First question was from the moderator asking if Bene remembers his first audition for Sherlock and he met Mark and Steven at Sue Vertue's house. He was a bit nervous and thought that Beryl [Vertue] was playing Mrs Hudson cos she was offering him so many cups of tea and biscuits. Steven felt funny he was reading their beautiful lines as he'd written them and Bene felt good. It felt good. He thought the writers/producers in Mark and Steven was a great staple for what could be a very tricky idea. He knew Mark, Steven's work and his parents had known the Vertue's. He had a moped back then and thought it would be amazing if it worked out and "...here we are!"
Moderator saying how Martin's [Freeman] Watson is fantastic, to applause from the audience. Bene was a huge fan of Martin's in The Office and he'd seen him on stage. As soon as Martin was there when filming, he made Bene up his work. As soon as they started reading together, Bene thought this would be a fantastic fit, a great chemistry.
Bene really liked the Pilot and the finished result. It was different, "I had more hair and it was more modern. He [Watson] was rather lucid, adolescent, jeans, rather than a suit. The show expanded, became richer and evolved. Groundbreaking it its effects, music editing."
"I don't have the abilities he does, I don't have the same black curly hair he does, I don't pay the violin and I have a family on the way."
The last ep of S1 was filmed first Bene found the transition from the first series to the second series difficult, the second to the third it felt comfortable. It took a bit of getting used to by the time of The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Moderator talking about Bene's breathing techniques: pages of exposition.
"Learning was difficult, getting the details right, good and bad days, would it work. Doing it all in one breath and he has to be incredibly articulate and diction has to be incredibly precise. Bene watched the last ep of the last series last night and he could hear a bit of slurring and he was cross with himself, cos normally it has to be so, so crisp, it has to be. It's great fun for the audience, you just sit there going "F***!" His first and only time of swearing. For which he apologized.
He was shooting the Orangery scene of the best man speech for five days [The Sign of Three]. It became like doing a one man show. Going from best man speech, to interacting with the characters such as Mycroft et al, [in his mind palace] was hard to do but good fun.
Moderator: Jeremy Brett said if he met Sherlock on the street he'd cross the road, Bene would do the same if he saw his Sherlock coming towards him. "He [Sherlock] doesn't have a lot of time for pleasantries or niceness and I quite like that. People want to beautify him and in reality I understand why because he's brilliant, ferocious, he's a brutal human being, he has to be, to be an to be at the level of his game and have that mental acuity. I know other people who are brilliant in my life, I'm married to one and they are very wonderful people. They're very ...thanks for the applause..." when he mentioned being married to one.
"It'd be very hard to be cosy with him [Sherlock] have a pint and just kind of just take the edge of things with him, he's always at the very front of energy and he's ruthlessly duplicitous as well."
Moderator why didn't Molly tell him to sod off. Wouldn't you tell him to sod off? He asks the audience.
Bene: "girls... it's like Bond...the romance of these characters, that if I was the person looking after them, he'd be alright. There's a more mature understanding between them now to an extent. Molly saved his life."
Moderator: "she was also having it off with Moriarty."
Bene: "I don't think Sherlock was jealous of that!"
Some questions from the audience:
How does Bene feel when he comes back to shoot Sherlock and the Special?
Bene: the short answer is he loves it, even if they don't have the budget of Star Trek, they can do a lot with the budget they do have. "I don't see a disparity and difference in scale of quality. As long as we keep it fresh and keep evolving it, then it's going to get better and better and better ."
Fave ep to shoot or to watch back:
Bene: he has fave bits: the rooftop scene on St Bart's [The Reichenbach Fall] the falling and the landing and the explanation. That was great fun, chases in London. Scenes with Lars [Mikkelsen] an extraordinary actor.. and Martin in every scene... there's stuff we've just done that I really can't talk about. The Wedding ep, cos of the turn in it and thought it was stunningly crafted. Playing the violin was his least fave thing of all time. "It's a nightmare I'm so bad at it. I can hardly hold the thing...it's like I'm such a fraud."
How feel having all these people wanting to see you here at the convention? Going from being small to big.
Bene: "what do you mean by, "so small..feels pretty extraordinary. This is normal this normalizes it cos I get to speak to you in my own voice." He's not very self-conscious like he is walking through a shopping centre and "people noticing me...I'm still adjusting to it...comfortable being able to talk like this now..feels like I'm the same person before this began."
He nearly went to the University of East Anglia.
Any bits in Sherlock script he's scared of doing?
Bene: "it's a treat and may make a meal of it sometimes, that is great, we're the fist audience of these scripts, it's so enjoyable."
What does he think of the connection between Moriarty and Sherlock.
Bene: "they're two sides of the same coin, there's lot of reflection, he's the dark shadow of Holmes.
No one can humiliate better, confuse him better than Moriarty. Andrew [Scott] is the most phenomenal actor. He knew what he could bring that could make it so exciting. Everyone needs an adversary that is going to excel them."
Charles Augustus Silverton, Bene corrects the moderator: Magnussen.
A fan asked about shipping and the relationships and Bene's thoughts on this. I was really glad he gave the answer that he did when he said he as in shipping containers. He doesn't ship, maybe to Bangkok or somewhere, they could ship the show to other countries. Everyone knows Bene's opinion on 'shipping', fan fiction etc, so why ask this question. It's all good and well that people ship and that's fine, but not everyone does and we don't need it rammed down our throats every second. Some of us just watch the show for what it is, without having to go into the 'shipping' aspect of it. Maybe we can ship those fans who do together somewhere. Ha.
Sorry if that sounds harsh, but that's a opinion which everyone is entitled to.
Anyway Bene left once again to a standing ovation!
A bit of a shame no one bothered venturing to the back of the stage since all the 'privileged' lot down the front got their questions asked, or at least most of them did, as if no one else was there. Could've made some effort in that respect to be fair to everyone, we did after all, all pay for the talk!
Sorry about the lack of photos, there were only so many could get from being sooo far back!!
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