Benedict Cumberbatch lost almost 10kg for his role in The Courier, a historical drama based on the true story of an unassuming British businessman turned unlikely Cold War spy - a man who helped save the world from nuclear war in the 1960s.

And while the English actor is in no hurry to repeat that rapid weight loss - the result of extreme exercise, dieting and deliberate cold exposure - he says he wanted to honour the heroism of an ordinary man who was, in many ways, the antithesis of James Bond.