Benedict Cumberbatch reads James Corden a US election bedtime story

Benedict Cumberbatch tucked James Corden into bed last night to read him a fairy tale – about the 2016 US presidential election.

He recounted the tale of a woman hoping to lead the magical land of ‘America’, having to fight past a terrifying “orange monster” to do so.

“Once upon a time,” Cumberbatch began, “lived a lady who wanted to rule the kingdom very much. Very, very much. Some would say too much.”

Along the way she has to navigate a forest filled with emails, trolls, the “news fox,” and the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

She then has to make her way past a wizard who wants to take from the rich to give to the poor (“no matter how impossible his plans were”) but the real threat is the “big orange monster.”

He’d “already swallowed 16 other monsters in the forest,” despite having wisdom as small as his “tiny, tiny baby hands.”

“I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll ban all the Muslims!” the orange monster threatens.

Sadly, we never get to find out whether the woman manages to survive the forest and rule the kingdom – that will have to wait for tomorrow.

Watch it for yourself:

• Nov 29 2023

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