Cumberbatch makes bad boy return with new TV show Patrick Melrose, Latest TV News - The New Paper
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Cumberbatch makes bad boy return with new TV show Patrick Melrose

Benedict Cumberbatch returns to the small screen as Patrick Melrose

Sherlock fans who miss Benedict Cumberbatch will be glad to know the 42-year-old English actor makes his return to the small screen with Patrick Melrose, which he also executive produced.

Based on semi-autobiographical novels by Edward St Aubyn, the miniseries follows the story of the titular troubled member of the English upper class, from his childhood in the south of France to his adult life in New York and London.

Following the death of his father in the 1980s, Patrick attempts to overcome his psychological trauma and heroin addiction rooted in abuse by his dad (Hugo Weaving) and negligent mum (Jennifer Jason Leigh).

Nominated for five Emmys, including Outstanding Limited Series and Lead Actor, Patrick Melrose premieres on BBC First (StarHub TV Ch 522) on Aug 8 and on BBC Player.

How did you get involved with the series?

(Executive producers) Michael Jackson and Rachael Horovitz had the rights to the Patrick Melrose series of books and they came to me.

I knew there'd be a broad bracket of actors who had also probably read the books and gone, "Hmm, wouldn't mind a stab at that." I was just very, very lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

I voiced my desire on a Reddit forum and I got a call! They wanted to meet when I was in New York, we had a breakfast and I was a little late and terrified as I was still rushing re-reading the final two novels the night before and morning of the meeting! I hadn't clocked they were only thinking about me for the role at that stage and so I was still nervous even when they were very clearly pitching their ideas about adapting these extraordinary books for TV.

Back in 2012, you said this was the one part that you wanted to play…

I remember saying it at a fan convention in Australia. I also said Hamlet - those are the only two roles that I'd ever bucket listed. The last (Patrick Melrose) novel had been published in 2011 and that was the year I'd started to read the series. It's an awful thing to say, considering how monstrous some of these people are, but I just felt that I had a slight lock in to the world.

I had a little understanding of that milieu - the brilliance but coldness of the cynicism and the irony.

Was it a difficult role to play in terms of the tough subjects tackled?

The hardest task was containing that amount of hurt and pain, having to go to a place where that was coursing through his veins and tipping him towards chaotic, self-destructive behaviour and finally a meltdown during his mother's memorial.

Some of the scenes in the hotel room in (the first episode) are pretty tough. It's like a one-man show when he starts trashing the hotel room - these schizoid voices come out and start dialoguing with one another, so I'm talking to myself. That was a weird day at the office, let's put it that way.

We're aware we're putting this question to the man who's played Sherlock Holmes, but Patrick Melrose has a dedicated fan base. Is there any pressure there?

Yeah, there really is and that's a bit daunting. Of course I've experienced that with other iconic literary figures, but we did something very radical with Sherlock - I think we also brought it to a massive new audience. And there have been a fair few before me and will be a fair few to come. It's literally the most adapted character in fiction.

This is one of only two attempts. Every reader has their own cinema playing when reading fiction this good, and because it is a long narrative of salvation, reading becomes a very personal thing.

No one can be everyone's Patrick Melrose - although maybe with this new face technology they could stick other actors' faces on my head to make that come about. Nicolas Cage as Patrick Melrose, perhaps?

What should people expect?

Visually it's going to be very different from episode to episode and there's the obvious originality of the screenplay. I hope people are going to want to read the books. I remember when we first made Sherlock there was a spike in the sales of those books, and it brought Arthur Conan Doyle to a new generation.

The Patrick Melrose books are an extraordinary achievement in 21st-century literature. They'll stand the test of time, so let's hope our adaptation does.

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