Benedict stars in Parade’s End, coming to BBC Two in August
Actor Benedict Cumberbatch has decided to make his opinion on period drama Downton Abbey quite clear, branding it “f**king atrocious”.
The Sherlock star, who is currently promoting BBC period drama Parade’s End, spoke to Reader’s Digest about the new series, before having a pop at Downton’s second season:
“We’re remembering that there was a world before the First World War. We’re living in a culture now that’s revering, or having a nostalgia trip with, the beginning of the 1900s.
“Although Downton traded a lot on the sentiment in the last series… but we won’t talk about that series because it was, in my opinion, f**king atrocious.”
When asked if he worried that Parade’s End would be seen as a similar type of programme to Downton, Cumberbatch, who plays the lead role of Christopher Tietjens in the show, answered:
“There was that fear, yes. I thought, ‘Are we pandering to a taste?’ But this is so much more sophisticated, so much more unusual.
“You rarely see a piece about this class of people that’s this accurate, funny and pointed. We’re not making some clichéd comment, ‘Oh, isn’t it awful the way there’s this upstairs-downstairs divide’.”
September’s issue of Reader’s Digest is out on 21 September. Parade’s End starts on 24 August on BBC Two.
Reblogged this on Musings of an Anglophile.
He’s lovely, but so much like his Sherlock character sometimes, isn’t he?
Completely agreed! I do love Sherlock though!