Benedict Cumberbatch has just been announced as the man who will play Richard III in the BBC’s new drama making up the second in the series of their Shakespeare’s History Plays.
Sam Mendes is one of the producers with Dominic directing for the first time on the small screen and the 37-year-old actor can’t wait to get stuck into the job.
“I can’t wait to work with [director] Dominic Cooke again to bring this complex, funny and dangerous character to life,” he told The Telegraph.
And it’s no wonder the star has caused such a frenzy on British Airways flights lately as he features on the High Life magazine cover this month. Apparently copies have been disappearing from aircrafts as fans take them home and auction them on social media sites and eBay.
The lead feature sees the star take on the frozen lake of Hameenlinna in Finland for a Jaguar ice-driving course.
Behind the scenes pictures tweeted by the article’s photographer and author quickly followed suit and fans began recreating images from the shoot in various art forms from cupcakes to digital gifs. In less than a week the story has reached over one million people on Twitter and is continuing to circulate within the media.
Abigail Comber, British Airways’ head of marketing, said: “We love the reaction we’ve had from customers both on flights and across social media and it’s testament to a great edition when we have to re-stock our aircraft!”
Kerry Smith, High Life’s editor, said: “We are thrilled with the response so far. We always strive to create the best-in-class content and Benedict Cumberbatch is quickly proving the most popular cover star we have ever had in our 41-year history. And that takes some doing thanks to a long line of British cover stars including Heston Blumenthal, Tracy Emin and Bradley Wiggins.”