5) Bang! – Hawking
Eddie Redmayne might have won an Oscar for playing Stephen Hawking in 2014’s The Theory of Everything, but his good friend Benedict Cumberbatch had actually already played the genius ten years earlier, in a BBC TV drama simply titled Hawking. Though it isn’t as polished a piece as its big-budget Hollywood cousin, Hawking is still very much worth a watch. In particular, for Cumberbatch’s moving performance.
Our favourite moment from the film occurs in the triumphant scene where Hawking first comes up with his world-changing Big Bang Theory. After an idle conversation with a woman on a train, a light switches on in Hawking’s head and he struggles out onto the station platform to scribble his ideas down on the ground in chalk.
It’s an emotional scene, as Cumberbatch subtly portrays Hawking fighting against his failing body as his brain bursts with ideas. It’s a beautiful summation of the story of Stephen Hawking; the triumph of the might of the mind over the weaknesses of the body.