The Child in Time
BBC1 HD, 9pm
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as a father whose four-year-old daughter goes missing in Ian Mcewan’s harrowing drama.
IT’S EVERY PARENT’S worst nightmare. One moment your child is beside you in the supermarket, the next, they’ve vanished. As you frantically scour the aisles, calling out their name, your chest begins to tighten and sheer terror sets in…
Benedict Cumberbatch brings that very nightmare to life this week in a moving BBC1 adaptation of Ian Mcewan’s 1987 awardwinning novel The Child in Time.
The one-off drama sees the
Sherlock star play children’s author Stephen Lewis, whose four-yearold daughter Kate (Beatrice White) disappears during a shopping trip.
In the terrifying minutes, hours and years that follow, Stephen becomes consumed by grief and guilt, while his relationship with his wife Julie (Kelly Macdonald) spectacularly breaks down.
It’s a harrowing depiction of love, loss and fear of the unknown, as Stephen and Julie embark upon their separate paths of learning how to live without their daughter.
Here, actor and father-of-two Cumberbatch tells us more…
HOW DOES KATE’S DISAPPEARANCE
AFFECT STEPHEN AND JULIE? Kate was born out of a beautiful, intimate and caring relationship, which is shattered when Stephen and Julie go on a separate journey of grief. Their love was manifest in a child and they realise they have to accept Kate’s absence and never forget it, but also ultimately try to move on.
HOW DOES STEPHEN DEAL WITH HIS
GRIEF? He daydreams a lot, which takes him back into the past and to the incident, but also back to his relationship with Julie and key moments when it broke down.
HOW INTENSE WAS IT TO PLAY A FATHER WHO LOSES HIS CHILD?
It’s unthinkable for any parent. It was very tough but sort of an extraordinary thing to explore. There was actually a point when I said to the director, ‘I’m worried that I’m getting a bit too upset!’
DO YOU THINK THE STORY AFFECTED YOU MORE BECAUSE YOU’RE A
PARENT? Not really. I think anyone watching it who has children in their life will be affected. But it is ultimately an enriching tale of endurance and committing to love. The love between Stephen and Julie was there before and will endure in this horrible acceptance of an absence. That’s the salvation in this very, very dark story of loss.
WAS IT DIFFICULT TO SWITCH OFF THE EMOTIONAL PAIN AFTER EACH DAY’S
FILMING? You’d have to ask someone from my home life to find out whether I brought it home or not, but I don’t think I did. I think it’s incredibly unhealthy to bring work home anyway and I didn’t want to bring that subject matter into our family life. My wife Sophie didn’t read this script and she hasn’t read the book either.
THIS IS A VERY DIFFERENT CHARACTER FROM YOUR RECENT SCREEN PERSONAS
Sherlock AND Doctor Strange…
Yes, but I had a desire to portray someone who’s much closer to me, but figuring out how to do that was a little nerve-racking because I haven’t done it for a while.
HOW IS STEPHEN LIKE YOU? He’s me in the sense that there’s not a huge difference in the vocal quality or the way I move or look, plus we used some of my own clothes. So I guess the starting point was me, if that makes sense.
YOU ALSO STARRED IN AN ADAPTATION
OF Atonement BACK IN 2007. ARE
YOU AN IAN MCEWAN FAN? I’m a huge Mcewan nut. I recently started reading every one of his novels, though I’d never read
The Child in Time before.
DID YOU TALK TO HIM ABOUT YOUR
ROLE? A little bit, but we were quietly respectful of each other’s process. He did say to call him if there was anything I wanted to ask, but we got there with the director, Julian Farino, and the rest of the cast. Maybe years down the line, after it’s aired, I might ask him what he thinks.