--- title: Benedict Cumberbatch to Play Richard III in BBC Miniseries description: The BBC miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch will be executive produced by Sam Mendes and directed by Dominic Cooke. canonical: https://time.com/51477/benedict-cumberbatch-bbc-shakespeare-richard-iii/ author: Megan Gibson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-07T11:14:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:09:52.672Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Benedict Cumberbatch to Play Richard III in BBC Miniseries og:description: The BBC miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch will be executive produced by Sam Mendes and directed by Dominic Cooke. og:url: https://time.com/51477/benedict-cumberbatch-bbc-shakespeare-richard-iii/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacbf1f3be39d3b98/6986892dadae44866f54260b/benedict-cumberbatch.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Benedict Cumberbatch arrives at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscars Party in West Hollywood, on March 3, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Benedict Cumberbatch to Play Richard III in BBC Miniseries twitter:description: The BBC miniseries starring Benedict Cumberbatch will be executive produced by Sam Mendes and directed by Dominic Cooke. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacbf1f3be39d3b98/6986892dadae44866f54260b/benedict-cumberbatch.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Benedict Cumberbatch to Play Richard III by [Megan Gibson](https://time.com/author/megan-gibson/) ## Megan Gibson Apr 7, 2014 11:14 AM UTC  Benedict Cumberbatch arrives at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscars Party in West Hollywood, on March 3, 2014. Benedict Cumberbatch arrives at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscars Party in West Hollywood, on March 3, 2014.Danny Moloshok—Reuters by [Megan Gibson](https://time.com/author/megan-gibson/) ## Megan Gibson Apr 7, 2014 11:14 AM UTC In a face-off worthy of Shakespeare, the two stars of _Sherlock_ will both be playing [the conniving Richard III](http://www.deadline.com/2014/04/benedict-cumberbatch-to-star-as-richard-iii-for-bbc-two/). Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman (who play Sherlock and Watson, respectively, in the British detective series) have both signed on to play the lead role in two different adaptations of the Shakespeare history drama. [Freeman’s announcement](http://time.com/49559/martin-freeman-to-play-richard-iii-on-london-stage/) that he would be taking on the role of the Machiavellian king for the play’s run later this year at the Trafalgar Studios came on April 4\. BBC Two confirmed just two days later that the channel was planning a television adaptation of _Richard III—_and Cumberbatch will be taking the lead role. The BBC miniseries starring Cumberbatch will be executive produced by Sam Mendes and directed by Dominic Cooke, former artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre. “I can’t wait to work with Dominic Cooke again to bring this complex, funny and dangerous character to life,” said Cumberbatch, who has acted with the Royal Court in the past, in a press release about the miniseries. We doubt the set of _Sherlock_‘s fourth season will be experiencing a winter of discontent—we’re already taking bets on who the real-life villain turns out to be. \[[_Deadline_](http://www.deadline.com/2014/04/benedict-cumberbatch-to-star-as-richard-iii-for-bbc-two/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/51477/benedict-cumberbatch-bbc-shakespeare-richard-iii/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/51477/benedict-cumberbatch-bbc-shakespeare-richard-iii/"},"headline":"Benedict Cumberbatch to Play Richard III","datePublished":"2014-04-07T11:14:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:09:52.672Z","description":"The Sherlock star has followed in the footsteps of his co-star Martin Freeman—who will also play the Machiavellian king in another project—in detective series to be adapted for television by the BBC and executive produced by Sam Mendes","url":"https://time.com/51477/benedict-cumberbatch-bbc-shakespeare-richard-iii/","keywords":["movies","Benedict Cumberbatch","Theater","Shakespeare","BBC"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacbf1f3be39d3b98/6986892dadae44866f54260b/benedict-cumberbatch.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan Gibson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/megan-gibson/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltacbf1f3be39d3b98/6986892dadae44866f54260b/benedict-cumberbatch.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Benedict Cumberbatch arrives at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscars Party in West Hollywood, on March 3, 2014.","caption":"Benedict Cumberbatch arrives at the 2014 Vanity Fair Oscars Party in West Hollywood, on March 3, 2014.","creditText":"Danny Moloshok—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/51477/benedict-cumberbatch-bbc-shakespeare-richard-iii/","name":"Benedict Cumberbatch to Play Richard III"}}]}] ```