Benedict Cumberbatch’s annual fundraiser boost for importance of keeping connected
The importance of writing cards and letters has just resounded round the Royal Albert Hall for the third year running as screen favourite Benedict Cumberbatch led the annual Letters Live fundraiser.
With a greeting card left on every seat over both nights, 27-28 October, at the venerable London venue, the audience enjoyed the leading actor’s contribution to the surprise celebrity guests reading from a selection of private correspondence, with an open letter from Andrew Forrester pleading to the world at large to keep the door locked while using the bathroom.
Launched in 2013, with Benedict as co-producer of the event that raises money for literacy charities and to promote literacy as well as supporting refugee charity Choose Love, the idea of famous people reading out a variety of letters sourced by Shaun Usher, editor of the bestselling anthologies Letters Of Note, has grown to fill the Royal Albert Hall three years running, but the simple concept still highlights excellent performances, as well as the power that letters can hold.
Greeting card and stationery retailer Hieronymus, from Zurich, provided the cards left on every seat at this year’s two-night event, which invited recipients to fill it with “personal handwritten lines” and “spread words of gratitude, optimism or simply appreciation for others” to loved ones, near and far,
And the long list of 2022 readers included Clarke Peters and Miriam Margoyles in a two-hander of more-than-passionate letters between diarist Anaïs Nin and her novelist lover Henry Miller, Tony Robinson gave a fast and funny rendition of writer Lewis Carroll’s letter to his eight-year-old niece, and one of Benedict’s first-night turns was a selection of rejection letters from playwright George Bernard Shaw to strangers seeking advice, an autograph, or his attendance at an event.
US special presidential envoy John Kerry was another reader, along with Game Of Thrones star Kit Harrington, Sue Perkins, Stephen Mangan, Toby Jones, Labour MP Jess Philips reading a reader’s letter to the Guardian flagging a potential typo in the “A dangerous cult now runs Britain” over a picture of the prime minister, and Graham Norton read a few of his own letters from when he was the Telegraph’s agony uncle, which included the line “go over to his house and punch him”.
And they were joined by Little Amal, a 3.5m-tall puppet which has walked 6,000miles (9,000kms) across 13 countries to raise awareness of the countless children fleeing war and persecution across the world.
“Letters Live makes us pause and imagine the lives behind the letters read and the circumstances of their origin,” Benedict said. “The relationship between the audience, reader and writer on a Letters Live night helps deepen our understanding of these inspiring artefacts of the human condition. They are windows into the love, beauty, pain, and humour of their creators and recipients. It’s a privilege to read this most ancient of communications live to an audience.”
During lockdown, Letters Live expanded the concept to help people stay connected with its #ReadALetter campaign, where everyone was asked to share letters of hope, education, love, appreciation, respect, thanks, solace and support – letters to the heroes on the frontline; letters to relatives in need; letters to strangers who have stepped up and made a difference; letters to neighbouring families, streets, towns and countries; letters from teachers to their isolated pupils or to the parents who now find themselves home-schooling; letters to those in power; letters to a population crying out for words of comfort.
Some of the performances can be seen on the Letters Live YouTube channel, and more information can be found on the website.
Top: Benedict Cumberbatch at Letters Live’s first night
