Benedict Cumberbatch As Stephen Hawking: Discovery Dusts It Off For Golden Globes Eve

In one of those incredible coincidences that makes covering TV so rewarding:

Thursday is Stephen Hawking’s 73rd birthday.

Sunday is the Golden Globe Awards.

The Theory Of Everything, the movie about Hawking’s early life, is up for a Globe for Best Motion Picture Drama.

Eddie Redmayne, who plays Hawking in the movie, is up for a Globe for his performance.

Benedict Cumberbatch is competing against Redmayne for that Globe, for his work in The Imitation Game, also playing a real-life British brainiac, Alan Turing.

Cumberbatch also played Hawking, in the 2004 BBC telefilm Hawking, which also is about his early life. The Sherlock star did not win a Golden Globe for that work but did win a Golden Nymph.

Discovery Channel will air Hawking at 10 PM Saturday as a sort of Golden Globe Awards walkup-cum-Stephen Hawking birthday salute. It’s a bid to attract fans of The Theory Of Everything, of The Imitation Game, of Stephen Hawking, of the Golden Globes Awards — and, of course, Cumberbatch obsessives (aka “Cumberbitches”).