Theatre

Benedict Cumberbatch’s Letters Live reading is a total tearjerker

Benedict Cumberbatch will return to the stage this month, as he takes part in the Letters Live event in London.

Tom Odell, Sally Hawkins and Louise Brealey will also take part in the series of events, which has been developed by the independent publishing house Canongate to celebrate the art and ethos of letter writing.

The show will see celebrities read correspondence deserving of a wider audience in front of a live crowd.

To give us a taste of things to come, Letters Live have shared this video of Cumberbatch reading Alan Turing’s letter to Norman Routledge, dated 1952.

Turing was a mathematical genius of his time, and widely considered to be the father of modern computing. This letter was written to his friend and fellow mathematician, Norman Routledge, in the same year, before he pleaded guilty to charges of gross indecency.

"Yours in distress" Benedict Cumberbatch reads Alan Turing's letter to Norman Routledge

Letters Live 2015 takes place at London’s Freemason’s Hall between 31 March – 4 April, and will raise money for literacy charities, the Reading Agency, First story and Ministry of Stories.