Benedict Cumberbatch recreates D-Day radio bulletins on air

Patrick Stewart will also read an original D-Day news report as part of the 70th anniverary commemorations.

"'D' Day has come. Early this morning the Allies began the assault on the north-western face of Hitler's European Fortress."

These were the words used in the first radio bulletin confirming that the D-Day invasion had begun.

Today, as part of the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, BBC Radio 4 have asked actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Patrick Stewart and Toby Jones to lend their golden voices for a recreation of the original news bulletins that were broadcast in 1944.

The news reports will be broadcast at the same time of day as the original transmissions.

The first bulletin was broadcast this morning at 8am, with Cumberbatch reading from the original script that provided British listeners with the first news that the Allied invasion of Normandy had begun.

The broadcasts will continue at intervals throughout the weekend and can be listened to on the Radio 4 website which also has copies of the original archived scripts.

You can listen to Cumberbatch's broadcast here:

Hundreds of World War II veterans, in their late 80s and 90s, and world leaders are gathering at the Normandy beaches today to mark the anniverary of the landings.

Yesterday, a 89-year old veteran of the invasion recreated his D-Day parachute jump by completing a tandem jump out of plane into the Normandy countryside.

Jock Hutton seemed to be quite relaxed before his jump.

“At my age life tends to get a little bit boring, so you’ve got to grab any chance of excitement you can” Jock said.

Jock is one of the last living members of the Parachute Regiment's 13th Batallion that parachuted into Normandy ahead of the Allied invasion.

And last year, two artists created a poignant remainder of the losses suffered by the Allied troops on the beaches of Northern France. Jamie Wardley and Andy Moss - along with hundreds of volunteers -etched the outlines of the 9,000 fallen soldiers into the sand on Normandy Beach.

The piece - titled The Fallen 9,000- lasted only a few hours before the tide came in and washed it away.