Benedict Cumberbatch in Cabin Pressure

Radio comedy and drama shows ended in the United States over 50 years ago. The last two series - Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and an episode of Suspense called "Devilstone" aired on September 30, 1962.

Since that time there's been a few efforts to revive radio as the "theater of the mind" but with little success. (Even the Star Trek actors Patrick Stewart, John DeLancie and Leonard Nimoy were unable to generate much interest with their series of adaptions of radio science fiction greats.)

In England, on the other hand, radio is as popular now as ever and its official "TV guide" is actually called The Radio Times and gives both TV and radio info.

And lots of British actors love supplementing their income by appearing on radio, or just love appearing on radio altogether.  You can listen to classic radio comedy and drama series by going to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4extra/programmes/schedules.

The radio comedy series Cabin Pressure, written by John Fennimore and starring Fennimore as Artur, Roger Allam as Douglas, Stephanie Cole as Caroline Napp-Shappey and Benedict Cumberbatch as Martin Crief, made its debut with 6 episodes in 2008, another 6 in 2009, another 6 in 2011, and the final 6 in 2013, with a 2 part show finale airing over Christmas in 2014.

Radio certainly doesn't pay as much as TV work and not nearly as much as film work, so I do wonder if Cumberbatch (and the others) accepted 'union minimum') because they love working on radio.

Purchase the entire series (and help support this site, as I'm an Amazon affiliate and get a percentage of the sale) and show the Brits that Americans love British radio:

Here are a few publicity photos done by the BBC for Cabin Pressure

Captain Martin Crieff shows First Officer Douglas Richardson how many rings he has on his sleeve

The crew of Cabin Pressure. The guy giving the V for Victory sign is John Fennemore, the creator and writer of the series

Cabin Pressure was recorded live before a studio audience - so that laugh track you hear on each episode is real laughter. There are many fans of Cabin Pressure out there. Do a Google search on "Cabin Pressure Cumberbatch" for images, and you'll find talented artists have created illustrations for all the characters. In addition, although I don't think cameras were allowed at the recordings (and sadly, neither were video recorders) people did take photos and share them on the web.

Benedict Cumberbatch laughing at something funny in the script of Cabin Pressure

Behind the scenes. All the actors cluster around the same microphone and read from scripts

Has to be an extremely sensitive microphone!

In the "Wokingham" episode, big brother Simon teaches Martin how to fly

The actors enjoying themselves

Benedict Cumberbatch loves to dance

Back before Benedict Cumberbatch was famous, he was out with friends dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller.

It's a compilation of the dancing of Tom Hiddleston, and of Benedict Cumberbatch, from various venues. There's also a very brief clip of Benedict Cumberbatch dancing as Kahn, from Star Trek Into Darkness.

At Oz Comiccon, Benedict dances again and thrills the humongous crowd:

Benedict Cumberbatch in Otttery St. Sherlock

Ottery St. Mary is a real town in England.

In Cabin Pressure, First Officer Douglas Richardson gives a fictitious explanation of the name of the town, and then the crew try to figure out how to get 100 otters into their jet.

The excerpt is hilarious enough, but it's even funnier in the mashup below. Some clever person has edited together bits of various Sherlock episodes to match the dialog in the excerpt. (In one of the lines, Arthur says the non sequitur, "Yellow car." That's because in this episode - titled Ottery St. Mary - the three of them are driving to Ottery St. Mary to deliver a piano. And in addition to trying to stuff 100 otters in the jet, they are also playing the Yellow Car game. Whenever anyone sees a yellow car, he has to say, "Yellow car."

Benedict plays Martin Crieff, of course. Mark Gatiss as Moriarty is also Douglas Richardson, and Martin Freeman as Watson is also Arthur the dim steward.

Benedict Cumberbatch, when it is always 1895

British TV shows are weird.

If Sherlock (starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Doctor Watson) had been a series in America, there'd be 20 episodes in a season. But since it's filmed in England, there are 3 episodes in a season.  3!

And in one of these episodes, the modern day adaption of Sherlock Holmes goes back to the Victorian era, to 1895. It was called The Abominable Bride.

I did like it, except for ...I can't say the overacting of the guy playing Moriarty but the "Jokerish" acting of the guy playing Moriarty...

I'll write more about it in future blog entries, but here I'll share a photo of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes waving to the crowd watching the filming of the episode. (As always, click on the image to see a larger version.)

Benedict Cumberbatch waves to fans of the series Sherlock

Benedict Cumberbatch's impression of otters

Benedict Cumberbatch appears on the Graham Norton show quite a lot. In this clip, he matches his face to angry otters, surprised otters, afraid otters, and so on. (Johnny Depp is on this show as well.)

Manifesto

Welcome to A Study in Benedict Cumberbatch, a site/blog devoted to this British actor and all of his works.

I'll be sharing a lot of videos from YouTube.

Here's a wonderful one: Benedict Cumberbatch's 30 Best Impressions - including that of an otter.