BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH

Let's be honest, with a name like Benedict Cumberbatch, he was never destined to play Dave from down the chippy. The man sounds less like an actor and more like a luxury biscuit company your nan keeps hidden for special occasions. Thankfully, behind the gloriously posh name is one of Britain's finest actors and a bloke who has spent most of his career playing people who are either frighteningly intelligent, slightly odd, or both.

His big breakthrough came when he dragged Sherlock Holmes into the modern world and somehow made being socially awkward and incredibly rude look cool. His version of Sherlock wasn't some charming gentleman detective. This bloke would solve three murders before breakfast and then tell you your shoes were terrible without a second thought. Audiences absolutely loved it, and before long Cumberbatch found himself with a fanbase so devoted they could probably identify him from a silhouette and the sound of a sigh.

Hollywood quickly realised they had found the perfect actor whenever a script contained words longer than eight letters. Need someone to crack Nazi codes? Ring Benedict. Need a wizard who can bend reality and save the universe? Ring Benedict. Need a dragon with anger management issues? Oddly enough, ring Benedict again.

What makes him so entertaining is that he throws himself into roles with complete commitment. Whether he's playing Alan Turing, Doctor Strange, a cowboy, a supervillain or a giant fire-breathing lizard, he never looks like he's just turning up for the pay cheque. Even when he's covered head to toe in motion-capture dots, the bloke gives it absolutely everything.

And despite all the awards, worldwide fame and Marvel money, there's still something wonderfully British about him. He always gives off the impression that if you bumped into him in a garden centre, he'd politely apologise despite it being entirely your fault.

### Insomniacs Trivia

• Back in 2005, while filming in South Africa, Benedict and a group of friends were kidnapped by armed carjackers and locked in the boot of a car. Thankfully, they survived the ordeal, though it's fair to say most actors don't have "talked his way out of being kidnapped" on their CV.

• In one of those strange twists that sound too ridiculous to be true, researchers discovered that Benedict is actually a distant relative of Alan Turing, the mathematical genius he portrayed in The Imitation Game.

• When playing Smaug in The Hobbit trilogy, he didn't just provide the voice. He wore a motion-capture suit and spent days crawling around the floor hissing and snarling like an angry Komodo dragon. Somewhere in New Zealand, there's probably still footage of Peter Jackson watching this and wondering if he'd accidentally hired a lunatic.

### Insomniacs Take

Benedict Cumberbatch has somehow made a career out of looking permanently five minutes away from solving the meaning of life. Whether he's playing detectives, wizards or historical geniuses, he always gives the impression that he's the smartest bloke in the room, even if everyone else hasn't quite caught up yet. And if somebody had to explain quantum physics to the rest of us, you'd probably trust him more than most.

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