Benedict Cumberbatch is a lucky man. Whilst many would have taken his description of Downton Abbey series two in Reader's Digest as “f**king atrocious” the wrong way, he got off lightly after Julian Fellowes revealed he believes his remarks to be “taken out of context”.

And it appears the Downton cast are equally willing to see the funny side of the comments as Hugh Bonneville, Dan Stevens and Brendan Coyle all changed their Twitter profile pictures to the Sherlock actor’s front cover.

The issue promoted an interview with Benedict in conjunction with his new BBC period drama Parade’s End, featuring a giant image of the actor complete with the words “Move over, Downton!” on its cover.

After criticising the wildly popular ITV drama for "trading a lot on the sentiment in the last series,” Cumberbatch will have to prove his worth when his take on Edwardian England airs on BBC2, tomorrow night at 9:00pm. 

If you can't wait until the - Mr C will be appearing live on The One Show at 7pm tomorrow night.