Benedict Cumberbatch on the Graham Norton Show - the bits that missed the cut

Benedict was a guest on episode 5 of this season’s Graham Norton show alongside Miranda Hart, Timothy Spall and Maroon 5. The edit team were very kind to Benedict and pretty much every topic he discussed with GN made the final cut. His comments were of course subbed down – the actual recording was about 1 hour and 15 minutes long – so, based on memory (all omissions and inaccuracies are mine) here are the bits that were missing from Friday’s broadcast.

Note that this is not an account of the actual broadcast - so if you haven’t yet seen last week’s show some of what follows will make about as much sense as a chocolate tea-pot…

Photobomb: BC said that he wanted to do the U2 photobomb for one particular friend back in the UK (it was a little difficult to hear but fairly sure that he said the friend was called Helen)



The Imitation Game: this was the longest section of the discussion and although the edit team capture the spirit of BC’s comments admirably, there were a few omissions. Most importantly, BC spoke about Alan Turing and the treatment that the scientist received after his sentence. BC said that Turing’s doctor was embarrassed about Turing having to make regular visits to the surgery in order to have the oestrogen injections (chemical castration) and so instead fitted Turing with an implant directly into his hip. The treatment was to last for two years as, after that point, it would have been deemed to have been ‘successful’. BC said that such was Turing’s distress in having the device inside him, that at one stage of utter despair, he took a knife and attempted to cut the implant out himself. The scars of which he bore until his death.

Graham N had already seen The Imitation Game and was hugely impressed by the performance of Alex Lawther as the young Turing. Benedict concurred whole-heartedly saying that the young actor was extraordinary, exceptional and “the find of the film”.

There then followed a discussion about ‘Christopher’ - Turing’s machine ­­- and how much of its workings BC actually understood. BC said that he spent ‘a lot’ of time studying it and trying to understand the science behind it, but was only ever able to grasp the basics. BC said that he’d got a B in GCSE maths – which was shameful given how easy the final exam actually was – and that he should have been able to understand far more than he actually did. As we know, BC also said that he likes to do lots and lots of research for all of his roles.

Fan questions: this section was pretty much as tx’d - however the light-hearted nature of the star trek / star wars ‘no comments’ was perhaps lost a little in the broadcast version. And there was a definitely a hint of resignation on BC’s part when the penguins clip was shown (although nice to see that BC’s retort about there being an entire BBC Natural History Unit involved in making the programme rather than just one individual, did make the final cut).

Laureus Sport Awards: this section was also subbed down quite a bit. BC set the scene by explaining the significance of the awards, the extraordinary calibre of world class sports men and women in attendance, how he came to be presenting them (it was an honour to be asked, he’d never done anything like it before and he wanted to stretch himself) and, most importantly, that once the ceremony got underway, “everything kept going wrong”. Having had no experience of presenting a ceremony such as this, never mind one as high profile as the Laureus sport awards, he was so focused on keeping it all together that he wasn’t always aware of what he was actually saying….

Waxwork: so this was all a bit surreal. The curtain acting as the big reveal was actually tiny – and was facing the audience rather than the guests. So BC was already in full view of the waxwork before GN ‘revealed’ it – a fact that BC was all too keen to point out to Graham – “well I can already see it can’t I?!” Anyway via the magic of television it did look ok in the actual broadcast. BC spent quite a bit longer studying and commenting on ‘cumberwax’ than was shown. He predicted that his parents would find it very strange. He was delighted to see that they’d got his shaving rash and his moles just right, and went into quite a bit of detail about the actual process of making the waxwork, the measuring instruments used, and the fact that his ‘face’ could be prodded and poked into new shapes so easily.

Finally, you can see from the BBC One footage that there is originally a box positioned directly behind the waxwork - this is to assist Benedict’s photobomb ‘leap’. Anyway the box was most definitely surplus to requirements. BC looked at it in disdain before kicking it to the side and declaring "I don’t need a prop!”

Here’s the iPlayer link to the whole show:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04mj1n8

The episode will air on BBC America on November 1 at 10pm ET; and on Australia’s Channel Ten on 2 November at 9.30pm.