If anything cheers us up about Mondays, it's getting to do our Nice Guy of the Week segment, which this week centres on the charming, hilarious, poised and weirdly handsome Benedict Cumberbatch.
Benedict Cumberbatch 2019 / Photo Credit: Ian West/PA Wire/PA Images
1. He takes unflattering comments in his stride
It's probably safe to say Benedict Cumberbatch isn't the most traditionally handsome man in the world, and yet there's just something about him that so many people can't resist. He's been likened to an otter, The Troigs from Star Wars, a Siamese cat, an alien, a snake and goodness knows what else. But he was only too happy to joke about his striking appearance in a Saturday Night Live segment entitled "Why is Benedict Cumberbatch Hot?".
2. He's gracious
Whenever somebody compliments Benedict on his acting ability, he always looks so genuinely grateful, as if personal feedback is always more important to him than any of the numerous awards he has. He always plays down his attributes, but not so much that it sounds like false modesty. Plus, he wasn't afraid to disagree with Sherlock co-star Martin Freeman on the struggle of having a massive fanbase, describing it instead as "mind-boggling, and pretty f***ing generous and wonderful and humbling".
3. He's such a good sport on talk shows
Whether he's doing Mad Lib Theater with Jimmy Fallon or spontaneously beating up an enormous teddy bear on The Graham Norton Show, we just can't get enough of talk-show Benedict. He's constantly entertaining and willing to join in any kind of fun because despite the fact that he is a serious actor with a Shakespearean background, appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a descendent of royalty and privately educated, he never takes himself seriously.
4. He's a humanitarian
Benedict Cumberbatch loves to be involved in important causes. He's an ambassador for The Prince's Trust, and has been involved in a number of children's and cancer charities as well as the motor neurone disease foundations. Plus, he's been openly supportive of the LGBT+ community as well as a strong advocate for equal pay within the film and television industry, saying of female co-stars in an interview with the Radio Times: "If she's not paid the same as the men, I'm not doing it."
5. He's a real life hero
He once leapt out of a taxi to defend a Deliveroo cyclist who was under attack from four vicious muggers in central London. The assailants fled the scene without stealing anything and the cyclist was uninjured thanks to Cumberbatch's heroic intervention. Of course, the ever humble Mr. Cumberbatch insisted later that he wasn't a hero, and simply tried to calm the situation down without even contemplating the possibility of serious violence.
6. He's an amazing actor
Few actors are less typecast than this British national treasure, who has spread his wings into a variety of genres within television, theatre and film. He can do action, mystery, comedy, animation, historical, fantasy, sci-fi, period drama - you name it, he's done it. Except horror, but we expect that will change one day.
He's played a superhero (Doctor Strange), a tiger (Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle), a wolf (Penguins of Madagascar) a dragon (The Hobbit), a detective (Sherlock), a genderqueer model (Zoolander 2), not to mention iconic characters like Hamlet, The Grinch and Frankenstein, as well as a number of real life people including Thomas Edison, Richard III, Billy Bulger, Alan Turing, Julian Assange and Stephen Hawking. Is there anyone this man can't do?!
7. He can't say penguin
When he was the narrator for the wildlife documentary Wild Pacific in 2009, he had a few problems when talking about a certain black and white flightless bird. Fans pointed this out to Graham Norton, who isolated the offending moment during Benedict's appearance on his show. He appears to call them "pengwings" and "penglings" several times, to his own obvious horror, which made the fact that he went on to star in Penguins of Madagascar all the more hilarious. We think it's got to go down in history as one of the actors most adorable moments though.
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