Last week, we got a brief introduction to “Patrick Melrose,” and now we get a full handshake and business card from the upcoming limited series. Benedict Cumberbatch takes the titular lead role, which looks like the kind of showcase part — lots of big moments and big emotions — that most actors would kill for.
The five episode series will track the life of Patrick Melrose, a messed up adult, with various addictions, who tries to go clean and face his troubled past. Joining Cumberbatch in the show is quite the ensemble including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hugo Weaving, Anna Madeley, Blythe Danner, Allison Williams, Pip Torrens, Jessica Raine, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Holliday Grainger, Indira Varma and Celia Imrie. Here’s the official synopsis:
Based on the acclaimed Patrick Melrose series of novels written by Edward St. Aubyn and adapted by BAFTA award nominee David Nicholls (Far From the Madding Crowd, One Day), Melrose gleefully skewers the British upper class as it tracks the titular characters harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood, through adult substance abuse and ultimately, towards recovery and redemption. Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game, Sherlock) plays Patrick Melrose, an aristocratic and outrageously funny playboy, who struggles to overcome the damage inflicted by an abusive father and a mother who tacitly condoned the behaviour. A true television saga, Melrose is both gripping and humorous, with a dramatic sweep that encompasses the South of France in the 1960s, debauched 1980s New York and sober Britain in the early 2000s. Melrose will devote an hour to each of the five novels, with each episode storytelling a few complicated and intense days in Patricks life.
Directed by Edward Berger (“Deutschland 83“), “Patrick Melrose” launches on Showtime later this year.