Benedict Cumberbatch needed surgery following a surfing injury

He told the Smartless podcast: "I started in my forties and I'm near the end of my forties and I'm still feeling like I'm starting.

"But I had a short operation, so I haven't done it at all for about six months. But I love it."

Of his injury, he added: "It's a long time of ill use and a lot of surfing in very bad conditions and overdoing it.

"I had a torn rotator cuff and then also a frozen shoulder on top of it, which I only found when I went into it to do the repair to the rotator, which was a complete tear.

"I lived with chronic pain for about a year and a half."

The 49-year-old star "really fell in love" with riding the waves when he was stuck in New Zealand amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 after shooting The Power Of The Dog.

He said: "It was a bit scary to begin with, but utterly magical and extraordinary.

"One of the best places on Earth to be, as it turned out. And there was a little right-hand break in Te Awanga in Hawke's Bay. It was where I learned.

"I really fell in love with it."

Benedict - who has sons Christopher, 10, Hal, eight, and Finn, six, with his wife Sophie Hunter - loves the way surfing brings together unlikely groups of people.

He said: "I fell in love with the view of the coastline. I fell in love with that connection to the ocean, how present you are and the community as well.

"This extraordinary group of people where all is kind of forgiven - as long as you don't take their wave.

"You know, the drug dealer would be there and the head of the local police force would be there. Just all of human life was around you.

"I can't explain to anyone who hasn't surfed what that feeling is, of nature giving you a ride from somewhere out in the ocean towards the shoreline. It's just magic when it works."