Despite playing villainous characters such as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, both Kray twins in Legend, and John Fitzgerald in The Revenant, Tom Hardy has proven himself to be the best bedtime story teller.

Appearing on the last CBeebies Bedtime Stories of 2016, the famed British actor read You Must Bring a Hat, by Simon Philip and Kate Hindley, alongside his dog, Woody.

Not only was his appearance a hit with children, though: many adults took to Twitter to tell of their approval of Hardy’s reading at 6.50pm on the kid's channel.

“Not gonna lie,” one Tweeter wrote, “I'm nearly 30 and yet have just sat (with my parents) through and thoroughly enjoyed the CBeebies bedtime story with Tom Hardy.”

Another noted: “On behalf of all mums out there… can I thank CBeebies for the Tom Hardy story reading tonight.”

Having only appeared in Peaky Blinders and The Revenant in 2016 (released 2015 in the US, 216 in the UK), Hardy has had a relatively quiet year.