'Letters Live': Benedict Cumberbatch
I mentioned that I was seeing The Bee Cee live, right? If not, check my previous entry. And then it happened, and it was glorious!
Well, in between "I'm going to see" and "I'm actually seeing" was a two and a half hour drive from Oxfordshire to Wales, but, hey, I don't proudly call myself a geek for nothing. So there I was, in my rented white Ford Fiesta, steering wheel and traffic all on the wrong side, and off we went with a rucksack full of stuff and Capercaillie keeping me auditory company.
The drive was mostly uneventful (except for that one time where they closed a road in Hereford due to surfacing work and the SatNav took me along a seemingly never ending single track road instead), and the wet weather car park in Clyro was easily found and almost as easily accessed.
One shuttle bus later, I found myself at the busy and muddy festival site, saying hello to the lovely Biggles86 from the Sherlock Fan Forum. First time in-person meetings can be slightly awkward, but this one definitely wasn't. Yay! One of those times where I wanna say: Internet ftw!
I collected my ticket at the box office, and off we were to explore the festival site. Location of Tata Tent-check. Inquiring about anticipated queuing times-check. Toilets-check. Secret hope of Benedict Cumberbatch spotting moment-check. Benedict Cumberbatch spotting moment actually happening-fail.
We had a bit of time to kill, so we decided to do the 30 minute circular walk around Hay-on-Wye that I had printed off the internet. I wish I could say it was any kind of spectacular or even mildly impressive, but it really wasn't. Possibly also to do with the weather (though at least it wasn't raining-small favours). Still, Hay is a quaint, picturesque town set between grassy Welsh hills, and we had a nice walk through just a little too muddy terrain while talking about The Bee Cee and his projects. (Photos: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6)
When we got back to the festival site some 45-ish minutes later, a queue had already started to form, so we got in line in good British fashion. Pretty good timing, I'd say, as there were a mere 15 or so people in front of us. It took another half hour for Kerkerian (from the Fan Forum) and her Danish friend Stine to join us. Clareiow and rebeccaholmes arrived much later and ended up in the queue on the other side, so we quickly arranged on the phone to meet up after the event.
Anticipation mounted as time passed, but somehow it was never boring since we had plenty of things to talk about. Everyone was excited at the prospect of being in the same room as Benedict in the immediate future. How close would we be able to get to the stage? And despite the reports that he wasn't doing the autograph thing, would it be possible to approach him afterwards? I was trying hard not to get my hopes up. This was clearly a whole different league than my previous up-close-and-personal actor encounters.
And then it was finally time to get into the tent, and time to be slightly disappointed, because the first eight or so rows were already filled with people. Apparently they let the privileged "friends" in early, so that no matter how early you queue, as a mere guest you're never going to end up in the first few rows.
We made a quick decision to sit in the second row of the elevated part of the tent more in the back (the first fifteen or so rows were all on the same level), so that we'd have a more or less unobstructed view of the stage.
The tent filled quickly (1,200 people!), and the sold out event got underway. How exciting! It was pretty evident that Benedict wasn’t going to be on stage the whole time, as there were only two chairs (for moderators Simon Garfield and Shaun Usher) and two podiums for whoever was going to read the next letter.
The reading started out with Shaun and Simon introducing the concept of the event. Apparently both the readings on Friday and Saturday sold out incredibly quickly, and there was the much-quoted statement from Simon, “I’m convinced it would have been faster selling if only Benedict Cumberbatch had been 3% sexier.”
The introduction also spoke to the fact that in this day and age, actual letter writing has become a rarity, and both Simon and Shaun felt they needed to preserve the spirit of letters in their books. They were grateful for the opportunity to present some of it to the Hay Festival audience at this reading, and for a group of wonderful actors to bring the letters to life.
Let me quote a Wales Online article here, because I couldn’t say it any better:
Letters Live celebrates the art form of writing a letter with readings of those penned by famous names, including one from Elvis to President Nixon in 1970 asking if he could help the country’s fight against drug abuse and another from Charles Dickens to The Times in 1849 about capital punishment following the public execution of George and Maria Manning for the murder of her lover.
Dressed casually in a grey open-necked shirt with white T-shirt and brown trousers, Cumberbatch walked onto the stage to rapturous applause with actress Lisa Dwan to read a series of love letters between World War II Signalman Chris Barker and his sweetheart Bessie Moore.
Benedict and Lisa wonderfully managed to breathe life into the letters between Chris and Bessie, although I hear the chemistry between Benedict and Sherlock co-star Louise Brealey at the reading on Saturday was even more captivating.
The second time he came on stage, he read the final letter from explorer Robert Falcon Scott to his wife Kathleen from the frozen badlands of Antarctica in 1912-an incredibly sad, last goodbye filled with despair and hopelessness.
There was more Chris and Bessie towards the end, and the audience laughed and applauded in just the right places. Of course there were several other letters read by a number of actors, some funny, some moving, some serious food for thought. The ones I remember more vividly was the hilarious job application letter from aspiring screenwriter Robert Pirosh, who exuberantly exclaimed he liked words (read out gloriously by BBC One presenter Chris Evans), or the thought-provoking letter from Mohandas Gandhi to Hitler in 1939, begging him not to go to war-which never reached its intended recipient because it was intercepted by the British government.
I could have listened to these letters for hours and hours, but unfortunately it was over way too soon. The whole reading lasted probably 90 or so minutes, though I must admit I didn’t quite keep time.
With big smiles on our faces, we went back outside to meet up at the tent entrance with clareiow and rebeccaholmes. It was lovely to meet all the forum people and person, and everyone was still buzzing with excitement. Hungry stomachs were quickly filled and thirsts quenched, and we (sans clareiow and rebeccaholmes, who had wandered off elsewhere in search of alcoholic beverages) headed out to the BBC tent on the off-chance of seeing Benedict there, because word was he was going to be on the One Show at 7pm, which was being broadcast live from the festival.
The effort turned out to be pretty futile, since Benedict was nowhere to be seen even when the show had already gotten started, and it turned out they used a piece they recorded earlier that morning on the show. Oh well... At least we had tried our best, and it wasn't a huge surprise, seeing how it had been indicated that he wouldn’t be around to talk to fans after the reading anyway.
Of course we were still a tiny bit disappointed, but we made the best of it by boarding the next shuttle bus into Hay’s town centre (if you can even call it that-it’s a tiny but cosy village). We sought out one of the more inviting looking pubs, but not before we more or less randomly ran into Clare and Rebecca again. We said quick goodbyes as they were off to catch a bus, and then went on to have a drink and discuss Benedict, Sherlock and TV and movies in general.
Poor Stine was probably majorly bored in places, not quite being a Benedict or Sherlock fan, but I certainly had a wonderful time with the girls. It rarely happens that you get to mutually and unabashedly geek out over TV shows and movies with like-minded people who just get it.
I didn’t want the day to end, but around 9pm I had to leave because I still had a 2 ½ hour drive with a fairly early start the next day ahead of me. So we reluctantly parted and hugged each other goodbye in front of the pub, with Biggles and me catching one of the shuttle busses back to the car park and Kerkerian and Stine heading out to their camp site.
The drive home was thankfully uneventful and I went to bed with lots of images coursing through my head, and a faint smile remaining on my lips. What a fantastic day whose memories will stay with me for a long time to come.
There’s only one question that remains: When can we do it again?
And for those interested in photographic evidence, even though I was told we weren't supposed to take pictures, no one really enforced any bans or cared much (as long as there wasn't too much flash photography, I suppose), I happily clicked away on my SLR camera every now and then. You can see the results of my efforts in my online gallery.
I also managed to record two short videos, which you can see here (Chris and Bessie) and here (Captain Scott). (Amazingly enough, The Independent linked to them in one of their articles about the event.) :-O
Well, in between "I'm going to see" and "I'm actually seeing" was a two and a half hour drive from Oxfordshire to Wales, but, hey, I don't proudly call myself a geek for nothing. So there I was, in my rented white Ford Fiesta, steering wheel and traffic all on the wrong side, and off we went with a rucksack full of stuff and Capercaillie keeping me auditory company.
The drive was mostly uneventful (except for that one time where they closed a road in Hereford due to surfacing work and the SatNav took me along a seemingly never ending single track road instead), and the wet weather car park in Clyro was easily found and almost as easily accessed.
One shuttle bus later, I found myself at the busy and muddy festival site, saying hello to the lovely Biggles86 from the Sherlock Fan Forum. First time in-person meetings can be slightly awkward, but this one definitely wasn't. Yay! One of those times where I wanna say: Internet ftw!
I collected my ticket at the box office, and off we were to explore the festival site. Location of Tata Tent-check. Inquiring about anticipated queuing times-check. Toilets-check. Secret hope of Benedict Cumberbatch spotting moment-check. Benedict Cumberbatch spotting moment actually happening-fail.
We had a bit of time to kill, so we decided to do the 30 minute circular walk around Hay-on-Wye that I had printed off the internet. I wish I could say it was any kind of spectacular or even mildly impressive, but it really wasn't. Possibly also to do with the weather (though at least it wasn't raining-small favours). Still, Hay is a quaint, picturesque town set between grassy Welsh hills, and we had a nice walk through just a little too muddy terrain while talking about The Bee Cee and his projects. (Photos: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6)
When we got back to the festival site some 45-ish minutes later, a queue had already started to form, so we got in line in good British fashion. Pretty good timing, I'd say, as there were a mere 15 or so people in front of us. It took another half hour for Kerkerian (from the Fan Forum) and her Danish friend Stine to join us. Clareiow and rebeccaholmes arrived much later and ended up in the queue on the other side, so we quickly arranged on the phone to meet up after the event.
Anticipation mounted as time passed, but somehow it was never boring since we had plenty of things to talk about. Everyone was excited at the prospect of being in the same room as Benedict in the immediate future. How close would we be able to get to the stage? And despite the reports that he wasn't doing the autograph thing, would it be possible to approach him afterwards? I was trying hard not to get my hopes up. This was clearly a whole different league than my previous up-close-and-personal actor encounters.
And then it was finally time to get into the tent, and time to be slightly disappointed, because the first eight or so rows were already filled with people. Apparently they let the privileged "friends" in early, so that no matter how early you queue, as a mere guest you're never going to end up in the first few rows.
We made a quick decision to sit in the second row of the elevated part of the tent more in the back (the first fifteen or so rows were all on the same level), so that we'd have a more or less unobstructed view of the stage.
The tent filled quickly (1,200 people!), and the sold out event got underway. How exciting! It was pretty evident that Benedict wasn’t going to be on stage the whole time, as there were only two chairs (for moderators Simon Garfield and Shaun Usher) and two podiums for whoever was going to read the next letter.
The reading started out with Shaun and Simon introducing the concept of the event. Apparently both the readings on Friday and Saturday sold out incredibly quickly, and there was the much-quoted statement from Simon, “I’m convinced it would have been faster selling if only Benedict Cumberbatch had been 3% sexier.”
The introduction also spoke to the fact that in this day and age, actual letter writing has become a rarity, and both Simon and Shaun felt they needed to preserve the spirit of letters in their books. They were grateful for the opportunity to present some of it to the Hay Festival audience at this reading, and for a group of wonderful actors to bring the letters to life.
Let me quote a Wales Online article here, because I couldn’t say it any better:
Letters Live celebrates the art form of writing a letter with readings of those penned by famous names, including one from Elvis to President Nixon in 1970 asking if he could help the country’s fight against drug abuse and another from Charles Dickens to The Times in 1849 about capital punishment following the public execution of George and Maria Manning for the murder of her lover.
Dressed casually in a grey open-necked shirt with white T-shirt and brown trousers, Cumberbatch walked onto the stage to rapturous applause with actress Lisa Dwan to read a series of love letters between World War II Signalman Chris Barker and his sweetheart Bessie Moore.
Benedict and Lisa wonderfully managed to breathe life into the letters between Chris and Bessie, although I hear the chemistry between Benedict and Sherlock co-star Louise Brealey at the reading on Saturday was even more captivating.
The second time he came on stage, he read the final letter from explorer Robert Falcon Scott to his wife Kathleen from the frozen badlands of Antarctica in 1912-an incredibly sad, last goodbye filled with despair and hopelessness.
There was more Chris and Bessie towards the end, and the audience laughed and applauded in just the right places. Of course there were several other letters read by a number of actors, some funny, some moving, some serious food for thought. The ones I remember more vividly was the hilarious job application letter from aspiring screenwriter Robert Pirosh, who exuberantly exclaimed he liked words (read out gloriously by BBC One presenter Chris Evans), or the thought-provoking letter from Mohandas Gandhi to Hitler in 1939, begging him not to go to war-which never reached its intended recipient because it was intercepted by the British government.
I could have listened to these letters for hours and hours, but unfortunately it was over way too soon. The whole reading lasted probably 90 or so minutes, though I must admit I didn’t quite keep time.
With big smiles on our faces, we went back outside to meet up at the tent entrance with clareiow and rebeccaholmes. It was lovely to meet all the forum people and person, and everyone was still buzzing with excitement. Hungry stomachs were quickly filled and thirsts quenched, and we (sans clareiow and rebeccaholmes, who had wandered off elsewhere in search of alcoholic beverages) headed out to the BBC tent on the off-chance of seeing Benedict there, because word was he was going to be on the One Show at 7pm, which was being broadcast live from the festival.
The effort turned out to be pretty futile, since Benedict was nowhere to be seen even when the show had already gotten started, and it turned out they used a piece they recorded earlier that morning on the show. Oh well... At least we had tried our best, and it wasn't a huge surprise, seeing how it had been indicated that he wouldn’t be around to talk to fans after the reading anyway.
Of course we were still a tiny bit disappointed, but we made the best of it by boarding the next shuttle bus into Hay’s town centre (if you can even call it that-it’s a tiny but cosy village). We sought out one of the more inviting looking pubs, but not before we more or less randomly ran into Clare and Rebecca again. We said quick goodbyes as they were off to catch a bus, and then went on to have a drink and discuss Benedict, Sherlock and TV and movies in general.
Poor Stine was probably majorly bored in places, not quite being a Benedict or Sherlock fan, but I certainly had a wonderful time with the girls. It rarely happens that you get to mutually and unabashedly geek out over TV shows and movies with like-minded people who just get it.
I didn’t want the day to end, but around 9pm I had to leave because I still had a 2 ½ hour drive with a fairly early start the next day ahead of me. So we reluctantly parted and hugged each other goodbye in front of the pub, with Biggles and me catching one of the shuttle busses back to the car park and Kerkerian and Stine heading out to their camp site.
The drive home was thankfully uneventful and I went to bed with lots of images coursing through my head, and a faint smile remaining on my lips. What a fantastic day whose memories will stay with me for a long time to come.
There’s only one question that remains: When can we do it again?
And for those interested in photographic evidence, even though I was told we weren't supposed to take pictures, no one really enforced any bans or cared much (as long as there wasn't too much flash photography, I suppose), I happily clicked away on my SLR camera every now and then. You can see the results of my efforts in my online gallery.
I also managed to record two short videos, which you can see here (Chris and Bessie) and here (Captain Scott). (Amazingly enough, The Independent linked to them in one of their articles about the event.) :-O
