Troops reach the beaches of Normandy during D-day, 1944

Cumberbatch's broadcast is one of a number of news bulletins that have been re-recorded by the BBC and that will continue to be broadcast on Radio 4 until 9pm on Sunday to commemorate the anniversary.

The BBC broadcast its first "eye-witness report from above the battlefield of France" during its 1pm radio news on 6 June, 1944, in a transmission sent back by an air commodore William Helmore from a plane that had returned from its mission to bomb a railway bridge.

Crossing the English Channel, he reported that it was busier "up here than Piccadilly Circus" with the air "full of aircraft of all kinds going and coming."

"I've just seen a great flock of our invasion fleet," he added, of the view in the Channel below.

World leaders including President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande, the Queen and Russian President Vladimir Putin are joining hundreds of veterans in Normandy today for a re-enactment of the landings and a memorial service to the 4,413 Allied troops who died on the day of the invasion.

Come listen to Cumberbatch's broadcast, below.

Benedict Cumberbatch reads D-day bulletin on Radio 4