He has appeared alongside The Simpsons and Monty Python – and now Stephen Hawking is playing Glastonbury.

The world-famous scientist, whose life story was recently turned into Oscar-winning film The Theory of Everything, will appear at the festival’s Kidz Field this year.

A message on the festival’s website said he would make “a special guest appearance”.

Other acts at the area, which is aimed at children aged 12 and under, include magician Dynamo.

Veteran rockers The Who were named last week as the headline act for the final night. Other big acts confirmed for Glastonbury this year include Pharrell Williams, Florence and the Machine and Mark Ronson.

The festival runs from June 24-28 at Worthy Farm, in Somerset.

Hawking is no stranger to the spotlight. He has appeared in an episode of Star Trek, voiced a cartoon version of himself in The Simpsons and been sampled by Pink Floyd.

He was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease in 1964 at the age of 22 and given just a few years to live.

Now aged 73 and despite his illness leaving him almost completely paralysed, he is celebrated as one of the most brilliant scientists of the modern age.

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