Benedict Cumberbatch ambushes Dame Judi Dench with a job offer

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(Image credit: Empics Entertainment)

Benedict Cumberbatch reportedly ambushed Dame Judi Dench at a literary festival and persuaded her from the audience to co-star in his new BBC production of Shakespeare's Richard III.

The BBC reports that the Sherlock star was in the audience as Dame Judi was being interviewed by TV and theatre director Richard Eyre at the Hay Festival in Wales.

Benedict was sitting in the front row and during the question and answer section asked Dame Judi to star in the film.

She replied "Yeah."

Benedict will take the title role in the new version of Richard III, expected to begin filming later this year.

 

Patrick McLennan
Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.