Benedict Cumberbatch has role at Richard III service

The Imitation Game and Sherlock actor is a distant relative of the last Plantagenet king and is due to star in a BBC series about the monarch.

The Hollywood star’s reading is happening at a Leicester Cathedral service tomorrow during which the king’s coffin, containing his mortal remains, will be lowered into a specially made tomb of Swaledale stone.

Scientists believe Cumberbatch is a distant relation of King Richard III.

The Oscar-nominated actor is a second cousin of the king, 16 times removed, experts said.

The link was revealed by Professor Kevin Schurer, who was instrumental in proving the identity of King Richard’s remains after they were found under a car park in Leicester.

Speaking on the eve of the interment ceremony at Leicester Cathedral, he said: “Benedict is Richard III’s second cousin, 16 removed.

“He is linked in several ways, but in terms of number of generations, the shortest is via Richard’s mother, Cecily Neville’s grandmother Joan Beaufort.

“He also has more indirect links to both Queen Elizabeth II and Lady Jane Grey through other ancestors in his tree.

“It is great that Benedict has the opportunity to take part in Thursday’s ceremony for his distant relative.

“Having him there will add another dimension to what has already been a momentous week for the University of Leicester as well as the city and county.”

It has been estimated that between one million and 17 million people in the UK are related in some way to the last reigning Plantagenet, although not as closely as Benedict.

A piece of music has been written for the occasion by the Master of the Queen’s Music Judith Weir, while Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy penned the 14-line poem entitled Richard to be read by the actor.

The poem is described as a meditation on the impact of the discovery of Richard’s remains under a council car park in 2012, and the legacy of his story.

It includes the line, “grant me the carving of my name”, in reference to carvings on his tomb which read Richard III, together with his symbol, the white boar.

It is reported the Queen has also written a tribute in the order of service acknowledging Richard’s role in British history.

The historic moment will be witnessed by the Countess of Wessex, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, presiding.

On Sunday, 35,000 people lined the route of a procession high in symbolism through the Leicestershire countryside taking Richard back to near the spot where he fell at Bosworth field, where prayers were said for all the dead of that battle.

Later, he was carried through the city centre on a horse-drawn gun carriage before being borne inside the cathedral where he was welcomed as “our brother, Richard” by Bishop of Leicester, the Rt Rev Tim Stevens.

The cathedral has said the week of ceremony offers the king the “dignity and honour” he was denied immediately after his death.

The Bishop of Leicester said tomorrow’s service would be “solemn, but hopeful” and mark the “extraordinary moment” in English history that Richard’s death on August 22, 1485 represented.

“It is a major national and international occasion with a lot of ceremony,” he said.

“The peers from Bosworth families, descendants of those who fought on both sides of the battle, will be here.

“The coffin will be borne into the sanctuary of the cathedral where it will be committed to the ground, into the vault which has been prepared.”

The Dean of Leicester, the Very Rev David Monteith, said it was right that “the cream of writers and performers from our day help us to see our history and indeed ourselves in a new light with flair and imagination.”

University of Leicester archaeologists discovered the king under the council car park after a campaign to find him led by Philippa Langley.