Stephen Hawking to make Glastonbury Festival appearance

Professor Stephen Hawking is to make an appearance at this year's Glastonbury Festival, it has been announced.

The world-famous scientist, whose life story was recently turned into an Oscar-winning film, will appear at the festival's Kidz Field, the BBC reports.

A message on the festival's website said he would make "a special guest appearance" in the field which is aimed at children aged 12 and under.

Magician Dynamo was also announced for the festival, which is held in June.

Veteran rockers The Who were named last week as the headline act for the Pyramid Stage on Sunday night.

Other big acts confirmed for the sold-out festival include Foo Fighters, Kanye West and Florence And The Machine.

Professor Hawking, who was played by Eddie Redmayne in The Theory Of Everything, is no stranger to the spotlight, having appeared in a Star Trek episode, voiced a cartoon version of himself in The Simpsons and been sampled by Pink Floyd. He also appeared in a Comic Relief sketch with David Walliams and Catherine Tate.

He was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease (ALS) in 1964, aged 22 and given just a few years to live.

However he went on to develop theories that reshaped the way the world thinks about black holes, stars and the universe.

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.