The Quiz Question

Lets start with a quiz question

Van Gogh,Kurt Vonnegut,Lewis Hamilton,Daft Punk,Rafael Nadal,Stephen Hawking,Missy Franklin.

What is the common thread binding all of the above personalities?

If you knew the answer by the time you read Missy Franklin then you are 10/10 on the awesome cumbercollective scale,if you took 30 seconds -8/10,if you took a minute then 6/10,if you couldn’t answer and are thinking of googling the answer,then don’t.Google will not be able to answer that for you.

There’s so much to watch,listen,talk,tweet and tumblr about…!

The amazing bit about Benedict Cumberbatch -we don’t seem to have a mould that he can fit into.The most popular mould that he fits in,is that of an actor -that he is the most brilliant and sexiest looking of the lot helps.However his versatility & brilliance is not just limited to acting,it spans across multitude of specialisms and defies stereotypes.Its been a joy to follow his work/presence across different fields in the first half of 2014.If you happen to be his fan you would agree that there isn’t a single day of boredom in our lives.There’s so much to watch,listen,talk,tweet,blog and tumblr about.

What makes him so special,and different from other artists we know?

Before we get down (cumber)collectively to reminisce about the memorable Cumberbatch moments of the first half of the year,sharing some of my observations about why he is so different from any other public personality/artist of our times:

1. A proponent and practitioner of combinatorial creativity(less by design, more by default)-interest and mastery across different specialism,in depth knowledge and understanding of different aspects of each of these specialism.A vast knowledge base,curiosity about many things that helps him aggregate,improvise and innovate in incredibly new ways.An informed,involved and evolved way of practicing one’s craft

2.Non Conformist-He doesn’t go the conventional,predictable way.Hottest property in Hollywood..he is,now try fitting him into the conventional Hollywood actor mould. Nothing about him is predictable or cliched.Doesn’t seem to follow set conventions and norms.He believes in amazing the world any and every moment of his life (we mean his public life).Irreverent,charming,cool and extraordinary.

3.The People magnet-Benedict Cumberbatch is someone who has gone out of way to be kind and considerate to his fans.Doesn’t live in the ivory tower,is capable of being very matter of fact and normal in the way he goes about things,inspite of being a huge celebrity.His ability to engage with live audiences in my view is unparalleled.Proven by the record breaking audience participation that both his Cabin Pressure recording and Hay Festival Letters of note event got.He also has the ability to dip into his vast reservoir of wild and innovative ideas and come up with something like U2 photobombing at the Oscars!

4.Mixing work and play-He straddles effortlessly between pursuing his professional interests/commitments and his personal passions,each time creating remarkably engaging and endearing tales for his fans to follow.The first half of this year we saw a lovely transition of his personal passion into professional commitment.More on that later in the post.

5.Goodheartedness and kindness are intrinsic to his personality.Its not a post fame accessory added onto his public life.His association with charities,work,contribution has been exemplary and inspirational.

You will see the flavor of all of the above in the way we have put together the memorable Cumberbatch moments from first half of the year.

1.Sherlock Season 3

Back after two years the third series of Sherlock clocked an average of 12.72 Mn viewers(incl 7 day catchup audience on TV),making it the most watched drama series in UK since 2001(when the Tv viewership measurement got set up).Significant in light of the fact that 10 years ago level of channel,audience fragmentation was significantly lower and content liquidity across devices was almost absent.Sherlock series 3 broke the 10 year old viewership record inspite of these challenges.

2.The Awards season

a.Golden Globes after awards party (12 Jan’14) on the dance floor with Michael Fassbender.

b.Screen Actors Guild awards (19 Jan’14) with co star Sarah Paulson from 12 Years A Slave.

c.National TV awards (22 Jan’14)-awarded best TV detective for Sherlock,accepted the award on screen wearing a suit jacket and swimming trunks.

d.86th Academy awards (2 March'14)-photobombed U2,got trapped by a fairy backstage,presented Best production design along with Jennifer Garner,was part of the team that won the Best Picture of the year at the Oscars 2014(12 Years A Slave).

3.Cabin Pressure recording (23 Feb’14)

The final ever episode of Cabin Pressure was recorded on 23 February 2014.Benedict Cumberbatch’s fans broke a record — for the most ever ticket requests for a single Radio 4 comedy recording ever with 22,854 applications.

4.The Conventions-Starfury & Ozcomic Con

Starfury convention (9 Feb’14 Birmingham) -upclose and personal with fans for the first time ever at a convention.Attended along with his Sherlock co stars Louis Brealey,Lars Mikkelsen and Jonathan Aris.Around 850 fans from all over the world attended the convention.In his talk with the fans a vast range of topics were covered -Slavery,Sherlock,Star Trek in Darkness,Frankenstein,motion capture,his favorite medium,his dream theatre roles, his inspiration and more.

OzComic Con -Adelaide(5th & 6th April’14),Sydney(12th & 13th April’14)-The two shows in addition to autograph and professional photograph opportunities also featured him on stage for a moderated Q&A,sharing stories about his work.What stole the show of course was the legal bit of dancing that he did at the Sydney Q&A.Gentle reminder to fans-his Michael Jackson video is not a legal upload,was done without his permission.

5.The Sports buff debuts….!

We have known him as the extreme sports buff, but 2014 H1 saw him debut as award show host,interviewer,narrator (related to mainstream sports) and brand ambassador (for a sports apparel brand).He hosted the 2014 Laureus World Sports Awards held at Kuala Lampur,Malaysia on 26March’14,post race podium interviews for formula 1 at Malaysian GP on 30 Mar’14 and Monaco GP on May 25'14.He also narrated a documentary about great footballer Cristiano Ronaldo & attended the historic French Open final (as Lacoste brand ambassador)at Roland Garros to see Nadal lift his 9th championship title on 9 June’14.

6.BA High Life issue

Benedict Cumberbatch went ice driving in a Jaguar in Finland for the cover story for High Life April’14 issue.Behind the scene pics of the shoot-went viral and got huge traffic to the British Airways website.Him and the huskies were a very unlikely combination to have broken the internet but they did. http://highlife.ba.com/Destinations/Benedict-Cumberbatch-ice-driving-in-Finland.

7.Amongst the Time’s “The 100 most influential people for the year 2014" issue dated 23 April’14.The commendation written by Colin Firth could not have been more appropriate and beautiful.

8.The Metgala appearance(5 May’14) -We all know he is fairly dismissive about his looks(we aren’t at all),but when he does take looking good seriously,he does it to perfection,leaving the world completely smitten,stunned and speechless.

9.The Chelsea Flower Show(20 May’14)

Appeared along with his mum Wanda Ventham on BBC coverage of the flower show.Him,his mum with the flower show as backdrop,was a visual treat for fans and surest way of raising the profile of the event amongst viewers.

10.Hay festival (30th May to 1st June’14)

30th May’14-He read a story penned by a 9-year-old Cambridge girl Juliette Lea who was the bronze winner at this year’s BBC Radio2 500 words competition for her story Should-Bes

30th & 31st May’14 -He was part of the Letters of note event that was spread across two days 30th and 31st May.The 31st May event was the second fastest selling event in the history of Hay festival beaten only by appearance of Nobel prize winner Seamus Heaney in 2006.Letters of note event has been appropriately described as celebration of enduring power of literary correspondence.Benedict Cumberbatch read letters from people from diverse fields-Iggy Pop(singer,songwriter,musician,actor),Ted Hughes(English poet and children’s writer),Robert Scott(Explorer),Kurt Vonnegut(writer), last but certainly not the least the love letters between serviceman Chris Baker and his sweetheart Bessie Moore(read by Louise Brealey) during world war II.The love letters between Chris Baker and Bessie Moore as read by Benedict Cumberbatch and Louise Brealey at this year’s Hay festival are going to be released around Valentine’s day next year.Watch out for the same.

1st June’14-Benedict Cumberbatch will go down in the history of world as well as british cinema as the only actor to have ambushed someone( someone in this case being Judi Dench) to star alongside him in the forthcoming adaptation of Richard III.She was being interviewed by TV and theatre director Richard Eyre as the literature festival drew to a close.Mr Cumberbatch -who had a front row seat — seized his chance during a question and answer session with the audience, asking Dame Judi to star in the play and much to his delight she replied in affirmative.

11.Charities he has supported (representative and not exhaustive list of his charity initiatives)

Created a card for Coram charity that was auctioned on ebay from 9th-16th May’14,a Spencer Hart suit donated to Annos Africa that will be up for auction soon,the coat that he wore for the BA High Life photoshoot was auctioned for Flying Start -a global charity partnership between British Airways and Comic Relief UK,endorsed the silicon wristbands by Cool to be Kind that contribute towards raising funds for animal welfare,mobilized fans to donate to Stephen Sutton’s fundraiser for Teenage Cancer Trust.All of this is in addition to his ongoing work and involvement with The Prince’s Trust and MND association.

Inspired by him, his fans are fundraising for different charities he supports to celebrate his birthday.All these fundraisers put together are heading towards a $25k+ mark.

Here are the links to donate in case you would want to contribute:

1.The Prince’s Trust being done by lovely Naomi (@cumberbatchweb) https://www.justgiving.com/CumberbatchwebPT/

2.ALS/MND fundraiser being done by Debra,Debbie & Reshma (@BenedictBday) http://web.alsa.org/site/TR?px=4109564&fr_id=10054&pg=personal#.U8a3MFZB_wK

3.Mental Health Foundation Fundraiser by Lissie (@CumberNinjas) -this fundraiser is a lovely example of initiative and enterprise in the way she has activated interest as well as goodies, for fans and by fans of Benedict Cumberbatch. https://www.justgiving.com/HappyBirthdayBenedictCumberbatch/

4.#Batchofkindness is not a fundraiser but a lovely and thoughtful initiative by Michelle(@Benbatched).Do remember to checkout the hashtag #Batchofkindness on 19 July’14 and retweet.read about the concept and how its being activated here. http://www.batchofkindness.com

Coming back to the quiz question hope you figured out what Benedict Cumberbatch had to do with each of the personalities mentioned :-)

Wishing you a very happy birthday Mr Cumberbatch. Hope you have a lovely year ahead filled with awesomeness,magic and madness !!