Here’s What Benedict Cumberbatch’s Mom Had To Say About Her Son’s Hamlet

Benedict Cumberbatch has been described as a “five-star Hamlet” trapped inside a “three-star production”, according to critics. However, his mother, Wanda Ventham, has said that she thinks her son “makes a bloody good Hamlet“.

Ventham is an actress in her own right, best known for her role as Colonel Virginia Lake in Seventies sci-fi TV series UFO and as Pamela Parry in Only Fools and Horses, and was joined by Cumberbatch’s father Timothy Carlton, also an actor.

Celebs at the Barbican last night included Benedict’s Sherlock co-stars Martin Freeman and Louise Brealey, Kinks star Ray Davies and Downton actor Dan Stevens.

The Sherlock star, who performed to a celeb-packed audience on the official opening night on Tuesday in London, received glowing reviews but was reportedly let down by the rest of the show, directed by Lyndsey Turner.

The play, which has become the fastest-selling in British history since the Oscar-nominated actor’s participation was announced, has been unable to shake off early mixed criticism, after two newspapers ran reviews during the previews.

Gatiss said Cumberbatch delivered a flawless, energetic performance that embodied the light and dark moments of Shakespeare’s tragedy.

Benedict Cumberbatch stars alongside with Ciaran Hinds as Claudius, Anastasia Hille as Gertrude, Leo Bill as Horatio and Sian Brooke as Ophelia.

Director Lyndsey Turner’s version is contemporary and modern with the cast wearing trainers and Cumberbatch dressed-down in t-shirts.

This is a play that may not appeal to hardcore fans of Shakespeare, who want to dissect every nuance and soliloquy.

“It may not be a “Hamlet” for the ages, but it is one for now, and for Cumberbatch’s legions of predominantly female fans”.

What the production doesn’t have is much of a point-of-view on a play that ought at least at some point to tear at your heart – and briefly looks as if it might do precisely that as the haunting strains of Nat King Cole singing “Nature Boy” fill the auditorium at the start.

The New York Times’ Ben Brantley said Cumberbatch was “superb”.

He said: “After all the hype and hysteria, the event itself comes as an anti-climax”.

The Guardian’s Michael Billington has only given two stars for its ‘frustrating and dismal production’.

Cumberbatch, whose Prince of Denmark slouches in a hoodie, listening to gramophone records as he plots his revenge, is Cumberbatch “a blazing, five-star Hamlet trapped in a middling, three-star show”, says Dominic Cavendish in the Daily Telegraph.