This was definitely worth the wait. UK audiences have been teased recently on the BBC’s Facebook page that there was a new Benedict Cumberbatch project in the works. With the simple phrase of “Benedict Cumberbatch filming something special for BBC One and BBC Two” much of the UK went into orbit. Last night, the ‘project’ was unveiled just before the premiere broadcast of The Missing, which stars James Nesbitt and Frances O’Conner in the story of a couple whose lives fall apart after their five-year-old son Oliver is abducted on a family holiday to France in 2006. The ‘project’ was…a trailer. But, oh what a trailer it was! A brilliant celebration of powerful storytelling from the past, present and future.
 

 
As you can see, the ‘trailer’ turned out to be Benedict at his finest, as he celebrated a lifetime of Original British Drama by reading William Shakespeare’s famous monologue from As You Like It. It was filled with trailer gold from a throwback to some of the BBC’s classic drama series from the past, with footage from The Singing Detective, House of Cards, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, This Life, Pride and Prejudice, Criminal Justice, Small Island, Spooks and Life on Mars to an advance look at Wolf Hall, one of the first video glimpses of a major new seven-part series Poldark, starring Aidan Turner, along with brief reminders of some of the BBC’s best-loved drama series of our time such as Doctor Who, Luther, Call The Midwife, Line of Duty, The Fall and, of course, Sherlock.

For those keeping score at home, most of the dramas highlighted in the trailer have been broadcast on public television in the States, the American home of the best drama on television. Both Wolf Hall and Poldark are headed to PBS in 2015 as well as new Sherlock‘s…he said, hopefully.