Monthly Archives: March 2015
Benedict On Newsnight
Benedict Cumberbatch has just finished rehearsing for tonight’s show ahead of his performance on @letterslive
Pleased to meet HRH The Duke of Gloucester, Archbishop of Canterbury @JustinWelby and Actor Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch Set for Live Letter Reading Event
When was the last time you wrote someone a letter? Like the kind you send in the post, not an email.
Canongate, an independent publisher in the U.K., may have been thinking about the same thing when they came up with the stage event Letters Live.
The show spans five nights, with up to nine celebrities reading letters written by historical figures at each two-hour session, taking place at Freemason’s Hall in Covent Garden, London, from March 31 to April 4.
This event has been happening since 2013, with Benedict Cumberbatch being a regular contributor. Cumberbatch will be in attendance this year, along with Sherlock co-star Louise Brealey, Sally Hawkins, and musician Tom Odell. Letters read will include those written by Virginia Woolf, Gandhi, and Queen Elizabeth II.
Jamie Byng, Canongate publisher, told The Guardian, “To me a joy has been the matching of letters with performers. At the first Letters Live event, Benedict read the Alan Turing letter, and at that time I knew he was going to play him in the film, so it was a nice in-joke.”
Canongate has teamed up with a television company to record the readings, making them available to the public on the event’s website.
Here’s a look at Cumberbatch reading a letter from Turing to Norman Routledge:
Actor Cumberbatch to read poem at Richard III reburial
Actor Benedict Cumberbatch is to read a specially written poem at the reburial service for King Richard III.
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy composed the work for Thursday’s ceremony at Leicester Cathedral.
Cumberbatch, who will play the king in an upcoming BBC Two drama, has been identified as a distant cousin, Leicester University said.
Richard’s remains will be laid to rest on Thursday and his tomb inside the cathedral unveiled on Friday.
The poem, simply called Richard, is described as a “meditation on the impact of his finding and the legacy of his story”.
The cathedral said Cumberbatch is “looking forward” to the service and has a “passion to know more” about the king because of his role in the drama.
Ms Duffy said: “It is a privilege to be involved, in a small way, in this unique event and to have seen the style and grace with which the city of Leicester has made history alive.”
The 14-line poem includes the phrase “grant me the carving of my name” which will finally be achieved with the unveiling of his tomb on Friday.
The University of Leicester revealed Cumberbatch was a third cousin, 16 times removed of the Plantagenet king.
Since Sunday, the city has been marking his reburial and thousands of people have turned out to view his coffin.
Richard, the last English king to die in battle, was killed at Bosworth Field in 1485, at the end of the Wars of the Roses.
His skeleton was found under a car park in Leicester in 2012.
![karin-woywod:Hi-Res ! 2009 06 00 or 2009 07 00 - ’ Wreckers ’ by Dasha Smurova or by Christa Holka or by Rebecca GoreOpen in new tab / window for [2794 x 1804 pixels] !Link](https://i0.wp.com/40.media.tumblr.com/8142a516e66e751c16351dbbaf14642c/tumblr_nlh5h9tj0P1rj7cilo1_1280.jpg)
![karin-woywod:Ultra - Hi-Res ! 2009 07 01 - ’ Wreckers ’ by Dasha Smurova or by Christa Holka or by Rebecca GoreOpen in new tab / window for [4368 x 2912 pixels] !DateTimeOriginal - 2009:07:01 13:05:15 [01:05:15 p.m.]Link](https://i0.wp.com/41.media.tumblr.com/b10097496d4708b0bbcd2cee179a1041/tumblr_nlh56r0TSZ1rj7cilo1_1280.jpg)
Benedict Cumberbatch to host Laureus World Sports Awards
Hugely popular film and TV actor Benedict Cumberbatch is to host next month’s Laureus World Sports Awards in Shanghai.
Fresh from his latest triumph, playing Bletchley Park scientist Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, which won him Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, Cumberbatch will present the world’s most prestigious sports awards event for the second straight year.
Benedict said: “I am delighted the selectors have picked me again to be part of the team for such an important event for the second straight year. We all admire the achievements of the greatest sportsmen and women that we meet, so to be able to share the stage for such a signature moment for them is a treat for me.
“I am a big sports enthusiast and last year was a real pleasure for me. I met Tony Hawk, my childhood hero, and had the chance to swap a few running tips with Sebastian Coe and Daley Thompson. And of course it is all for such a good cause. The work Laureus does around the world, using sport to improve the lives of young people, is an inspiration and I am delighted to be part of this very special event.”
Benedict has appeared in a series of highly successful films over the last few years, including the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and the Academy Award nominated August: Osage County. In addition he has appeared as Julian Assange in the Wikileaks movie The Fifth Estate and as the Dragon Smaug, in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, plus, of course, his role as Sherlock Holmes in the highly successful TV drama Sherlock.
He has also appeared in Atonement (2007), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) and Steven Spielberg’s War Horse (2011), and is about to star as Hamlet in London’s West End.
A great supporter of charities, Benedict is an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust which aims to help disadvantaged young people in the United Kingdom. After playing scientist Stephen Hawking in the TV production of Hawking in 2004, he has been an active supporter and patron of the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
The 16th Laureus World Sports Awards, which recognise sporting achievement during the calendar year 2014, is the premier honours event on the international sporting calendar. The winners, as voted by the Laureus World Sports Academy, the ultimate sports jury, made up of 50 of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of all time, will be unveiled at a globally televised Awards Ceremony staged in the Shanghai Grand Theatre on Wednesday, April 15.
Among the sporting greats who have previously been named as winners of Laureus Awards over the last 15 years have been Usain Bolt, Sebastian Coe, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Alex Ferguson, Lewis Hamilton, Kelly Holmes, Yao Ming, Rafael Nadal, Pelé, Steve Redgrave, Ronaldo, Michael Schumacher, Kelly Slater, Shaun White, Serena Williams, Liu Xiang and Zinedine Zidane.
Guests who have attended previous Awards Ceremonies in the past have included David and Victoria Beckham, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Jackie Chan, Thandie Newton, Clive Owen and Eva Longoria.
The see the full list of Nominees for the 2015 Laureus World Sports Awards click here.
HiddleBatch Fans! 