#benpress

[the--cumberbatches]

Prince Charles’s charity goal — arts for every child

The Prince of Wales will attend a conference this week sounding the alarm about children in state schools who are missing out on art, music, drama and dance. Speakers at the Albert Hall event will...

The Prince of Wales will attend a conference this week sounding the alarm about children in state schools who are missing out on art, music, drama and dance. Speakers at the Albert Hall event will include the actor Benedict Cumberbatch, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and pop star turned presenter Myleene Klass.Charles, a keen amateur artist who has acted with Dame Judi Dench, sung with the Bach Choir and played the trumpet at school, is passionate about all children having “equal access” to the arts.

It is feared the arts are fast becoming the preserve of children at private schools, which have better facilities and more teachers to run activities such as orchestras and drama productions.Official figures show the number of children studying art, design, music and drama is falling sharply, with those sitting GCSEs in art and design subjects down from 172,550 to 165,100 last year.Many stars will talk at Wednesday’s conference, run by the charity Children and the Arts, of which Charles is patron. 

Others pledged support in statements given exclusively to this newspaper.Matt Lucas, the comedian best known for Little Britain, described how arts subjects were his “refuge” at school. “I was not one of those kids who excelled at sports and I struggled academically often. The arts were my refuge — school plays, school bands. They were for me a vital means of growth and expression. I doubt I would have had the confidence to embark on a . . . career in the media without those formative experiences.”The playwright Alan Ayckbourn warned: “If we exclude our children from an arts education, they will grow up with neither an understanding or an appreciation of anything other than the purely material.” 

The actress Dame Julie Walters said she believed the arts were “essential for personal growth”.Rosie Millard, the former BBC arts editor and now chief executive of Children and the Arts, said: “Denying childen arts in schools is barbaric. Creativity within state schools [has] effectively fallen off a cliff. It is bitterly ironic at a time when state schools are seeing their arts dwindle that private schools are merrily building theatres and sports facilities. Fewer students are taking arts and humanities subjects at GCSE; arts subjects are given less time on the curriculum; arts teachers in English secondary schools are in dramatic decline.”

Millard added: “Prince Charles feels passionately that children should get the chance to engage with the arts, which is why he set up this charity.”The culture secretary, Jeremy Wright, and schools minister, Nick Gibb, will also attend the conference to hear celebrities discuss how studying the arts transformed their lives.Gibb said: “This is a government that takes the arts in schools extremely seriously, which is why music and art remains compulsory from age 5 to age 14. At a time when our education reforms are raising academic standards . . the proportion taking at least one arts GCSE has remained stable over that period.”Charles was first taken to see the Bolshoi ballet by his grandmother aged seven, and to the Old Vic aged eight. He once said the performances “inspired his love of the theatre, music, ballet, opera, which are . . . an essential part of life”.

[lifestylebylinda]

Beach 2018 är här!

Beach 2018 är här!

Det är ju faktiskt så att Beach 2018 redan är här, dock har då inte jag badat i svenskt vatten än i år, förutom i pool, men snart så ska bikinin på och det kommer att vara grymt mycket roligare att vara på stranden i år, 25 kg lättare kan jag lova!

Det går riktigt bra bra träningen nu också. Känns grymt bra att köra marklyft själv och öva teknik, samt att klara av benpress på 100 kg (!)…

View On WordPress

[the--cumberbatches]

Benedict Cumberbatch (right) with reporter Dierk Sindermann. © Sindermann

Cumberbatch the women's heartthrob: Is his wife sometimes jealous?

by Dierk Sindermann for TZ - June 9, 2017

Benedict Cumberbatch’s fanbase has grown over the past few years, especially the female fans. He reveals in this interview wether this makes his wife jealous at times.

He is one of the most sought-after screen stars in Hollywood. In the past two years alone, Benedict Cumberbatch has filmed five movies and is regularly seen in his TV role as Sherlock Holmes. The final of Season 4 runs on the ARD Channel this Sunday.

In addition to your job, you and your wife Sophie also have your two-year-old son Christopher and your newborn son Hal at home. Is the double load too much stress?

Benedict Cumberbatch: It is not a stress but a blessing. It's unbelievable that I get any roles at all, that I can choose them, that they are varied and that people seem to like the movies - nothing else one could wish for.

Would you have thought the series would be this popular? What makes your version of Sherlock Holmes so well liked?

Cumberbatch: I haven’t got the faintest idea. It’s probably good that we do not produve too many episodes. Fans can look forward to what's to come and we always look fresh and well rested (laughs). Jokes aside, I think what’s crucial is  that all characters in the series have weaknesses or flaws. The audience can relate to them better.

That's why Toby got confused during the shooting of Sherlock

The finale of Season 4 is upon us. What was the highlight of the shooting?

Cumberbatch: Clearly Toby the bloodhound from the last episode. During the shooting the dog wouldn’t move an inch. Tt turned out that he hated asphalt and people. He had been trained in the countryside. The whole thing was a real slapstick comedy, to get him running.

As Holmes,you have an almost romantic relationship with your cloak. Is there also a garment in your private life ...

Cumberbatch: ... with which I have an intimate relationship? (Laughs) It would be cool now if I could tell you that I was dragging a shawl or blanket with me since my childhood. But that does not happen. All my clothes are rather boring. Everything is mostly very monochrome, preferably silver, gray and blue.

The fans find you anything but colorless. You have reached a real cult status.

Cumberbatch: It's something I've never striven for. But it comes with acting profession. My biggest concern is with the word game which some of my very intelligent, funny and creative female fans have devised with my name.

Is Cumberbatch's wife Sophie jealous of the female fans?

You mean that they label themselves as Cumberbitches?

Cumberbatch: Yeah, that just sounds a little self-humiliating. I've often publicly stated that I would be happier with a slightly modified version. But in the end, everyone can decide how to identify himself.

Isn’t your wife jealous of all the feminine attentions you are met with?

Cumberbatch: Sophie loves me and is proud of my work. That's what counts. We are meant for each other and simply fit together. That is why she has no problems with what that [ the attention - NT ] entails. She is a very confident woman. I'm really lucky.

How do you deal with fame?

Cumberbatch: I cut it out and try to enjoy the beautiful moments I have as an actor. It is easy to get carried away by the hype around your own person. That is why nothing is more important than to have family and friends who have known you long and well. They help you remain realistic.

You come across as a very confiden persont.

Cumberbatch: The problem is that confidence is often interpreted as arrogance. I am definitely a person who has so some flaws.

For example?

Cumberbatch: For example, I like technology  but I'm not really good at it. I am  simply a user, but heaven forbid something gets broken. Then I am clueless.

Nature, music and books: so the Briton enjoys his free time

Are you someone who always has his smartphone in his hands?

Cumberbatch: Only for professional purposes. Because I would never remember all of my appointments. When I'm at home, I try to forget it exists

What do you do when you get home?

Cumberbatch: First of all, I change into something comfortable. There is nothing better than sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace watching a good movie. Even more often I read a book. That relaxes me.

Do you practice sports?

Cumberbatch: Not in the gym. I prefer to walk around in nature. Or stroll through the park. Then my head is free again. Music also helps with it.

What do you like most? 

Cumberbatch: Querbeet. I especially like songs that make you think. Because they deal with what's going on in the world. Just like "Burn the Witch" by Radiohead for example. 

What should one do to make the world a little better?

Cumberbatch: It's up to the person when and how to get involved. I am working with a charity called Liberty, which deals with human rights in England. We try to support people who are oppressed because of their origin, skin color or religion. 

You are now over 40. Do you ever look back nostalgically to your 20s? 

Cumberbatch: Not at all. The older I get, the happier I have become with my life. I appreciate the great life that I have, more than ever. With my family and the fantastic people around me. I'm looking forward to what's to come.

[the--cumberbatches]

His [Benedict's] enthusiasm, though, can have side effects notably an inability not to talk about the things he says he doesn't want to talk about, if he actually wants to talk about them. This becomes clear early on, when he says he musn't, under any circumstances, under pain of death, talk about his new family. He then, of course, proceeds to talk quite a lot about his new family. Most topics, it turns out, lead to it: from the age ("The only thing about age that hits home is that you are very aware of your own mortality. It's not about your life or ageing or anything like that, it's actually about wanting to live long enough to protect that child"), to how sunny it is ("With the baba, I smother him in factor 1,000 and he still gets a tan"), to his up-at-4am workout routine to get ripped for Doctor Strange ("That actually got me through being a first-time father. I say that as if I was the only one getting up. Sophie really was incredible during those first few months."), to working long days on Sherlock ("Getting home to see your family becomes the main thing - I'll do the overtime but can I make bathtime?")

British GQ - October 2016

[the--cumberbatches]

Of course, not all the attention is so benevolent. Obsession breeds possessiveness, which can breed something darker. Last year, Cumberbatch married the stage director Sophie Hunter, and they had a son, Christopher (nicknamed Kit). “There are people who believe that my wife is a P.R. stunt and my child is a P.R. stunt,” he says, unsure if he should even be bringing this up—he knows that there’s no arguing with conspiracy theorists. “I think really it’s to do with the idea that the ‘Internet’s boyfriend’ can’t actually belong to anyone else but the Internet. It’s impossible he belongs to anyone but me. And that’s what stalking is. That’s what obsessive, deluded, really scary behavior is.

 Vanity Fair, October 4, 2016

[the--cumberbatches]

Cumberbatch outrageously steals every scene in The Hollow Crown - first look review  

by Jasper Rees for THE TELEGRAPH - March 30, 2016

The Henry VI trilogy comprises the least loved of Shakespeare’s histories. In the theatre their contorted politics – featuring many characters named after counties and cathedrals – can have the feel of a marathon run in a maze.

The latest instalment of The Hollow Crown – following on from the four plays, culminating in Henry V, which the BBC adapted in 2012 - has tidied the Henry VI plays into two two-hour films. The result, as spied from a press screening this week before the films’ broadcast in early May, is moreishly thrilling – and features a dazzling turn from one of the most talked about actors of our age.

The grand narrative arc of more than a century of dynastic conflict between Yorkists and Lancastrians is brought compellingly into focus by Ben Power’s streamlined adaptation. We rejoin the story with Henry VI (Tom Sturridge) now the nominal monarch but all power vested in his uncle, Henry V’s brother Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (Hugh Bonneville). By the end of the first film, with much blood already spilled, the spectre of hellishness to come looms in the crooked silhouette of the Duke of York’s third son, summoned into the story.

As the young Richard, Benedict Cumberbatch has only supporting player status, before he will have his time in the third film in the new series, Richard III, yet to be previewed. In Henry VI, his part may be small but he outrageously steals every scene he’s in. His Richard, at first an eager-eyed tag-along, is the product of horrors. A silent witness to his little brother’s murder, his bloodlust twists into axe-wielding malevolence the closer he edges to the throne. It is a gripping account of pure psychopathy. Adding to the sense of menace, he confides his darkest thoughts directly to camera. When at the end of the second film he cradles the new-born son of his brother Edward IV, you know exactly what’s coming next. “I can murder while I smile,” he purrs. It’s from this son of York that Frank Underwood got all his best power moves.

As ever with The Hollow Crown, the cast consists of everyone you’ve ever heard of. Some such as Anton Lesser and Samuel West are to the manor born. It takes slightly longer to get used to Bonneville or Keeley Hawes speaking iambic pentameter. A standout is Sophie Okonedo, who towers as Henry VI’s ferocious French queen Margaret who, Dynasty-style, bitch-slaps Sally Hawkins’s Duchess of Gloucester.

The 2012 instalments of The Hollow Crown were shot by three directors. The saga’s conclusion is all in the hands of debut film director, and theatre old timer, Dominic Cooke. With so much talent on show, he sometimes isn’t sure which way to look, and chops between a formal fixed camera and prowling handheld. There’s even a helmetcam and, briefly, a falconcam. But he has a theatre native’s deep trust that the best special effects are all in the language.

People will talk of these films’ timeliness as the UK rips itself apart over the Referendum. But for all the fretting over Englishness, The Hollow Crown is finally a study of paternity and kingship. Sturridge’s Henry VI is a peevish teen peacenik with a Christ complex. Geoffrey Streatfield’s Edward IV is a manly roustabout. The stage is set for Cumberbatch’s sinful turn on the throne.

[the--cumberbatches]

Benedict Cumberbatch and Sophie Hunter in Evening Standard Magazine’s annual London Evening Standard Theatre Awards Issue - December 11, 2015 (better quality scans coming later)