as Rita Hayworth used to say," says Gatiss, "'The trouble is, they go to bed with Gilda, but wake up with me.'"

Matthew Goode has a different take when I suggest it must be hard for Cumberbatch to -distinguish when it comes to women. "Ha ha, you know, this is a man we're talking about! Look, he's not that old, but he's coming to the end of his thirties, so he's looking [for a long-term partner]. But if he has to have a few conquests to get the right one, I'm sure that won't bother him either. I'm sure the cream of the crop will be coming towards him.

He's going to enjoy himself."

As for Cumberbatch himself, he'll simply say this: "It is harder

[meeting women], because people think they know more about you than they actually do. And you can't control that. You can't control perceptions of you."

No matter how much, it seems, he tries.

This is what Cumberbatch can remember from the time he nearly died in South Africa, while filming mini-series To The Ends Of The Earth in 2004.

He is with co-stars Denise Black and Theo Landey. They are making their way back from an idyllic weekend of scuba-diving in the KwaZulu-Natal district, north of Durban. It is night-time. They are driving on a highway near the Mozambique border. Cumberbatch has lit a spliff, and is listening to Radiohead on the stereo - "How To Disappear Completely" - and contemplating how blissfully happy he is. Their right tyre blows, forcing them to pull over.

Trucks shudder past. As they begin

to remove the wheel and replace it with a spare, six armed men emerge from the bush. Cumberbatch and his friends are frisked, asked for money, drugs and weapons. Their hands are bound with their own shoelaces and they are driven away. Off-road, is all he knows.

Cumberbatch is bundled against the windscreen, sitting on Black's lap on the front passenger seat, awkwardly folded, his back and head hitting the glass as they go over bumps. He remembers a surreal moment when his bum hits the car stereo, turning it on, and Thom Yorke is suddenly soundtracking his ordeal: "I'm not here," he sings. "This isn't happening..." He is in some discomfort, so they stop, and decide instead to put him in the boot.

He remembers a trickle of blood on his head. He remembers suffering bad cramps, and thinking he is going to pass out. He remembers thinking, if they aren't going to kill him, he might be taken hostage. He takes some small solace from this. He imagines where they would store him. Would it be like TV - some kind of

Silent Witness-style lock-up under the arches? But there are no arches. They are being driven into the wilderness.

Suddenly, they stop. He remembers being taken out of the boot and being forced to crouch in the execution position. He remembers the duvet that was placed over his head, to silence the shot. He remembers thinking: "No matter how loved you are in this life, you will die alone."

He remembers trying to reason with them, saying that killing him would not be a good idea, that they don't want a dead Englishman on their hands. After an indeterminate amount of time, which may only have been minutes, but which spread out like hours, he realises the kidnappers have gone.

They run towards the only lights they can see and, after about ten minutes of so, running in a daze, they come across women operating a cart outside a car park. He remembers the black hands that untie him. The pure gratitude he feels. And he remembers the women crying for what has been done by their countrymen. They cry the same sentence again and again. For shame, they cry. For shame. For shame...

He remembers, then, that he too started to cry. And he remembers he couldn't stop.

Some of this harrowing encounter, in varying parts and in varying detail, he has recounted before. What he has not spoken about are the after-effects. He woke up the next morning, he says, and went to the balcony of the house they were staying in, which looked out to the sea. "And I felt the heat on my face, and I looked across and thought, 'I want to swim in that sea. I want to walk across that dune, I want to be with those people I can see playing. Every atom of me wants to be part of it. Because I'm alive.'"

He saw a counsellor, who said, "Maybe write this out, speak to people about it, and do some exercise - be part of your landscape."

True to Cumberbatch's hyper-aware nature, he had already done all three - he had written four pages detailing the experience while waiting on the road side for the police, gone skydiving in the days following, returned to work and spoken to everyone about it. "I'd already done the check list," he says. "It was just intuitive."

After his parents flew over the following week, he even revisited the site. "They said, 'Are you sure you want to?' I said yes. You can't imagine all the small details that came back to me.

Right down to the insects."

The only trauma he identified occurred a few weeks later, while resuming To The Ends Of The Earth's filming. They were shooting under the deck of a boat on a covered section of dock.

Cumberbatch came up for air and a smoke, only to see they had started to close the main shutter entrance. "I saw the daylight being blocked out and I said, 'Look, can you stop that?' It kept closing, and I was like, 'Please, keep it open!'"

He panicked, and ran outside. "I smashed my fist three or four times against the brick wall." He has tears in his eyes now as he recalls it. It had reminded him of the car boot. "It was the anger of being reminded of the fear, and where I'd gone in my imagination. And I remember thinking: 'Don't let that be the legacy of this.'"

We keep in contact after the interview. He calls me to chat the next day, saying how he'd since spoken to Denise Black from South Africa, and how much he missed her. I watch him on TV, giving a remarkable live performance in Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead for the National Theatre's 50th birthday celebrations. We text briefly. I wonder how much of who he is - his incredible sensitivity to the world, the thing that seems to fuel everything - is simply his nature, and how much he's been shaped by his remarkable experiences. He texts me a long explanation about how those experiences have shaped him, before saying, "I'm starting to sound like a self-help book of zingy one-liners packed full of fortune-cookie wisdom!"

But then, just when I wonder if there is an answer, if anything so simple could describe something so complex, he texts me a line that may not seem profound, or especially ornate, or like a life lesson of any kind, but, to me, feels so true it is almost neon-bright.

It's one line. It simply says: "You have to experience this stuff yourself."
Originally published in the January 2013 edition of British GQ.

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A third series of Sherlock, three new films and the world on his shoulders. The man who's cheated death more often than his famous alter ego is just getting started... Depending on your point of view, Benedict Cumberbatch has almost died on five separate occasions. The first (hypothermia) occurred when he was a baby.

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Valentine, A.A. (2016) ‘Toward a Broader Recognition of the Queer in the BBC’s Sherlock’, Transformative works and cultures, 22. 

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Valentine, A.A. (2016) ‘Toward a Broader Recognition of the Queer in the BBC’s Sherlock’, Transformative works and cultures, 22. 

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‘’Holmes's queerness is the result of a collection of nonnormative characteristics that exclude him from traditional paradigms of identity and sexuality. His very illegibility may be what appeals to the diverse group of fans who both receive and reciprocate the pleasure of reading (and writing) Holmes as a queer character‘.’ (Valentine, 2016)

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View of Toward a broader recognition of the queer in the BBC'S "Sherlock" | Transformative Works and Cultures

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Benedict Cumberbatch discusses the popularity of Sherlock

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Benedict Cumberbatch discusses the popularity of Sherlock

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Benedict's answers in the interview were impeccable, demonstrating his deep understanding of his role as an actor and his wealth of knowledge. His magnetic and captivating voice is a perfect match for his image. It can be said that this kind of in-depth interviews completely amplifies the strengths that set Benedict apart from other actors.

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Benedict Cumberbatch In Conversation | BAFTA New York

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Surrounded by fans, Benedict continued to smile and act like a gentleman as he tried to satisfy the demand for autographs by fans. His positive image is further shaped by the well-details of his participation in public activities

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The British actor, 37, has proved a surprise hit on both sides of the Atlantic since taking on the role of the 21st century version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's literary sleuth.

The Sherlock Holmes series is a critical success as well as a fans' favourite, ensuring its leading man was a VIP guest at the annual Bafta tea party in Beverly Hills.

While viewers in Britain were on the edge of their sofas last night waiting to find out what happened in the finale, Cumberbatch lapped up the attention.

The edgy detective series pulls in about 10 million viewers and last night's episode is likely to have been equally popular.

Sherlock went head to head with evil media mogul Charles Augustus Magnussen, known as the Napoleon of blackmail.

But how would Sherlock defeat a foe who knows the weaknesses of every influential person?

There were twists and turns aplenty - and Sherlock even took a bullet from a surprise enemy from within.

It was not Magnussen who shot him but Mary, the pregnant wife of Dr Watson, who was a far cry from the person she claimed to be.

The plot left Magnussen dead, Watson and Mary back together and Sherlock holding a smoking gun.

Once again, viewers were left with a cliff-hanger. In the dramatic closing moments, master criminal Jim Moriarty rose from the dead.

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Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch is mobbed by fans in LA

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The British actor, 37, has proved a surprise hit on both sides of the Atlantic since taking on the role of the 21st century version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's literary sleuth. The Sherlock Holmes series is a critical success as well as a fans' favourite, ensuring its leading man was a VIP guest at the annual Bafta tea party in Beverly Hills.

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BBC's Sherlock wins best drama award at Baftas

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BBC's Sherlock wins best drama award at Baftas

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Benedict keeps his hair the way he did as ‘’Sherlock‘’.

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It was appropriate that BBC1's acclaimed modern retelling of the Sherlock Holmes story should triumph at the Bafta TV awards on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday.

The updated crime drama beat ITV1's Downton Abbey to the best drama series prize and one of its stars, Martin Freeman, won best supporting actor for his role as Doctor Watson.

But Benedict Cumberbatch, who starred as Sherlock Holmes, lost out in the lead actor category to Daniel Rigby, who played Eric Morecambe in another BBC drama, the Victoria Wood-produced comic biopic Eric and Ernie.

Freeman described the show as a "love story" between Holmes and Watson. "Not just a love story - these two people who love and need each other in a slightly dysfunctional relationship, but in a relationship that works," he said.

Cumberbatch said: "It's just terrific. It's validation for what we have been doing, we went in with confidence but to come out with an award is wonderful."

The surprise winner of the awards at London's Grosvenor House hotel was ITV2's "fake tan and fur coats" docusoap The Only Way Is Essex, which beat Sherlock and Downton Abbey to the YouTube Audience Award, voted for by viewers.

A big hit for the ITV digital channel but with a fraction of the viewers of Sherlock or Downton Abbey, The Only Way is Essex is one of a new breed of shows combining the reality elements of Big Brother with soap-style storylines.

The programme's executive producer Nicky Hegarty said there were two essential ingredients to the show's success: "Humour and people like looking at people who are gorgeous."

Bafta history was made with the first 3D winner, Sky1's Flying Monsters 3D. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, it won the specialist factual prize, beating BBC1's Human Planet.

Attenborough, 85, said rumours of his retirement were premature. "I couldn't believe this would come to me at this stage in my career," said Attenborough. "3D has a lot of problems - the cameras are huge and that's quite a hard problem to solve - so to get it on air and now to win this is a dream come true."

Attenborough, who is making another two 3D documentaries for Sky, added: "I never said I wanted to retire - as long as people want me to stand up and carry on doing these things I will do, I assure you."

It was a good night for BBC2 comedy, with Rev, starring Tom Hollander, winning best sitcom and sketch show Harry and & Paul taking home the comedy programme prize, while Steve Coogan won his third Bafta for The Trip, in which he played himself opposite Rob Brydon. "This is one of the hardest roles I have ever had to prepare for," joked Coogan. "I have spent the best part of 40 years researching it, I still haven't quite found out who it is."

Another BBC2 comedy star, Miranda Hart, lost out in the female comedy performance category to Jo Brand for her BBC4 hospital-set sitcom, Getting On. Brand said: "I am flabbergasted, mainly because over the years I have been so slagged off for my acting ability by the critics. I am getting an awful lot of schadenfreude from all those critics who hate me."

The awards' host Graham Norton won the best entertainment performance prize, but his BBC1 chat show lost out in the entertainment programme category to a surprise winner, ITV1's The Cube, which also beat fellow ITV show The X Factor.

Another surprise was the lack of prizes for ITV1's Downton Abbey and BBC1's Doctor Who.

The awards were dominated by the BBC, with six wins for BBC1, five for BBC2 and four for digital channel BBC4. Of the commercial broadcasters, Channel 4 won three, ITV1 two, and one apiece for Sky1 and E4.

Former News at Ten presenter Sir Trevor McDonald received the prestigious Bafta fellowship award. McDonald said it was the responsibility of news broadcasters to "make accessible to as wide an audience as possible the complex issues that arise in national and international politics. These people who govern us are responsible to us and they must speak in our name."

TV producer and Comic Relief co-founder Peter Bennett-Jones, who received Bafta's special award, revealed that the charity had raised a record £102m in 2011 and demonstrated the "positive power of television".
The Bafta winners
Leading actor: Daniel Rigby, Eric And Ernie

Leading actress: Vicky McClure, This Is England '86

Supporting actor: Martin Freeman, Sherlock

Supporting actress: Lauren Socha, Misfits

Entertainment performance: Graham Norton, The Graham Norton Show

Female performance in a comedy programme: Jo Brand, Getting On

Male performance in a comedy programme: Steve Coogan, The Trip

Single drama: The Road to Coronation Street

Drama series: Sherlock

Drama serial: Any Human Heart

Continuing drama: EastEnders

International: The Killing

Factual series: Welcome to Lagos

Specialist factual: Flying Monsters 3D

Single documentary: Between Life And Death

Features: Hugh's Fish Fight

Current affairs: Zimbabwe's Forgotten Children, BBC4

News coverage: ITV News At Ten: The Cumbria Murders

Sport: Formula One, The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

New media: Wallace And Gromit's World of Invention

Entertainment programme: The Cube

Comedy programme: Harry and Paul

Situation comedy: Rev

Bafta special awar d: Peter Bennett-Jones

YouTube audience award: The Only Way Is Essex

Bafta fellowship: Sir Trevor McDonald

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BBC's Sherlock wins best drama award at Baftas

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It was appropriate that BBC1's acclaimed modern retelling of the Sherlock Holmes story should triumph at the Bafta TV awards on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's birthday. The updated crime drama beat ITV1's Downton Abbey to the best drama series prize and one of its stars, Martin Freeman, won best supporting actor for his role as Doctor Watson.

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Steven Moffat poses in the press room with the award for outstanding writing for a miniseries, movie or a dramatic special for "Sherlock: His Last Vow (Masterpiece)." (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

And the show with the most wins at the 2014 Emmy Awards goes to..."Sherlock"?

Indeed: "Sherlock: The Last Vow (Masterpiece)" which airs on BBC and PBS, shocked everyone at the awards ceremony on Monday as it steamrolled over big names in the TV movie/miniseries categories to win seven awards total - the most of any show this year. It's also the first time that "Sherlock," nominated many times before and 12 times this year, won any Emmys at all.

Star Benedict Cumberbatch picked up lead actor in a TV movie/miniseries (beating Billy Bob Thornton, Mark Ruffalo, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Idris Elba) while Martin Freeman won the supporting actor prize (instead of Matt Bomer, Joe Mantello, Colin Hanks, Jim Parsons and Alfred Molina). Perhaps not expecting much, neither Cumberbatch or Freeman showed up for the ceremony.

It was a surprise to many in the industry, who expected HBO's "The Normal Heart" to sweep up all the prizes. (It eventually won best TV movie.) "Sherlock" co-creator Stephen Moffatt - who won the writing trophy over "American Horror Story's" Ryan Murphy, "The Normal Heart's" Larry Kramer and others - told reporters backstage at the Emmys he was just as stunned as anyone. "I feel guilty about every award we took from them," he said in reference to "The Normal Heart."

As strange as it seemed, "Sherlock's" domination at the Emmy Awards isn't that crazy. The show is a massive hit in Britain, where it originally airs, and 4 million people tuned into PBS at the beginning of this year to watch the third season. Plus, Cumberbatch's profile has risen steadily over the last couple of years from quirky niche favorite to international star, thanks to things like his role in J.J. Abrams's "Star Trek."

And if there's one thing we've learned, it's never to underestimate the popularity of British television in the U.S. - examples range from "Downton Abbey" to the inescapable "Poirot." Combine all of that with the obsession with "Sherlock" (another season will air in 2015) and it was only a matter of time before it collected all the awards.
Read more: Three suggestions on how the Emmys can be fixed Seth Meyers vs. Jimmy Kimmel: Who was the real Emmys host? Robin Williams, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and more moments that you missed Read the full list of winners Givhan: Pushing products on the red carpet Billy Crystal pays tribute to Robin Williams Full recap of the 2014 Emmy Awards Amy Poehler is Beyonce and everything is wonderful

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'Sherlock' shocks everyone as the biggest winner at the Emmy Awards

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And the show with the most wins at the 2014 Emmy Awards goes to..."Sherlock"? Indeed: "Sherlock: The Last Vow (Masterpiece)" which airs on BBC and PBS, shocked everyone at the awards ceremony on Monday as it steamrolled over big names in the TV movie/miniseries categories to win seven awards total - the most of any show this year.

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Benedict won EMMY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR MINISERIES in 2014

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Benedict won EMMY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR MINISERIES in 2014

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EMMYS 2014 - Benedict Cumberbatch WINS EMMY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR MINISERIES HD

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Benedict Cumberbatch won Evening Standard Theatre Awards: Best Actor 2011

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Benedict Cumberbatch won Evening Standard Theatre Awards: Best Actor 2011

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Benedict's humorous interactions with his co-stars at the awards ceremony added to his image, and unlike his strict and cool roles, Benedict also likes to be quirky in his everyday life. This contrast has endeared him to more viewers and fans.

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Александр Лебедев

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Evening Standard  Theatre Awards: Best Actor

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In this video, Benedict shares his story of struggling to make a living like a normal person before he became a theatre actor, showing a closeness and coherence with our own lives (stars are just like us！）His star image is portrayed more authentically in the discourse.

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Benedict Cumberbatch: My Turning Point | Theatre Artists Fund

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Benedict's clear, wise and philosophical speech and manner cemented his image as an erudite gentleman.

“You can tell he is very passionate about acting and telling stories.
Would love to see more in depth interviews like this instead of the usual and boring interviews artists are forced to do.”
（comments from the video linked below）

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Benedict Cumberbatch  - Hamlet Interview [42 mins]

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British mystery crime drama television series Sherlock ran from 2010 to 2017  is abased on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes detective stories, depicting "consulting detective" Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) solving various mysteries in modern-day London.  In addition to the numerous awards it has been nominated for and the many accolades it has received, it has also generated a new Sherlock Holmes fever worldwide (young version).Countless fans addicted to this TV series and produced huge fan productions for it.

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Amazing succsee in Televison: I am SHERLOCK

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Amazing succsee in Televison: I am SHERLOCK

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Sherlock is undoubtedly the most important role of Cumberbatch's star career. His star has since become inextricably linked with the great detective.
Interestingly, Cumberbatch's character remains highly intelligent and ruthless. The line between his star persona and his role becomes more blurred with his uncanny acting skills.

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U.K. Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards Honor One Man Two, Guvnors, London Road, Benedict Cumberbatch and More

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U.K. Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards Honor One Man Two, Guvnors, London Road, Benedict Cumberbatch and More

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U.K. Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards Honor One Man Two, Guvnors, London Road, Benedict Cumberbatch and More

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The U.K. Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards, presented in a lunchtime ceremony at London’s Prince of Wales Theatre Jan. 24, saw productions at the National Theatre take five of the nine awards, including those for Best New Play, Musical (New or Revival), Actor, Director and Designer.

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The report portrays Cumberbatch as a performer with great acting chops and the ability to resonate with audiences. He has the ability to maximise his own image close to the character.

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People rushed to catch Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet. Now you can see why

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The National Theatre Live screening of a production at London's Barbican is returning to cinemas across the North East

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Benedict Cumberbatch plays the title role, a melancholy and brave danish prince Hamlet. As the absolute protagonist of the show, There is no doubt that Benedict was already considered to be an extremely prestigious and talented British theatre actor at that time.

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Fanseite für den Schauspieler Benedict Cumberbatch, bekannt aus Sherlock und The Imitation Game, mit Infos zu seinem Leben und Projekten (u.a. Hamlet, Richard III)

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‘’The actor’s revival of the tragedy was the fastest-selling show in London theatre history‘’

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Benedict Cumberbatch's Hamlet has received four Olivier award nominations, including best actor for his portrayal of the Shakespearean prince at the Barbican.

The actor's revival of the tragedy was the fastest-selling show in London theatre history but opened to mixed reviews last summer.

Cumberbatch will be up against British theatre royalty in the best actor category, with Kenneth Branagh nominated for The Winter's Tale, Adrian Lester for his role as Ira Aldrige in Red Velvet, and Kenneth Cranham for The Father. Mark Rylance, fresh from his Oscar win on Sunday night, is also nominated for best actor for the Globe's new production, Farinelli and the King, at Duke of York's Theatre.

Branagh's season at the Garrick secured seven nominations, including best supporting actress for Dame Judi Dench for The Winter's Tale - her 15th Olivier nomination.

Jonathan Kent's sell-out revival of the musical Gypsy at the Savoy Theatre picked up eight nominations, including best actress for Imelda Staunton and best musical revival.

Staunton said the wide range of ages and ethnicities represented across the nominations, both in the performance and the technical categories, was evidence that British theatre was far better at embracing diversity than the film industry.

"I think we tackle diversity by those young writers at the Royal Court, by getting those female directors and producers out there," she said. "I think we look at it a bit more because although shows have to make money, that's not all it is about - it's about getting in an audience and telling a story that reflects today."

Gemma Arterton, centre, in Nell Gwynn by Jessica Swale at the Apollo theatre. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

Gemma Arterton's return to the West End stage, taking the title role in the Globe's play Nell Gwynn, was recognised with a nomination for best actress, and the production is also in the running for best new comedy. Nell Gwynn, a play about Charles II's favourite mistress, premiered at the Globe theatre in 2015, with Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the lead role, then transferred to the West End.

It was a good showing overall for the Globe, picking up 10 nominations altogether, including best new play for Farinelli and the King, Claire van Kampen's study of the healing impact of music on the bipolar Spanish king Philippe V. It will go up against People, Places and Things, which premiered at the National Theatre; Hangmen, which initially ran at the Royal Court; and The Father, which premiered at the Tricycle before transferring to the West End.

Also competing for best actress will be Nicole Kidman, for her return to the London stage in Photograph 51.

This year's nominations emphasised the recent trend of adapting films into successful West End productions. Kinky Boots, which began life as an independent film in 2005 and was adapted into a Broadway musical with music by Cyndi Lauper, transferring to London in August, picked up seven nominations.

It was a similar story for the stage version of Bend it Like Beckham, which closes on 5 March after a year-long run at the Phoenix Theatre, and which picked up three nominations. Lauren Samuels, who plays Jules in the production, described the nominations as "bittersweet" but said there were negotiations for the show to go on tour, both in the UK and internationally.

Despite being mired in turmoil over the past year, with its staff currently on strike over proposed cuts, the English National Opera managed to pick up four nominations, including best opera production for The Force of Destiny.

The veteran musical actor Michael Ball, who announced the list, said. "I think these nominations show that British theatre is really healthy, with great new writing, great new productions and great new comedies, which is the lifeblood of what we do. It's alive and it's thrilling."

The Olivier awards are in their 40th year.

This article was amended on 1 March 2016. An earlier version referred to Hamlet as a king, rather than a prince, and said that the production received three, rather than four, nominations.

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Benedict Cumberbatch's Hamlet nominated for four Olivier awards

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Benedict Cumberbatch's Hamlet has received four Olivier award nominations, including best actor for his portrayal of the Shakespearean prince at the Barbican. The actor's revival of the tragedy was the fastest-selling show in London theatre history but opened to mixed reviews last summer.

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Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller share the award for best actor in Olivier award 2012

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Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller share the award for best actor in Olivier award 2012

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Collaborators at the Cottesloe
Best revival
Anna Christie at the Donmar Warehouse
Best entertainment and family
Derren Brown - Svengali at the Shaftesbury
Best actress
Ruth Wilson for Anna Christie at the Donmar Warehouse
Best actor
Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller for Frankenstein at the Olivier
Best performance in a supporting role
Sheridan Smith for Flare Path at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket
Best actress in a musical
The Matildas for Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge (Cleo Demetriou, Kerry Ingram, Sophia Kiely and Eleanor Worthington Cox)
Best actor in a musical
Bertie Carvel for Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge
Best performance in a supporting role in a musical
Nigel Harman for Shrek the Musical at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Best new musical
Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge
Best musical revival
Crazy for You at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
Best director
Matthew Warchus for Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge
Best theatre choreographer
Peter Darling for Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge
Best lighting design
Frankenstein, designed by Bruno Poet at the Olivier
XL Video award for best set design
Matilda the Musical, designed by Rob Howell at the Cambridge
Best costume design
Crazy for You, designed by Peter McKintosh at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
Best sound design
Matilda the Musical, designed by Simon Baker at the Cambridge
Outstanding achievement in an affiliate theatre
Theatre Royal, Stratford East in association with the Barbican and Traverse Theatre for Roadkill
Best new opera production
English National Opera's Castor and Pollux at the London Coliseum
Outstanding achievement in opera
ENO, for the breadth and diversity of its artistic programme
Outstanding achievement in dance
Edward Watson for his performance in The Metamorphosis at the Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House
Best new dance production
Desh by Akram Khan Company at Sadler's Wells, choreographed by Akram Khan
BBC Radio 2 Olivier audience award
Les Misérables

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Collaborators at the Cottesloe Best revival Anna Christie at the Donmar Warehouse Best entertainment and family Derren Brown - Svengali at the Shaftesbury Best actress Ruth Wilson for Anna Christie at the Donmar Warehouse Best actor Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller for Frankenstein at the Olivier Best performance in

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Cumberbatch began playing, on alternate nights, both Victor Frankenstein and his creature in Frankenstein. By alternating between the coldly obsessed scientist and the creature he creates who struggles to fit into the world but was loathed, he demonstrates an exciting acting ability.

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Benedict‘s’ portrayal of a young academic who takes his work seriously in the play was highly praised. It is fair to say that Benedict's seriousness about his role was initially discovered

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he character of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler is infinitely various. In the past we've had melodramatic Heddas, neurasthenic Heddas, socially superior Heddas. But in Richard Eyre's fine new production, Eve Best gives us a dazzlingly ironic Hedda: one aware of life's absurdity and viewing it with a mixture of dark humour and angry exasperation.

Ibsen in his notes on the character wrote: "Life for Hedda is a farce which isn't worth seeing through to the end"; and that is the keynote to Best's interpretation. Sharp-featured and raven-haired, she returns from her six-month honeymoon with Tesman flinching at his every touch and sniggering conspiratorially with Judge Brack at her husband's "academic" pretensions. But this is a Hedda who views herself with the same sardonic detachment as she does everyone around her: as she tells the judge, "I have a vocation for boring myself to death".

The great advantage of this reading is that it takes the antimacassared heaviness out of Ibsen: what we get is not a po-faced piece about female victimisation but a savage comedy about a woman with an endless capacity for ironic contempt. When Loevborg says of Mrs Elvsted, "Isn't she lovely to look at?", Best stares at her as if she was a porcelain vase and witheringly exclaims: "Just to look at?" And, as the net closes in on her, Best succumbs to suicide as if it provided a senseless end to a basically senseless existence.

It is a triumphant performance shot through with a cold-hearted humour and acute self-loathing: even the burning of Loevborg's manuscript is done less with Joan Crawfordesque, wild-eyed fury than a quiet, mechanical satisfaction.

But although it is a riveting performance, Eyre does Ibsen the courtesy of assuming that Hedda is not the whole story. Thus Benedict Cumberbatch's excellent Tesman is not some slippered pantaloon but a youthful scholar who takes his work seriously. When he tells Hedda he feels "inspired" by the task of reconstructing Loevborg's manuscript, it is a gesture of rejection by a man tired of his wife's parasitic cruelty.

Even Mrs Elvsted, dismissed as a "chump" by Hedda, becomes a vibrant and positive force in Lisa Dillon's performance. And Iain Glen is a superb Judge Brack: not just a predatory lounge-lizard but a man who sees instantly through Hedda's mixture of cowardice and social pretence.

What you get, in short, is a play rather than a solo performance. If one recalls that the work was written in 1890, Hedda comes to embody a fin-de-siecle decadence and aestheticised world weariness. But, far from endorsing his heroine, Ibsen suggests that the world of the future lies with those who embrace life rather than reject it: the Tesmans and Mrs Elvsteds.

Rob Howell's design also never lets you forget the looming, shadowy presence of General Gabler: arguably the play's only real villain in that he has raised a pistol-packing daughter adept at shooting and riding but precious little else. And Peter Mumford's lighting skilfully evokes an outside world of blazing sun that rarely penetrates this darkened drawing-room or Hedda's soul.

Hedda is often regarded as the female Hamlet. But Eyre reminds us that it is a great polyphonic play as well as a commanding title-role; and what we get here is the realisation that Ibsen was not writing feminist propaganda but a study of a changing world in which Hedda would sadly have no place.

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he character of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler is infinitely various. In the past we've had melodramatic Heddas, neurasthenic Heddas, socially superior Heddas. But in Richard Eyre's fine new production, Eve Best gives us a dazzlingly ironic Hedda: one aware of life's absurdity and viewing it with a mixture of dark humour and angry exasperation.

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Hedda Gabler (2005) | Benedict Cumberbatch

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His first role was playing George Tesman in Hedda Gabler, an amiable, intelligent young academic but in marital trouble. Benedict‘s image seems begin to have connections with wisdom character.

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After studying Drama at the University of Manchester,  Benedict Cumberbatch trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, graduating with an MA in Classical Acting. His theatre career started in 2001.