Tom Hollander

Top gear | 15 October 2011

Am I famous enough to cadge a free car?

issue 15 October 2011

The exciting thing about showbiz is, you never quite know where you are. I thought of a good test some weeks ago. I phoned Denee, my agent’s assistant.

‘Can you ring Audi and see if they’ll give me a car. But for goodness sake be discreet.’

I know it sounds grasping, but I’d been forced to it. Orlando Bloom had a A4 3.0 TDI A4 when we did Pirates, which he let me drive up Regent Street because he was worried about his carbon footprint; Kate Winslet was in a Q7 last year in Cornwall when I got lost following her because I couldn’t understand her directions; and Michael Gambon has an R8, but he probably paid for that. He also has a Ferrari. Fair enough. But when I saw the charming and talented Benedict Cumberbatch filling up what looked like an S5 at a service station near Oxford, something inside me snapped.

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