Judith Woods explains why she'll gladly follow the cult of Cumberbatch
By Judith Woods5:51PM BST 06 Aug 2015
The cult of personality tends to get a bad name especially from those force-marched towards perdition at the behest of the crackpot, the despotic and the downright evil.
Historian Robert Conquest, who died this week, was an ardent Bolshevik before he discovered first-hand the horror of Stalinism. In North Korea, Kim Jong-un’s erratic and barbaric rule is the continuation of a justifiably demonised dynasty.
But over in this country, the cult of personality has become rather a jolly talking point.
In recent days we’ve had reports of Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh enthralling David Cameron and Gordon Brown by dint of her charisma (and possibly the dizzying colour combinations).
In politics, Nicola Sturgeon, head of a one-party state, is feted as the Boudicca of Sauchiehall Street.
Heroically dour Jeremy Corbyn, a man who thinks blank-eyed zeal is for sissies, continues to rally peri-menopausal Mumsnetters to his Trotskyite cause.
And now Benedict Cumberbatch has succeeded where tens of thousands of English teachers have failed, namely in igniting a passion for Shakespeare.
Or strictly speaking, a passion for Shakespeare as portrayed by the 39-year-old Old Harrovian whose effect on young women must give succour to unconventionally handsome men everywhere.
Having garnered critical acclaim for, inter alia, his portrayals of Sherlock Holmes and Frankenstein, Cumberbatch has now been cast as the Pied Piper of Hamlet, drawing fresh new audiences into the theatre.
How magnificent. Him, and them. And the Prince of Denmark. Is there any chance of block-booking him, I wonder, to perform the entire GCSE and A-Level syllabuses?
Or is it syllabi? Syllabubs? Cumberbatch will know! Bring us Cumberbatch!
What a piece of work is this man. Noble in reason, infinite in faculty. And one leading man we’ll all gladly follow.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario