A Little Look Forward to 'War Horse'

Hello again readers, it’s BB here. It seems like ages since I last blogged, so my apologies. Please forgive me.

Just thought I’d bring to your attention the trailer for ‘War Horse’, a Steven Spielberg film based on the book by Michael Morpurgo, in which Benedict Cumberbatch is starring as Major Stewart. Again, I must confess that I haven’t actually read the book, although a few years ago I did see the New London Theatre’s production of it, which was magnificent, and I highly recommend that you go and see it.

So anyway, 'War Horse' is set in World War I, and is basically about the bond between a boy and his horse, which is sold to the cavalry when the war breaks out. I can’t remember all that much of the plot, which, to be perfectly honest, is probably a blessing as it means that I can’t reveal too much / ruin the ending for anyone.

Being a Spielberg film, I’m sure that it will contain some amazing shots and images, hopefully including quite a few of our man BenMaBeb. I found a little interview of him and a couple of the other members of the cast - the sound quality isn't all that great, but it's Benedict, so I really don't mind:

So, War Horse is out on the 13th January here in England. It's a long way off, but hopefully it'll be worth the wait! We've got 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' to keep us Cumberbatch fans going until then anyway. As a little side note, I did order the book off Amazon and start reading it, but at about page 50, I realised that all the technical spy jargon was a bit too much, and I reckon I'll just watch the film instead. Don't get me wrong, I do love reading and have a pretty extensive book collection, but Le Carré certainly isn't casual holiday-by-the-pool reading. I might go back to it later after I've seen the film.

Thanks for reading, and please do subscribe, comment and spread the word. (I know we keep asking, but it really would mean a lot to us.)

Cheers,

BB :)

"Is that a British Army Browning L9A1 in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?"  --- Moriarty

HANDS!

Ok, so this is where I get a bit fangirl stalkerish, but the issue I am going to talk about deserves some recognition. Just take a good, long look at the photo montage below. Take your time...I'll be waiting for you at the bottom.

When BB and I talk about Benedict, the end of the conversation always ends with:

"How are amazing are his hands?.......ohhhh....his hands!" 

or words to that effect.

Now there aren't many men who have more beautiful hands than this. I wish I had such slender and long fingers because, apart from being droolingly gorgeous to look at, they are very useful. They are good for:

•  playing musical instruments,
• fishing things out of long jars, 
• pickpocketing, 
• forcing into jammed drawers to prise them open, 
• touch typing, 
• handling heavy bowling balls, 
• hiding things in the palm of your hand,
• winning the 'How may Party Ring biscuits can you fit on your finger?' competition,
• fishing for burned pieces of toast in the toaster, 
• dragging that stray cash from the bottom of a trouser pocket 
• and actually fitting into those disposable latex gloves. 

Ok, I'm waffling now, but what else can you say about something so perfect? I just think that BenMaBeb's hands should get a bit of recognition.

HAN :)

Bit of trivia: In October 2010, Benedict had a cycling accident and injured one of his GORGEOUS hands :( Thankfully, it was only minor. (Breathes a sigh of relief)

Sherlockian Coats

When you think ‘Sherlock Holmes’, a deerstalker hat, large pipe and magnifying class come to mind, as portrayed by most adaptations of the series. But, to be honest, if you’re going to bring this detective into the 21^st century, you can’t exactly have him running around in Victorian style clothes, can you? Not while he’s texting, anyway. One of his main traits in the original books is, after all, his ability to disguise himself. Equally, he’s not going to be dressed in jeans/trackies and a hoody. That would be weird. So in stepped costume designer Sarah Adams:

"Holmes would not have any interest in fashion so I went for classic suits with a modern twist: narrow-leg trousers and a two-button, slim-cut jacket. I also went for slim-cut shirts and a sweeping coat for all the action scenes.”

And, wow, did she get it right. Everything about the outfit works, setting Sherlock apart from his fellow characters in terms of sophistication, while still managing to fit into modern day London. And, of course, part of this has to come down to Mr Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch. The way he carries himself, giving off an air of superiority, and also the fast-paced scenes where the coat embellishes his every move, help to give this 21^st century Sherlock a somewhat other-worldly presence, that I think we all very much enjoyed.

And it seems it wasn’t just me who was left in awe at this wondrous item of clothing; Belstaff put the trench coat worn by Benedict back on the shelves due to popular demand, however, unsurprisingly, at a WHOPPING £1350, not many actually sold. It seems that Sherlock is not left wanting when it comes to money; each Spencer Hart suit cost close to £500, and the Dolce & Gabbana shirts cost an equally GOBSMACKING £155. Wow. But it’s definitely worth it for that look.

Anyway, I’m going to sign off now with a "yay!" that we have our first member! Please, please, please can any lovely readers out there also click the button to 'join this page'; we promise to make it worthwhile with lots of posts! And also, feel free to comment on the blog with your thoughts, opinions, ideas, any Benedict ramblings, and also any suggestions for future posts that you’d like us to write.

Much appreciated,

BB J

"So it is that Britain's latest men's style icon is a fictional asexual sociopath first seen onscreen hitting a corpse with a stick."    ---  Alexis Petridis, from The Guardian

                

Check this Film Out at a Cinema Somewhere Near You

Based on John Le Carré’s best-selling novel, which I must confess I haven’t read (although it is on my list), the film Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is set for release on 16^th September this year, and looks pretty spectacularly awesome. Set in the 1970s, our wonderful man BenMaBeb plays Peter Guillam, who is tasked with finding the mole (traitor) within MI6. I'm not going to shower you with details, as I don’t have them, but a second official trailer has just been released, and it's definitely worth a watch:

So, readers, if you are out there, I most definitely advise you to go check this film out at a cinema somewhere near you; I know for certain that I will be, quite possibly with my fellow blogger HAN. And our viewing will be followed by at least one review / quotes sesh / post related to the film, so it would be highly beneficial for you to have watched it too, as then you will be in a better position to comment!! Go on, you know you want to! And if you are out there, it would also be much appreciated if you would click on that button to the right of the screen in order to follow us - it would be nice to know that our posts our being enjoyed, and that there are others out there who appreciate Mr Benedict Cumberbatch as much as we do.

Thanks,

BB :)

"Try not to start a war before you get home - you know what it does to the traffic"

                                                                                                                             ---Sherlock to Mycroft

                                                                                                                             

Sherlockian Quotes Episode Three - The Great Game

Ok, so its been a while, but when I started transcribing the best quotes from Sherlock, it hadn't dawned on me that there were so many! It took me over three hours of blood, sweat, broken biros and mini 'I-can't-believe-I-love-BenMaBeb-so-much' tears to do Episode three. I had written them all down BY HAND, and now I am TYPING ALL OF THEM UP FOR YOU. Don't feel bad or anything. So here goes...

Sherlock: "It's not weren't, it's wasn't"

Mr Pugh (the man arrested in Minsk, Belarus): "My old man was a butcher. I know how to handle knives. He learned us how to cut up a beast."
Sherlock: "Taught."
Mr Pugh:"What?"
Sherlock: "He taught you how to cut up a beast."
Mr Pugh: "Yeah well, then I done it."
Sherlock: "Did it."

Mr Pugh: "Without you, I'll get hung for this."
Sherlock: "No, no, no Mr Pugh, not at all...Hanged, yes.

(Sherlock shoots the wall)
John Watson: "What the hell are you doing?"
Sherlock: "Bored."
John Watson: "What?"
Sherlock: "Bored" (BANG) "Bored" (BANG) "Bored" (BANG)

John Watson: "Oh fu-...There's are head. (Shouting) Is that a head?"
Sherlock: "No just tea for me thanks."
John Watson: "No, there's a head in the fridge."
Sherlock: "Yes."
John Waston: "A bloody head."
Sherlock: "Well, where else was I supposed to put it? You don't mind do you? I got it from Barts morgue. I'm measuring the coagulation of saliva after death."

Sherlock: "Sherlock sees through everything and everyone in seconds. What's incredible though is how spectacularly ignorant he is about some things."

Sherlock: "Look it doesn't matter to me who's Prime Minister and who is sleeping with who-"
John Watson: "And if the Earth goes round the sun."
Sherlock: "Oh that again. It's not important!"
John Watson: (mutters) "Not important" (To Sherlock) "Its PRIMARY SCHOOL stuff. How do you not know that?"
Sherlock: "If I ever did I have deleted it."
John Watson: "Deleted it?"
Sherlock: (points to head) "This is my hard drive and it makes sense to only put things in there that are useful, really useful. Ordinary people fill their heads with all kinds of rubbish. It makes it hard to get to the stuff that really matters. Do you see?
John Watson: "But its the solar system!"

Sherlock: "All that matters to me is the work and without it, my brain rots. Put that in your blog, or better still, stop inflicting you opinions on the world."

Mrs Hudson: "You two had a little domestic?"

Sherlock: "Look at that Mrs. Hudson. Quiet, peaceful. Isn't it hateful?"

Sherlock: (To Mycroft) "How's the diet?"

Sherlock: "How's Sarah, John? How was the Lilo?"
Mycroft: "Sofa, Sherlock, it was the sofa."
Sherlock: "oh yes, of course."
John Watson: "How?....oh never mind."

Sherlock: "Coming?"
John Watson: "If you want me."
Sherlock: "Of course, I'd be lost without my blogger."

Sherlock: "Nice stationary."

John Watson: "That's the phone, the pink phone."
Inspector Lestrade: "From the Study in Pink?"
Sherlock: "Well obviously its not the same phone but its supposed to look like it...The Study in Pink? You read his blog?"
Inspector Lestrade: "Of course I read his blog, we all do. Do you really not know that the earth goes round the sun?"

Sherlock: "Pass me my phone."
John Watson: "Where is it?"
Sherlock: "Jacket....(Watson reaches into the jacket that SHERLOCK IS WEARING and feels for the phone) CAREFUL."

Sherlock: "Hospitals are full of hundreds of dying people. Why don't you cry by their bedside DOCTOR and see what good it does them."

Sherlock: "Gay"
Mortuary Doctor: "What?"
John Watson: "Nothing"
Sherlock: "Hey."

John Watson: "Just because because he puts a bit of product in his hair? I put product in my hair."
Sherlock: "There's a difference, you wash your hair."

John Watson: "Charming"
Sherlock: "Just saving her time, isn't that kind?"
John Watson: "No Sherlock, that wasn't kind."

John Watson: "How did I do?"
Sherlock: "Well John... really well...well you missed almost everything important but um...you know."

John Watson: "It's your brother. He's texting me now...how did you get my number?"
Sherlock: "Must be a root canal."

John Watson: (to Mycroft) "He's investigating away."

Sherlock: "I referred to her husband in the past tense. She joined in. It's a bit premature, they've only just found the car."

John Watson: "I've got change for the machine if you still want to..."
Sherlock: "Nicotine patches John, I'm doing well."

Sherlock: "I am on FIRE!"

John Watson: "Has it occurred to you -"
Sherlock: "Probably"
John Watson: "Ahem. Has it occurred to you that.."

Sherlock: "Tetanus bacteria enters the bloodstream. Goodnight Vienna."

Sherlock: "Good Samaritan"
Inspector Lestrade: "Who press gangs suicide bombers?"
Sherlock: "Bad Samaritan."

Mrs Hudson: "I should never wear cerise apparently. It drains me."

John Watson: "Sherlock, we've got deadlines."

Sherlock: "Tut tut, the bomber has repeated himself."

Sherlock: "Well obviously I lost that round, although technically I did solve the case."

John Watson: "So people come to him to get their crimes fixed up, like booking a holiday?"
Sherlock: "Novel."

Sherlock: "He wants to be distracted."
John Watson: "Well, I think you two will be very happy together."
Sherlock: "Sorry WHAT?"
John Watson: "There are lives at stake here Sherlock, actual human lives. Just so I know, do you actually care about that at all?"
Sherlock: "Will caring about them help save them?"
John Watson: "No."
Sherlock: "Well I'll continue to not make that mistake."

Sherlock: "Don't make people into heroes John. Heroes don't exist and if they did, I wouldn't be one of them."

Inspector Lestrade: "Any ideas?"
Sherlock: "Seven."

Inspector Lestrade: "But what has that got to do with the painting. I don't see."
Sherlock: "You do see, you just don't observe."
John Watson: "Yes, alright, alright girls, calm down."

John Watson: "Amazing."
Sherlock: "Meretricious."
Inspector Lestrade: "And a Happy New Year"


Sherlock: "Have a nice day!"

Sherlock: "Fortunately, I haven't been idle."

Sherlock: (looking at the stars under the Vauxhall Arches) "Beautiful isn't it?"
John Watson: "I thought you didn't care about-"
Sherlock: "Doesn't mean I can't appreciate it."

Sherlock: "The homeless network. My eyes and ears all over the city."
John Watson: "So what? You scratch their backs-"
Sherlock: "Yes and then disinfect myself."

Sherlock: "And did those whispers have a name?"

Sherlock: "Come on. I've got a little bit of burglary to do."

Sherlock: "Despite what people think, we still have a secret service."

Sherlock: "NO, NO, NO! Of course he's not the boy's father. Look at the turn ups on his jeans!"

Sherlock: "He was over the moon. Threatened me with a knighthood...AGAIN."

John Watson: "We need milk."
Sherlock: "I'll get some."
John Watson: (Big pause) "Really?"
Sherlock: "Really."
John Watson: "And some beans then?"
Sherlock: "Of course."

Moriarty: "I gave you my number. I thought you might call."

Moriarty: "Is that a British Army Browning L9A1 in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?"

Moriarty: "Jim Moriarty....HI!!"

Sherlock: "Consulting criminal...brilliant."
Moriarty: "Isn't it?!"

Moriarty: "But the flirting is over Sherlock. Daddy's had enough now!"

Sherlock: "But people have died."
Moriarty: "Thats what people DO!"

Moriarty: "Missile plans.........boring!"

Moriarty: "Westwood."

Sherlock: "Catch. You. Later."
Moriarty: "No you won't!"

Sherlock: (to John) "That thing that you did...that you offered to do, that was...ahem...good."

Well thats the final splurge of quotes for this series/season! Enjoy!

HAN :)

I think we seem to have less readers than John Watson's fictional blog - DEPRESSING.  Inspector Lestrade, if you are reading, please subscribe. Cheers mate x

"My Name's Benedict Cumberbatch, and I'm Going to Take You Back in Time"

“BC is doing a documentary on Thursday night @ 8” was the text from HAN on Monday.

A whole hour of Benedict Cumberbatch!!! What more could anyone want??  Well, maybe to have heard of the playwright he was doing the documentary on, I guess. But, I just regarded it as an educational experience and reminded myself that it wasn’t BenMaBeb’s fault that I am seriously uncultured when it comes to the theatre.  

Just to fill in the gaps for anyone who didn’t watch it, our Mr Benedict Cumberbatch presented a documentary on BBC4 on Sir Terence Rattigan, entitled ‘The Rattigan Enigma by Benedict Cumberbatch’, available to watch on iPlayer atm. And honestly, from the moment he opened his mouth and said the words, “My name’s Benedict Cumberbatch, and I’m going to take you back in time”, I couldn’t stop watching it. Or, more precisely, listening. To his voice. Because it. Is. AMAZING. There are no other words in the English dictionary to describe it. That is the way that ALL documentaries should be presented.  And then, just to be even more gobsmackingly wonderful, he proceeds to do the voice of “Aunt Edna”, a fictional creation of Rattigan’s formed in an attempt to respond to his critics. Yes. Just Yes.

But it wasn’t just his voice. Oh no. He even pointed out how big his hands were in an old school photo of his. His hands. They are like no-one else’s I have ever seen. In fact, a whole blog post dedicated to them should be written by one of us sometime in the future. There simply isn’t time in this little paragraph.

Okay, so the documentary wasn’t the most thrilling piece of television that I’ll ever watch, but it did let me sit down and watch Benedict tell me, amongst other things, that his parents tried to dissuade him from becoming an actor. :O Just thank your lucky stars, readers (if there are any of you out there) that they didn’t succeed. The whole world would be a different, much sadder and emptier place. 

So thank you, Benedict, for walking around in your beautiful suit, waving your fantastic hands and speaking in your delightful voice for a whole hour last night. Please do more documentaries. Or even just TV appearances in general.

BB J

"The dress rehearsal itself was also pretty spectacularly awful" 

          -- BenMaBeb himself on The 1936 Rattigan play French Without Tears.

"I have been reliably informed that I don't have one" - Snatches of information on Sherlock Series Two

Hi, its HAN. I will of course be posting Sherlockian quotes for the third episode 'The Great Game" pretty soon, but I just wanted to share the news that I have gleaned about the second series (or season for our viewers across the pond) of Sherlock. I am gobsmackingly excited about the prospect of more Sherlock stories to ponder over, and more Cumberbatch screen time to slobber over:


Like the first series/season, there will be three, ninety-minute episodes, called 'A Scandal in Belgravia', 'The Hound of Baskervilles' and 'The Reichenbach Fall'. These episodes are based on 'A Scandal in Bohemia', 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' and 'The Final Problem'. 'The Final Problem' is the Conan-Doyle story where Holmes and Moriarty face each other for a 'final battle'. This suggests that there may only be two series/seasons, before the Sherlock crew pack up. This is only my guesswork, so don't quote me on it.

The filming began on 16th May 2011, and should be aired in Autumn 2011. The METRO paper managed to steal some snaps of BenMaBeb doing some action scenes in Soho, London. Apparently, they had to start filming at dawn so they didn't get mobbed by fans. Personally, I think they filmed at dawn for dramatic effect as part of the story. You know, you can't always believe what the newspapers say.


Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, the creators of the show have said that the second series concerns three of the most famous Sherlock Holmes stories, after dealing with the slight situation of getting out of the swimming pool without being blown up by the bomb or shot to smithereens by Moriarty's marksmen. Any ideas how you get out of that one? Suggestions in the comment bar :)
The second series also is said to develop the characters of Holmes and Watson. 
Moriarty:"I will burn the heart out of you."
Sherlock: "I have been reliably informed that I don't have one"
"You can't just go back to: 'You have no emotions.' 'I don't care.' You've got to move on somewhere and make sure the other characters have something of a journey too" say Moffat and Gatiss. They want to show through the next instalment that Sherlock really does have a heart and that he and Watson do grow closer and learn to accept each others differences.... to an extent. Well, its Sherlock Holmes - how much can he accept of normal human life? :)

Well thats about it for Series/ Season two of Sherlock. If I have missed any news out, or anybody has important updates, feel free to comment.


Cheers,
HAN


"I am very flattered. I have also become a verb as in I have cumberbatched the UK audience apparently. Who knows, by the end of the year I might become a swear word too." - Benedict Cumberbatch