“I can do impressions.”
The assurances of Professor Stephen Hawking who, as per usual, was on fantastic form in his latest TV appearance.
The world-renowned scientist featured in a skit for Channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympic Opening Ceremony, where he was auditioning to be the voice of Lexi, the network’s Paralympic disability classification system.
Hawking, who has been gradually paralysed by Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or motor neurone disease, communicates through a speech generating device activated by a muscle in his cheek.
While he is undoubtedly one of the most inspirational people on the planet, the Professor only has one tone when speaking. As Clare Balding pointed out, that meant he perhaps wasn’t the best candidate for the gig.
But he was having none of it and insisted on giving a demonstration of his commentary range, even promising that he could do impressions when it was clear they weren’t sold.
We've been holding auditions for Lexi (our #Paralympics classification system). Some didn't make the grade… pic.twitter.com/NYfkOiWIS8
— Channel 4 (@Channel4) September 7, 2016
He later had a playful dig at Eddie Redmayne, who won pretty much every movie accolade going when he played the groundbreaking physicist in The Theory of Everything. Professor Hawking complained that that they’d better not decide to give the job to Redmayne as ‘he steals all my work’.
Unsurprisingly, viewers were very much on board with the cameo.
you still watching? Steven Hawkins was genius! 😂
— Kate Harris (Neill) (@welshkate) September 7, 2016
Prof Hawkin on #Paralympics opening ceremony has made my day 😂😂😂
— Victoria 🌹 (@VictoriaAmyV) September 7, 2016
Stephen hawking is a legend :-)) #Paralympics
— 🐮Dave🐮 (@o__NITRO__o) September 7, 2016
https://twitter.com/OatieKwens/status/773621389127520256
"You better not give the job to Eddie Redmayne, he steals all my work"- Hawking
HA!!! #Paralympics— Mitesh Soni (@MiteshSoni_1) September 7, 2016
Got to love Stephen Hawking's sense of humour #Paralympics
— Dr Declan Ryan PhD (@DrDecRyan) September 7, 2016
https://twitter.com/TomSavagar/status/773641806118608896
TV gold.
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