The Simpsons
Ok, Ready?
Visualise it.
Slight choir noise, clouds part, blue sky, writing appears…
You guessed it! The Simpsons!
The story of Benedict basically squeezing himself into an episode is a brilliant one, nicely summed up in this quote from an interview with executive producer Al Jean:
“Oh my God yes, he’s really funny. He came to a read, and we had a couple of things that he said, “Hey, I could do those. Can I?” [Laughs] This was the first time someone actually just kinda muscled their way into being a guest star. He called us back and he said, “You want me to do anything else?” And we gave him a little more… He’s just this completely irresistible person. You must give him dialogue if you come within 100 yards of him.”
Completely Cumberbatched.
I like to imagine they had the Prime Minister role going to him already and then when he asked if they wanted any more from him he leapt into his Rickman impression before they could finish the sentence.
Because of course it is, in all seriousness, still realistic to pop Professor Snape into what is possibly the most British 30 seconds of The Simpsons we’ve seen so far, and if you’ve seen episode 4 of series 15 (originally showed back in November 2003) “The Regina Monologues”, you’ll know it involves the family being met at the airport by Tony Blair, Bart getting Sir Ian McKellen into an accident by the overuse of the word “Macbeth” and J.K. Rowling telling Lisa “he grows up and marries you! Is that what you want to hear?” (it is) when she enquirers as to the ending of Harry Potter. All of which voiced themselves!
They also spend an entire day stuck on a round-a-bout and end up crashing into The Queen earning her a diamond studded neck brace. Not voiced by the real thing unfortunately.
But anyway.
The moment of Benedict’s cameo involves the Simpsons boys and a group of other men trying to learn how to impress their partners with a big romantic gesture by watching British movies. In this particular case “Love Indubitably”. No prizes for guessing what that’s a parody of.
You can watch the clip HERE
This then leads to a shot of Winston Churchill, William Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes and Isaac Newton dancing behind a TARDIS. Yes. Really.
On a personal note, I am such a huge fan of The Simpsons, and have been for as long as I can remember. To know that Benedict was also a huge fan of the show let alone going to be part of it was a fantastic moment for me. There’s been guest stars upon guest stars in the Simpsons as you can probably tell. I won’t list them all or we’ll be here until next year, but it definitely feels like one of those “you know you’ve made it when” moments.
“Love is a Many-Splintered Thing” is episode 12 of series 24 and was originally broadcast February 2013. So if you’re like me and don’t live in America and don’t have Sky TV you can probably buy it on DVD in about….8 years [insert “I’m not even exaggerating” face here]. (They really need a better system than one series out on DVD each year). It’ll be doing its rounds on Channel 4 before then I’m sure, so keep an eye out!
It’s never too late to start watching The Simpsons if you haven’t already! Personal recommendation – don’t skip the early series, they’re the best ones! We can see ideas starting to run a bit thin these days but who can blame them. There are still some gems out there!
Of course you can always check out The Simpsons Official Website
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