Benedict Cumberbatch announces engagement to Sophie Hunter in the classified section of this British newspaper

The Sherlock Holmes actor will marry the British director and actress

Benedict Cumberbatch has refused to deny his involvement in the upcoming new Star Wars film (Getty Images)

Benedict Cumberbatch went down a magnificently old-fashioned route to inform the public of his forthcoming wedding to director and actress Sophie Hunter by publishing an announcement in the classified section of The Times.

Not for him are months of media speculation and paparazzi attempts grappling to take a shot of the ring, instead he opted for a short advert in a national paper – which reads like an extract from a Jane Austen novel.

“The engagement is announced between Benedict, son of Wanda and Timothy Cumberbatch of London, and Sophie, daughter of Katharine Hunter of Edinburgh and Charles Hunter of London,” read the classified.

Hunter and Cumberbatch acted alongside each other in 2009 film Burlesque Fairytales, set in a Thirties London theatre.

Hunter studied modern languages at Oxford, before launching a career in acting and theatre direction. Her directing credits include the New York production of Benjamin Britten's opera, The Rape of Lucretia, the African tour of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute, as well as the 2012 North American tour of experimental play 69° South, based on the near fatal journey of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton.

In 2007, she was given the Samuel Beckett Award for writing and directing the avant-garde play The Terrific Electric at the Barbican Centre, which mixed moving images, humour and tableaux.