The best Benedict Cumberbatch films

1THE IMITATION GAME (2014)

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH stars as mathematician Alan Turing who helped crack the German’s Engima Code during the Second World War and also gave rise to the birth of the modern computer.

2STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS (2013)

HE CLASHED with Captain Kirk and Spock playing master criminal Khan. The genetically superior Khan wanted vengeance for the way Earth’s government had treated his people.

3THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY (2012)

PLAYED the Necromancer and was later the voice of fire-breathing dragon Smaug in the Hobbit trilogy of movies. He later said his throat bled at the end of the day in his efforts to get Smaug’s voice right.

4WAR HORSE (2011)

DIRECTOR Steven Spielberg’s First World War movie about a horse on the frontline. Benedict played Major Jamie Stewart and the cast also included Emily Watson, Tom Hiddleston and David Thewlis.

5TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (2011)

BENEDICT was part of an all-star cast in this film version of John Le Carré’s classic Cold War thriller about a mole at the top of the British Secret Service.

6ATONEMENT (2007)

HE APPEARED as a wealthy, upper-class house guest who added to the confusion when a young girl feared her friend had been sexually assaulted.

7STARTER FOR 10 (2006)

EARLY film role for Benedict in this movie about university students in the 1980s swotting to take part in BBC TV quiz University Challenge.