Sky Atlantic and Showtime have release a first-look image from the Benedict Cumberbatch-fronted TV adaptation of Edward St. Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose.
The image shows Sherlock star Cumberbatch as the aristocratic playboy Patrick Melrose, cigarette in hand and sunglasses on. The series, written by One Day author David Nicholls, follows Melrose’s traumatic childhood, issues with alcoholism, heroin addiction, recovery, marriage and parenthood.
The five-part drama will be set in the south of France in the 1960s, New York in the 1980s and Britain in the early 2000s and each episode will be based on one St. Aubyn novel. It will also star Hugo Weaving as Melrose’s father, Jennifer Jason Leigh as his mother, Anna Madeley as his wife, Allison Williams as an acquaintance and Blythe Danner as Nancy, the wealthy Park Avenue aunt.
The limited series will be produced by Two Cities Television, the BBC Worldwide-backed indie set up by British television grandees Alex Graham and Michael Jackson, in association with Cumberbatch’s Studiocanal-owned indie SunnyMarch.
