Benedict Cumberbatch’s version of The Odyssey starts airing today

Perfect prep for the Christopher Nolan adaptation coming next week.

Adapted by contemporary poet Simon Armitage, the three-part radio series sees Tim McInnerney (Blackadder) voice Odysseus, the Trojan War hero, who embarks on a years-long journey home to Ithaca, during which time he encounters many terrible perils and obstacles.

Can he make it back to his wife, Penelope (voiced by Amanda Redman, Sexy Beast), before she is forced to remarry?

Tim McInnerney

Broken up into three parts - titled 'Marked Men', 'Wanderings', and 'Home' - the cast of the audio version of The Odyssey also includes Adjoa Andoh, Bertie Carvel, Danny Webb, Frances Barber, Janet McTeer, and the aforementioned Benedict Cumberbatch.

Cumberbatch plays Telemachus, Odysseus and Penelope's son and the same character that Tom Holland plays in Nolan's movie adaptation of the same story (of which the early buzz is fantastic).

Dramatised by Armitage to celebrate the return of the Olympics to Athens in 2004, the Independent described the radio series as being "as irresistible as gravity".

"A production so thrilling that it rapidly becomes unthinkable to press the stop - or even the pause - button," the paper added.

Part one of Armitage's version of The Odyssey will air on BBC Radio 4 Extra on Wednesday, 8 July at 2.30pm.

Part two and three will air on Thursday, 9 July and Friday, 10 July at the same time.