Jack Seale
12:45 PM, 09 November 2012
It's one of the most famous names in showbiz, and not just because of its owner's massive success as an actor: Benedict Cumberbatch is one of those appellations that seems to enjoy tripping off the tongue. Benedict Cumberbatch. Benedict. Cumberbatch. BENEDICTCUMBERBATCH. Ahem.
It's been corrupted every which way, from his fans the "Cumberbitches" to the old joke about him starring in a TV drama about a man working on an allotment, during which the director shouts: "Cue Cumberbatch!" One famous article in the normally august Washington Post even repeatedly referred to him as Bandersnatch Cummerbund, for a laugh. Other nicknames for the actor are, sadly, unprintable.
All this being the case, you'd think Cumberbatch himself would be intimately familiar with the origins of his surname. So when RadioTimes.com met him recently (yes, that happened – get over it), we checked – and found he doesn't have any idea.
"I don't know," Cumberbatch said. "I genuinely don't. Nobody does. There are theories: an 11-year-old girl I was acting with in Creation, a film I did with Paul Bettany, came up to me and said, 'I know what your name means!' I said, great, tell me! I've been trying to find out all my life. She said, 'It means small valley dweller.' I said, I'm going to pretend you didn't tell me that."
Someone who dwells in a small valley, or a small person who dwells in a valley?
"I think a very big person in a small valley! But I immediately got images of dank stone cottages. Kind of romantic, but a bit depressing."
There is indeed a Welsh village called Cwmbach: "small valley". So that could be the answer. Any other possibilities?
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