Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch are both fighting to win their first Best Actor Oscar, and it is Redmayne’s multiple award-winning performance in The Theory of Everything as Stephen Hawking that is tipped to have the edge over Cumberbatch’s Alan Turing. Although the subjects of each biopic might seem similar – both are scientific geniuses from Cambridge struggling through personal turmoil – the depictions are distinctly different to the attentive viewer.

It becomes harder to distinguish Redmayne and Cumberbatch when considering the 2004 BBC TV film Hawking, which, like The Theory of Everything, features a stunning portrayal (by Cumberbatch) of Hawking learning of and surviving his motor neurone disease diagnosis whilst writing his PhD. Both films are overtly emotional, focussing on the relationship between Hawking and his first wife Jane in conjunction to (and perhaps more than) his work in cosmology.

However, despite similarities in subject matter, each film feels remarkably different. Whilst both succeed in creating a crowd-pleasing balance between the romantic and scientific, The Theory of Everything has chosen to foreground love and religion, exploring the various interactions and entanglements of the Hawking family. The psychological transformation of Felicity Jones’ Jane rivals Stephen’s physical one, with his progressing disability both causing and paralleling her metamorphosis from seemingly naïve to resilient. Contrastingly, the dramatic focus of 2004’s Hawking is the progress of his PhD, the climax being his epiphany about the ‘bang’ (a.k.a. singularity) at the beginning of the universe.

The biggest divergence, however, is the period of time covered in each film. Largely a function of its longer run time, The Theory of Everything covers far more of Hawking’s life than Hawking – over two decades, compared to three years. So, though we start off at the same point in Hawking’s life – when he is embarking upon his PhD and has just received his diagnosis – they end at different times, with Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hawking still just able to speak.

By showing more of Hawking’s life in The Theory of Everything, Redmayne is given the chance to deliver an astonishingly visceral performance, believably showing the progression of his disease. From his initial pen fumbling, to the slight shifts in the crinkles of his eyes, each of Redmayne’s gestures conveys so much about both Hawking’s physical and mental state. Even when nearly completely immobilised, Redmayne is able to convey Hawking’s lively sense of humour – such as when he pretends to be a Dalek, racing around on his electric wheelchair, and his distinctive synthesised voice shouting ‘exterminate’.

Hawking, whilst featuring no less a remarkable portrayal of the physicist’s intellect, does not allow Cumberbatch the same scope to effect a remarkable physical transformation. The already-ravaging effects of the initial stages of disease are portrayed as convincingly as in The Theory of Everything, but because of the script’s constraints, Cumberbatch has no chance to depict more of Hawking’s physical decline.

Moreover, although Hawking does depict some of Hawking’s quiet grief when hearing of his diagnosis, Redmayne’s angrier, more angst-ridden response is far more believable, given the graveness of being told he had two years to live. As Hawking is a TV rather than big-screen film, it is unsurprising that the cinematography and music of The Theory of Everything, with its multi-million pound budget, are far superior. Although the soundtrack sounds rather boring on its own, its emotional riffs and swells further dramatise the most dramatic moments of the film. James Marsh’s directorial style is evocative of Tom Hooper’s in The King’s Speech, with its uncomfortably close-up shots and faded colour palettes accentuating an atmosphere of confinement. Despite the faintly oppressive atmosphere of much of the film, Marsh has made it remarkably beautiful, with carefully composed shots of all the locations – Cambridge in particular looks like a picturesque tourist ad.

Hawking, featuring one of Cumberbatch’s earliest notable performances and a non-patronising insight into Hawking’s early scientific work, makes it still a film well worth watching. However, The Theory of Everything seems to outdo it, with its superior production values and longer timeframe allowing Redmayne to deliver a phenomenal performance of one of the country’s greatest icons.