Benedict Cumberbatch in row with neighbours over plan for 'noisy' boiler room at new £2.7m Victorian home

THE TELEGRAPH
 Telegraph Reporters
26 MAY 2016 • 1:35PM

Benedict Cumberbatch, the Sherlock actor, faces a planning battle after concerns were raised over his plans to build a "noisy" boiler room at his new home.

The 39-year-old bought a five-bedroom villa in Camden, north London, for just over £2.7m last April - but did not move in.

Instead, the actor - who married opera director Sophie Hunter last year - got builders to put up hoardings around the Victorian property while he made plans to renovate the three-storey home.

He submitted plans to Camden Council for an attic conversion to add another bedroom - and also install a "plant room", with a water heater/boiler in it - at the front of his semi-detached home.



The Harrow-educated actor, who stars in The Jungle book and The Hobbit, also wants to build a rear extension to the property, but has promised not to cut down an established magnolia tree.

A sticking point, which has been raised by Camden Council - and neighbours - is the boiler room, which according to plans would be "installed in the front garden beneath the existing retaining wall".

The plans state the road "is a wide, tree-lined avenue with substantial detached, semi-detached and short terraces of mid to late Victorian and Edwardian villas.

"There is an established residential land use pattern across the area."

But the council report states that it might need to call for an "acoustic report" to find out if there are any "noise issues" related to the plant room in the front garden.





http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/26/benedict-cumberbatch-in-row-with-neighbours-over-plan-for-noisy/

Benedict Cumberbatch proves a superb villain in The Hollow Crown's Richard III

THE GUARDIAN
Michael Billington
@billicritic
Saturday 21 May 2016 18.10 EDT

 The camera is a close bosom friend … Benedict Cumberbatch as Richard III. Photograph: Robert Viglasky/BBC/Carnival Film & Television Ltd


Richard III brings the BBC’s Hollow Crown cycle to a fine climax. It also confirms that Benedict Cumberbatch is a highly physical, as well as a natural Shakespearean, actor. Watching him wrestle his way into his clothes in the opening soliloquy, I was reminded of his superb performance as the creature in the National Theatre’s Frankenstein. On stage, we witnessed the tortured birth of a monster; here we see Richard acquiring a new identity as he gets laboriously dressed.



Cumberbatch starts with two great advantages. The previous episode enabled him to lay the ground for Richard’s throne-hungry mania. Like Olivier in the film of Richard III, he also uses the camera as a close bosom friend. Having wooed Phoebe Fox’s Lady Anne – an episode that here takes place in a forest glade – he confides to the camera, and thereby to us, his rasping astonishment at her pliability.

In fact, Cumberbatch takes us stage by stage through Richard’s systematic progress to power. The dominant image of the production is of Cumberbatch’s index finger tapping a chessboard, as he works out how to remove the pieces that stand between him and the crown. But it is a mark of Shakespeare’s progress that the dramatist also allows us to see inside Richard’s soul: Cumberbatch is especially good in the eve-of-battle soliloquy, where a character who might simply be a murdering monster pathetically realises “there is no creature loves me”.

Although Cumberbatch dominates the screen, this is far from a one-man show. Judi Dench brings all her clarity of speech and matchless sincerity to Richard’s mother, who views her son with undisguised horror: when she asks “What comfortable hour canst thou name / That ever graced me in thy company?” you totally believe her. Sophie Okonedo’s Queen Margaret stalks the action, right up to the climactic battle, like a vengeful ghost. Keeley Hawes turns Queen Elizabeth into a helpless pawn in Richard’s power games. Anyone who has seen the previous episodes will also understand – in a way that is tricky when the play is seen in isolation – just what the women are talking about when they catalogue Richard’s endless crimes.

READ MORE: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2016/may/21/benedict-cumberbatch-the-hollow-crown-richard-iii

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH: A chilling end to The Hollow Crown, series two, review - 5 Stars

THE TELEGRAPH
 Serena Davies
21 MAY 2016 • 11:10PM

And so, the most famous actor of his generation finally got to wear “the hollow crown”. In all the fuss over the BBC’s 2016 series of Histories – Aunty does six hours of epic, difficult Shakespeare – one man’s shadow has loomed over it. Just as the logic of the plays’ increasingly savage narrative arc is to give birth to a figure of expansive evil in the twisted shape of Richard III, so that sense of culmination was echoed in the casting.

We were all waiting for Benedict Cumberbatch’s rule. He didn’t disappoint. The shaggy-locked malingerer he’d offered for part two – when there were still several family members between Richard and the throne – was mainly given to literally stabbing people in the back, and looking somewhat wild-eyed and hammy in the process. But Cumberbatch got a haircut for Richard III. He smartened up, sharpened up, and sliced into your head. Speaking his monologues to camera like Frank Underwood from House of Cards (Kevin Spacey indeed modelled his Underwood on Richard), this tyrant made you think like him even as you hated him.

One sequence stood out. Tap tap tap went the ring on Richard’s finger on his chessboard, its paranoid beat taking us to the Tower and to the killing he’d ordered of his nephews, the most dreadful of all the dreadful deaths across the plays. The muffled groans of child-murder were spliced with shots of the actor’s putty-like face, which reformed itself from pointed intent to flabby stupefaction at his own degeneracy - Cumberbatch had never done bad better. Tap tap tap. This was a Richard who knew he could never win, who recognised the horror of his sins even as he was remorseless. When he died in the mud at the end he was the most self-loathing of creatures, as well as loathed.



But anyone who watched Richard III alone, simply to revel in King Sherlock, was doing The Hollow Crown an injustice. The series had to be seen as a whole, the greatest achievement being that of director Dominic Cooke, an experienced theatre director but a first timer behind the camera. Cooke was working in a theatrical tradition - this tetralogy on the Wars of the Roses has been presented as three plays (the three Henry VIs combined into two) before, most famously by the RSC in 1963 and most recently by Trevor Nunn at the Rose Kingston in 2015. But Cooke understood the urgency to make the stories cinematic, to cut out the fug of reverence that might induce him to prettify scenes with their pretty language. Indeed he has gone out of his way to make his version of these four plays uglier than the originals.

Most of the deaths in Richard III happen off stage. Here we saw or at least heard the lot. The most bloodthirsty latter stages of Henry VI received truly horrific renderings in the middle film, in particular the three-way slaughter and crowning with thorns of Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York (Adrian Dunbar). And what use this graphic horror, this seeking out of violence? One answer, already much discussed, is a determination to make it appeal to the same audience that goes potty for Game of Thrones, the most popular TV series in the world.




TO READ MORE OF THIS REVIEW:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/05/21/a-chilling-end-to-the-hollow-crown-series-two-review/

Dame Judi Dench plays Benedict Cumberbatch's mother Cecily Duchess of York in new still from BBC's King Richard III period drama Hollow Crown

DAILY MAIL
By REBECCA DAVISON FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 16:07 EST, 2 May 2016 | UPDATED: 17:15 EST, 2 May 2016

Dame Judi Dench plays Benedict Cumberbatch's mother, Cecily Duchess of York in the BBC Two's King Richard III period drama Hollow Crown: The Wars Of The Roses, which is set to air on May 7.

The 81-year-old poses alongside Keeley Hawes, who plays Elizabeth and Phoebe Fox, who plays Anne in a new still from the BBC's collection of Shakespearean adaptations which celebrates the author 400 years following his death and his 800th birthday.

The story will follow Richard III's spiral into madness and will chart his life from when he was a child.

Judi was personally requested to take up the role by Benedict back in 2014 at the Hay Festival.

According to the Independent, she was being interviewed by TV and theatre director Richard Eyre when Benedict asked her to take the part.


Perfect for the role: Keeley cuts a regal figure as Edward IV's wife Queen Elizabeth

READ MORE HERE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3570091/Dame-Judi-Dench-cuts-stern-figure-Cecily-Duchess-York-Hollow-Crown.html

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as crazed royal in trailer for The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses

SUN

Benedict Cumberbatch takes centre stage in the latest instalment of BBC Shakespeare series The Hollow Crown.

Titled The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses, Benedict will star alongside Dame Judi Dench, Hugh Bonneville and Sophie Okonedo.

The Sherlock star will be leading the cast as Richard III in the show as the UK celebrates Shakespeare's 800th birthday.


The story will follow Richard III's descent into madness and tracks his life from childhood.

Writer Dominic Cook, while talking to The Express, said of the king, “He’s quite monstrous, he ends up murdering children in the plays. He’s a psychopath. There’s no two ways about it: he’s a psychopath.

“But why did he become like that? There’s a story that leads up to that."

He later added: “There are some incidents he witnesses as a child that are horrific and contribute to him becoming a human being who is not able to empathise with other human beings.”

This new collection will be sure to delight Sherlock fans as Benedict, 39, reunites with Andrew Scott — who plays nemesis Moriarty on the hit BBC show.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/7085904/Benedict-Cumberbatch-stars-in-The-Hollow-Crown.html

Benedict Cumberbatch 'proud' to have read at burial of ancestor Richard III

SUNDAY EXPRESS
By CAMILLA TOMINEY
PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sun, Mar 29, 2015


GIF BY MOLLYDOBBY

The Oscar-nominated actor explained why he felt compelled to be involved in Thursday’s service of reinterment at Leicester Cathedral, where he read the poem Richard by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

Cumberbatch, who is the king’s third cousin, 16 times removed, plays him in the forthcoming BBC series The Hollow Crown: The Wars Of The Roses.

He said: “Having just played his very different Shakespearean characterisation I was intrigued to see what the real historical event would be like and to be a part of this extraordinary moment of remembrance. Then what really sealed the deal was this beautiful poem.

“It’s an extraordinary moment to be witnessing a monarch who has been found after hundreds of years in a car park being reinterred in a cathedral hundreds of yards away. It is a very special thing to witness, let alone be asked to perform at.”

The Sherlock star, 38, revealed how he watched with amazement the Channel 4 documentary, The King In The Car Park, which showed historian Philippa Langley leading the Leicester excavation in 2012 to reveal Richard’s skeleton, 527 years after his death at the Battle of Bosworth.

He said: “As it unfolded you realised the discovery was real, the drama was unheard of in a documentary like that. It wasn’t a high profile programme but it became so because of what they discovered. There was a glorious romanticism about that.”

Cumberbatch believes the rediscovery of the much maligned monarch’s bones has changed the world’s perception of him. “I think the debate in historical and archaeological terms about the reality of him and his kingship is what’s extraordinary to witness now,” he said.

“We’ve all known the play for a long time but now it feels we’re getting to know the king better and to be living in that era is very special.”

Cumberbatch is still in two minds about the king, who remains accused of killing his cousins, Edward V and Richard, the Duke of York, the so-called Princes in the Tower. “I’ve no qualms in viewing both entities of the man in completely different categories,” he said. “The fi ctionalised Shakespearean version of him, while based on some truths, has taken huge dramatic licence. I don’t come down on one side. Both need to co-exist.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/567028/Benedict-Cumberbatch-proud-burial-ancestor-Richard-III

VIDEO: Benedict Cumberbatch reading at Richard III's reburial

MIRROR
10:50, 26 March 2015 By Sam Adams



Hollywood A-lister Benedict Cumberbatch has arrived at Leicester Cathedral for the reburial of King Richard III.

The actor, who is as closely related to the late monarch as the Queen, will read a specially-penned poem by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

Organisers kept Cumberbatch's appearance at the service in Leicester Cathedral a closely-guarded secret.

 

He is Richard's third cousin, 16 times removed, and is to play the last Plantagenet in a BBC adaptation of the War of the Roses.

Cumberbatch, star of 'The Imitation Game', will read the 14-line poem to the congregation of Royals, politicians and religious leaders.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/benedict-cumberbatch-arrives-leicester-cathedral-5402832

A Sex Scene in Tom Hiddleston Film 'Crimson Peak' Is Confirmed So Prepare Yourself With His 10 Steamiest Scenes

BUSTLE
 MARTHA SORREN
@MARTHASORREN

That Mischievious Loki Smile

Technically he’s trying to be evil here, not sexy. But he brilliantly achieves both. Those are some serious bedroom eyes.

Big news for Hiddlestoners! Crimson Peak will feature a Tom Hiddleston sex scene, and what could be better than that? Jessica Chastain, his co-star in the horror film, dished to MTV about the steamy moment. “Well, there is a Tom Hiddleston sex scene, boys! I know! So you guys. Not gonna say who, but there is some, you know. You can calm down.”

Ha. Calm down. That’s cute, Jessica. What she doesn’t know is that the Hiddleston fandom is having a collective freakout right now. But there’s no need to panic. Hiddleston has prepared us for this. He’s had quite a few sensual moments in his films before. Crimson Peak won’t be released until October 2015, which means fans have plenty of time to get excited for the movie, and specifically the Hiddles mystery sex scene.

But in the meantime, I’m here to tide you all over with his steamiest moments to date. That way you’ll have some idea of what to expect when Crimson Peak hits theaters later this year. I can’t promise it still won’t overwhelm you when the time comes, but as the Girl Scout motto says: always be prepared. And what better way to prepare than to look at a list of Tom Hiddleston’s sexiest moments?

Saying He Loves You

A marriage proposal from Hiddles himself is a very sexy moment indeed. This particular bit is from Return to Cranford. I suggest listening to the audio alongside the GIF and pretending he’s talking to you. Not that I’ve done that, or anything.

His Kissing in The Hollow Crown

READ MORE HERE: http://www.bustle.com/articles/59250-a-sex-scene-in-tom-hiddleston-film-crimson-peak-is-confirmed-so-prepare-yourself-with-his

Tom Hiddleston In 'I Saw the Light' & 9 Other Times He Totally Transformed for a Role — PHOTOS

BUSTLE
 MARTHA SORREN
@MARTHASORREN
23 HOURS AGO ENTERTAINMENT




There’s nothing better than when actors take selfies while on set so we can see them in their costumes. Thanks to I Saw the Light co-stars Josh Pais and Elliott Grey, we get to see Tom Hiddleston in his full on Hank Williams attire, 1950s suit and all. But Hiddleston is no stranger to transforming for his roles. He even once said, “I’m actually a terrible actor, I just dye my hair a lot.”

While the terrible actor part couldn’t be further from the truth, he does dye his hair a lot. He’ll be dark-haired for Loki and then switch to red for The Hollow Crown and then go back to his natural blond for Coriolanus. He basically looks different in every film he’s in, and I think that’s kind of cool — he’s never playing the same sort of role. 

Even when he’s portraying Loki repeatedly in Marvel sequels, Hiddleston brings a new look to the table each time. As an actor I think it’s imperative that you be able to completely transform for your role so you don’t end up like, say, Nicholas Cage, just playing yourself in every movie. 

Thankfully that’s not Hiddleston’s lot in life, and so here are 10 times he totally transformed for a role.

READ MORE (MORE PICTURES) HERE: http://www.bustle.com/articles/53952-tom-hiddleston-in-i-saw-the-light-9-other-times-he-totally-transformed-for-a

DID TOM HIDDLESTON GET MARRIED IN SECRET? HE'S WEARING A RING ON THAT FINGER ... — PHOTO

BUSTLE
MARTHA SORREN @MARTHASORREN
13 HOURS AGO ENTERTAINMENT

If you thought Benedict Cumberbatch getting engaged broke the Internet, just imagine if Tom Hiddleston secretly got married. That’s what a lot of fans feared this weekend when they spotted a gold band on a certain finger of his. On Sunday, a fan posted a picture with the actor and people immediately pointed out that it looked like Hiddleston was wearing a ring on his left hand.

But you can all breathe a collective sigh of relief because Hiddleston is most likely not married. He’s not even rumored to be dating anyone. (Although, I can’t imagine why, since he’s the world’s best catch.) The real story here, it seems, is that Hiddleston forgot to take his prop ring off at the end of his filming day. He’s currently playing Hank Williams for the movie I Saw the Light and his character has a wife. (Who is played by the very lucky Elizabeth Olsen.)

READ MORE HERE:http://www.bustle.com/articles/50964-did-tom-hiddleston-get-married-in-secret-hes-wearing-a-ring-on-that-finger-photo

Benedict Cumberbatch to Receive Variety Award at BIFAs

VARIETY
Leo Barraclough

LONDON — Benedict Cumberbatch is to receive the Variety Award at the Moet British Independent Film Awards on Dec. 7 at Old Billingsgate, London.

The award recognizes a director, actor, writer or producer who has helped to put the international spotlight on the U.K. Paul Greengrass was given the award last year. Previous recipients include Jude Law, Kenneth Branagh, Liam Neeson, Daniel Craig and Helen Mirren.

Cumberbatch’s latest film, “The Imitation Game,” has been nominated in four categories at the British Independent Film Awards: British independent film; screenplay for Graham Moore; actress for Keira Knightley; and actor for Cumberbatch.

Cumberbatch commented: “I am delighted to receive this prestigious award, and would like to thank Variety and the Moet British Independent Film Awards for this incredible honor. It is made even more special by the recognition of ‘The Imitation Game’ in this year’s nominations, a film I am very proud to be a part of.”

Cumberbatch is best known for playing the title role of Sherlock Holmes in “Sherlock,” Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ adaption of the Arthur Conan Doyle books. The role won him an Emmy this year.

So far this year, Cumberbatch has been filming “Black Mass,” playing Bill Bulger alongside Johnny Depp, and Shere Khan in Andy Serkis’ “Jungle Book.” He is also part of the voicecast in DreamWorks Animation’s “Penguins of Madagascar,” which is released later this year.

He is currently shooting “The Hollow Crown” for the BBC and Neal Street Productions, in which he plays Richard III for director Dominic Cooper, and alongside Judi Dench.

Next he will shoot “Lost City of Z,” based on David Grann’s novel for director James Gray, where he will play British explorer Percy Fawcett, who set out to discover the City of Z in the Amazon in the 1920s.

READ MORE HERE: http://variety.com/2014/film/news/benedict-cumberbatch-to-receive-variety-award-at-bifas-1201355475/

(VIDEO) Benedict Cumberbatch Cast & Crew Filming At Wells Cathedral; Exclusive sneak peak behind The Hollow Crown at Gloucester Cathedral

GLOUCESTER CITIZEN
By The Citizen  |  Posted: November 08, 2014

Filming is set to take place at Gloucester Cathedral for the BBC drama The Hollow Crown.

Crews descended on the Cathedral on Friday to start preparing the building for filming.

The Citizen has managed to get a sneak preview of inside the film set.

It shows a beautiful display of flowers in the garden in the centre of the Cathedral.

The Hollow Crown is a series of British television films featuring William Shakespeare's History Plays - Richard II, Henry IV parts 1 & 2, and Henry V.

Benedict Cumberbatch is said to be playing Richard III and he could be in Gloucester on Monday with co-star Dame Judy Dench.

Read more: http://www.gloucestercitizen.co.uk/Exclusive-sneak-peak-Hollow-Crown-Gloucester/story-24476260-detail/story.html#ixzz3IVuoRvgQ 
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Judi Dench tells her version of Benedict Cumberbatch's "shocking" Richard III proposal

RADIO TIMES
13 October, 2014
By Susanna Lazarus



Judi Dench is a busy lady, appearing at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Sunday before being whisked off to Cardiff to continue filming on Richard III, one of three new Hollow Crown films being made by BBC2.

But the actress's role in the Shakespeare adaptation is all thanks to her appearance at another festival earlier this year. Dench, 79, was in conversation with Richard Eyre at Hay Festival last June when Benedict Cumberbatch put her on the spot...

"It's a shocking story," recalls Dench. "We were doing Hay and I was instructing – I had to do the bits of Shakespeare that I remembered – and so I said to [Richard], 'You have to say three lines of this.' I was rehearsing and then Cumberbatch said 'I’ll do that for you'.

"So he leapt up on stage to enormous applause and did these three lines and then went and sat down again and Richard said, 'Any questions?' and there was one question and Ben Cumberbatch turned to my friend David next door to him and said, 'Shall I ask her?' David said 'Yes' and [Cumberbatch] said, 'Are you going to play my mother in Richard III?'



"It’s a very good way of being asked to do a part. You don’t mess about, you don’t spend ages dithering about it. When somebody asks you, say yes or no and I said yes."


READ MORE HERE: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-10-13/judi-dench-tells-her-version-of-benedict-cumberbatchs-shocking-richard-iii-proposal

Andrew Scott joins Benedict Cumberbatch in The Hollow Crown

DIGITAL SPY
By Mayer Nissim
Wednesday, Oct 1 2014, 8:28am EDT
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The Moriarty actor will play King Louis in the channel's upcoming adaptations of Shakespeare's Henry VI and Richard III, which star Benedict Cumberbatch as Richard III.

Also newly confirmed for the cast are Michael Gambon as Mortimer, Philip Glenister as Talbot, Adrian Dunbar as Plantagenet and Ben Daniels as Buckingham.

They are joined by previously-announced actors Judi Dench, Sophie Okonedo, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Keeley Hawes and Tom Sturridge.

BBC Two is working on three films as part of this second Hollow Crown series of Shakespeare's historical plays: Richard III and Henry VI in two parts.

Dominic Cooke directs all three films, Ben Power has adapted the plays for the screen and Rupert Ryle-Hodges will produce.


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First look at Benedict Cumberbatch in The Hollow Crown

RADIO TIMES
By Susanna Lazarus
Tuesday 23 September 2014 at 11:55AM



After spending the last two years building a bonafide movie career – alongside his stints as Sherlock – Benedict Cumberbatch is now looking to Shakespeare.
He's already sold out theatres more than twelve months in advance of his appearance as Hamlet in 2015 but, in the meantime, he's taking on another Shakespearean character – Richard III – in BBC2's second cycle of The Hollow Crown.

 

Nicky‏@SherlocksBees

**HOLLOW CROWN SPOILERS** I just need these HERE pic.twitter.com/ItAAPLaSwx

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3:10 AM - 23 Sep 2014

The production – which begun filming in the UK yesterday – requires Cumberbatch to employ his horse-riding skills and to sport some shaggy locks as Shakespeare's hunch-backed monarch.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-09-23/first-look-at-benedict-cumberbatch-in-the-hollow-crown