Ten Things About... Benedict Cumberbatch

You have to be pretty special to make it as an actor with a name as silly as Benedict Cumberbatch. However, with the starring role in the latest BBC hit Sherlock, the 34-year-old is well on his way to putting the Cumberbatch name on the map! But how much do you know about the man helping to refresh the Arthur Conan Doyle detective brand. Keep reading for ten fast facts about TV star Benedict.

1. Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch was born on July 19, 1976 in London. He is the son of fellow actors Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham.

2. You've probably seen Benedict's mum on TV before, but not realised it. Wanda has appeared in shows such as Men Behaving Badly, The Two Ronnies, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and she had a recurring role in Only Fools And Horses as Cassandra's mum Pamela Parry.

3. Cumberbatch has an impressive acting CV, but he hasn't been afraid of doing the regular TV rounds. He has even appeared in everyone's favourite Sunday night teatime drama Heartbeat, twice! Once as Toby Fisher in the episode 'No Hard Feelings' in 2004 and once as someone called Charles in 'The Good Doctor' way back in 2000.

4. Benedict met up with Stephen Hawking before taking on the role of the professor in the 2004 critically-acclaimed drama Hawking. The meeting was apparently a daunting one for the actor. "He's such a presence and you have to really know what you want to say to him or ask him because it takes such a huge, phenomenal effort for him to communicate with you. You think, 'I really don't want to waste this man's time'."

5. Benedict's acting debut reportedly came in his school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, where he played Titania Queen of the Fairies. We just did the Nativity at our school!

6. So what preparation did Benedict do for the role of Sherlock Holmes? Apparently he did a bit of violin practice and, slightly oddly, started trying to investigate people in real life. "You can't help but cast an eye round you and think about people and the explanation that might lie behind the exterior show," said. "A couple of times on trains... you can't help it. That indentation where a wedding ring should be, the dynamics of families. People in a moment of isolation, certain things do stick out. It's an achievable superpower."

7. According to IMDB, Mr Cumberbatch is 6ft ½" tall. That half an inch makes all the difference, we reckon.

8. Benedict hasn't lived a life short on thrills. He was involved in a carjacking in South Africa when filming The Ends Of The Earth and has also admitted to having a phase of "looking over the precipice" as an adrenaline junkie. He has apparently done skydiving, hot air ballooning... the works!

9. Inbetween being educated at prestigious public school Harrow and Manchester University, Benedict used his gap year to teach English at a Tibetan monastery. It's more interesting than going to Magaluf and getting drunk we suppose.

10. So what does Benedict think of his unusual name? "It sounds like a fart in a bath, doesn't it?" he jokes. "What a fluffy old name. I can never say it on a Monday morning. When I became an actor, mum wasn't keen on me keeping it."