Benedict Cumberbatch appeared on 'The Ellen Degeneres Show' this week and finally opened up about that fateful evening in 2017 which saw him rescue a delivery cyclist from an aggressive mugging on the streets of London, not far away from his famous TV character's home on Baker Street. 

Benedict Cumberbatch at the Emmy AwardsBenedict Cumberbatch at the Emmy Awards

The 'Sherlock' star admitted that he felt 'weird' talking about the whole situation because of how it's been blown out of proportion in the press. According to him, there was nothing heroic about his getting out of a taxi to rescue the victim - but even with his downplaying the scene, we're still impressed.

'I haven't talked about it at home because it became this huge furore', he told Ellen. 'Basically what happened is I saw a Deliveroo bike, a bicycle delivery guy, getting surrounded by some guys on a very cold November night and I just stopped the Uber that we were in and got out and tried to calm the kids down who were riled up.'

He revealed that he also tried to calm the cyclist down who he said 'looked like he was about to fight for his life', but it didn't occur to him that London had seen a spate of violent crime during that time with a record number of acid attacks.

'I didn't really think twice about knives or acid or any of the other things that can be part of that situation', he said. 'So it was a bit foolhardy but no real bravery or heroics.'

He said he didn't know if it was solely his presence that thwarted the the robbery, but he also did his best to get people to stop their cars to get a good look at the attackers and hoped that that would deter any serious violence.

'I literally got in the way', he added. 'I also tried to stop traffic so that they could witness it and if anything did happen that there were people there.'

When Ellen asked if the Uber driver helped, he looked a bit awkward. It seems they both have different versions of what actually went down, but if we're going with Benedict's story, he walked into that situation alone and challenged the attackers in a peaceful manner.

'This is where it gets a bit embarrassing because he said he was in there and I was fighting and I jumped on somebody', he recalled. 'It was all a bit exaggerated so I feel a bit weird talking about it. He was very supportive that night but I was definitely the one who [actually stepped in].'

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He joked that he needed the Uber driver to keep the car running anyway, to combat the mixture of cold, shock and adrenalin he was feeling. Whether he wants to accept it or not, he's a hero. Bravo Benedict!