Benedict Cumberbatch dissolves into the title role: a razor-witted, self-loathing Englishman ricocheting between 1980s New York squats, Parisian hotel suites and the decaying family pile in Provence as he tries to outrun heroin, alcohol and memories of his monstrous father Hugo Weaving. Each of the five hour-long films adapts one of Edward St Aubyn’s semi-autobiographical novels, so the timeline loops back and forth, letting us watch the same boy become a man who still flinches from his childhood. Director Edward Berger keeps the camera tight on Cumberbatch’s face, catching every micro-twitch as Patrick swaps needles for one-liners and back again.
The supporting cast arrive like sharp injections of poisoned glamour. Jennifer Jason Leigh floats through as Eleanor, the brittle heiress who chose art-collecting and pills over protecting her son, while Anna Madeley plays Mary, the wife whose patience is running out faster than Patrick’s veins. Glasgow doubles for Manhattan, London and the South of France, but the real geography is interior: detox suites, drawing rooms, funeral parlours, all painted in bruised blues and nicotine yellows by cinematographer James Friend.
David Nicholls’ scripts keep the novels’ lethal humour intact. A funeral reception becomes a minefield of social one-upmanship; a suicide attempt is interrupted by a flustered waiter delivering champagne. Composer Hauschka’s staccato strings echo the spasms of withdrawal, stopping dead when Patrick hits the floor. The series aired on Sky Atlantic in the UK and Showtime in the US between 12 May and 9 June 2018, winning Cumberbatch a BAFTA nomination for leading actor and leaving viewers with the image of a man finally sitting still on a Somerset bench, no longer running from the past.
Production Details
Showtime / 1 Season / 5 Episodes / 2018
Created by: David Nicholls
Showrunner(s): Lizzie Gray, Rachael Horovitz, Helen Flint
Writer(s): David Nicholls
Producer(s): Stephen Smallwood
Cinematography: James Friend
Music: Volker Bertelmann
Main Cast
Benedict Cumberbatch as Patrick Melrose
Jennifer Jason Leigh as Eleanor Melrose
Hugo Weaving as David Melrose
Sebastian Maltz as Young Patrick Melrose
Jessica Raine as Julia
Prasanna Puwanarajah as Johnny
Pip Torrens as Nicolas Pratt
Indira Varma as Anne Moore
Anna Madeley as Mary Melrose
Holliday Grainger as Lady Gravesend
Gary Beadle as Chilly Willy
Morfydd Clark as Debbie Hickman
