Benedict Cumberbatch tells us all about new series Patrick Melrose
SKY ATLANTIC/NOW TV, SUNDAY 13 MAY, 2AM & 9PM
Patrick Melrose is Benedict Cumberbatch’s most challenging and extreme role yet. And yes, that includes Sherlock, real-life characters like Stephen Hawking, Julian Assange and Alan Turing, and even that Hamlet fellow. Melrose is the creation of author Edward St Aubyn, whose five extraordinary autobiographical novels depict a man born into the entitled world of the English aristocracy, developing myriad addictions to the very worst drugs, and grappling with memories of being sexually and emotionally abused by his own father. These five books have been adapted by
One Day author David Nicholls, into the five episodes of this hugely ambitious and cinematic series.
A SPACED-OUT ODYSSEY
The opening episode – which is actually based on the second novel in the series – plunges us straight into the hectic maelstrom of 20-something Patrick’s world. He’s in New York, trying to deal with the death of his loathsome father (Hugo Weaving) and collect his remains, while also servicing a major heroin habit.
Cumberbatch hurls himself fully into the task of showing us a spaced-out addict hitting rock bottom, desperately trying to numb the pain of his horrendous childhood, while also expertly embodying Melrose’s brilliant wit and fundamentally likeable core. It’s a roller-coaster hour in the company of a man verging on insanity. And Cumberbatch is just perfect.
FRENCH MOVES
We’re also lucky enough to have seen the second and third episodes (each week’s show can be seen simultaneously as it airs in the US, at 2am on Sundays, UK time), and they are totally different in tone to the full-on,
in-your-face style of the first. Episode two takes us back to Patrick’s childhood in a chateau in the south of France, at the beck and call of his monster of a father, and is profoundly disturbing and moving, while episode three establishes Patrick’s rather beautiful friendship with fellow addict Johnny (Prasanna Puwanarajah), as well as a hilarious encounter with actual Princess Margaret. All in all, it’s one of the TV drama events of the year.